Elmer B. Morrow, 88: Was DeKalb schools' first AD
Elmer Morrow worked only for DeKalb County schools in a career that spanned nearly 40 years.
He was hired as a physical education teacher for Druid Hills High. He coached football and basketball, too. In hoops, his teams won state championships in 1953, ‘54 and ‘57. His Red Devils football team made it to the 1957 state playoffs, though Valdosta prevailed.
"He was a good football coach, but he was a better basketball coach," said Terry Hodges of Anniston, Ala., a Druid Hills assistant football and wrestling coach in the late 1950s.
"But he taught them what they needed to know, and what they needed to do to be decent players in either sport."
Randy Brown, a 1960 Druid Hills grad, was in eighth and ninth grade when he managed Morrow's football team for two years.
"He was strict and he was a disciplinarian," said Mr. Brown, of the Fannin County community of Mineral Bluff. "He was very serious. The best word to describe him would be intense. He was a good coach."
On Saturday, Elmer B. Morrow of Decatur died at his home from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 88. A memorial will be held at 11 a.m. Friday in the chapel of A.S. Turner & Sons in Decatur.
Mr. Morrow played football at Parker High in Greenville, S.C. A Parker coach had attended the University of Alabama and the young Morrow wanted to do the same, but not for sports.
First came the military. He met Doris Morrow, his wife of 65 years, while in the Army Air Forces and stationed in Milwaukee. After marriage, he enrolled at the University of Alabama, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees.
The couple's eldest child, Tom, was 3 when they moved to DeKalb. The educator coached and taught at Druid Hills from 1949 to 1961. He was then appointed the school system's first athletic director, his wife said.
"Quite frankly, he's the one who built the system up," she said.
In 1977, Mr. Morrow was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. The National High School Athletic Coaches Association named him 1980 athletic director of the year. He retired in 1988.
At Druid Hills, the coach usually wore black slacks, white T-shirts and sneakers. When his teams had a game, he required them to wear suits and ties.
"He didn't let them go looking like bums to events," his wife said. "In later years, the boys would write him letters and thank him for what he did. He would be invited to class reunions, and he loved to go and see the kids, only they weren't kids anymore."
In adulthood, Mr. Brown, the football team manager, got to know Mr. Morrow personally. They worked alongside each other on projects for the Atlanta Touchdown Club.
"He came to my father's funeral six years ago," Mr. Brown said.
Survivors besides his wife and son include a daughter, Mary Beth Pinckard of Atlanta; two sisters, Polly Johnson of Albany, N.Y. and Margaret Duncan of Greenville, S.C.; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
