Howard Morrison
A native of Gilbert - who was born to a native of Gilbert - this guest has both roots and recognition in the Town as the third son of Marvin and June Morrison. Alongside his siblings and cousins, he has actively engaged in the development of the master planned community known as Morrison Ranch. With a Masters in Theology and a Doctorate in Ministry, he considers his Christian faith to be the most formative aspect of his life and his service to community is testament to his priorities. He has served on many Advisory Councils and Boards, including Gilbert Talks, East Valley Partnership, Dignity Health, and Gilbert Leadership - he is a graduate of Class 3. But he considers being a husband and father of three the greatest privilege of his life.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders. In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and modern moments, an event and meeting venue in the heart of Gilbert and at Gilbert Independent, your valley. net dedicated to serving readers with good community journalism. The Gilbert Independent is a nonpartisan newspaper, an online site that covers our town's institutions, development and events.
Subscribe and follow Your valley. net Daily to stay up to date with latest local news. It's a new year and here we go. Who are we talking to today? OK. Can I just say if Gilbert had royalty? This guest is part of the royal family. We are honored today to have this guest with us, a native of Gilbert who was born to a native of Gilbert. This guest has both roots and recognition in the town as the third son of Marvin and Jan Morrison alongside his siblings and cousins.
He has actively engaged in the development of the master plan community known as Morrison Ranch with a masters in theology and a doctorate in ministry. He considers his Christian faith to be the most formative aspect of his life. And his service to community is testament to his priorities. He has served on many advisory councils and boards including Gilbert Talks, East Valley Partnership, dignity, health, and Gilbert leadership. He's a graduate of class three, but he considers being a husband and father of three, the greatest privilege of his life.
Please welcome Howard Morrison. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much. We're excited to have you here. We're going to start with what we call rapid fire. Ok. You go first. Would you rather host a party for all your friends or enjoy a dinner for two, dinner for two, please? All right. Here we go. Star Wars or Star Trek. Boy, I love them both. It is a toss up for this guy because I've lived through both of them from beginning to end. But if you have to pick one Star Trek.
Ok. Favorite color, green winter or summer, winter. What did your mom call you as a kid? She called me Howard. Nothing fancy about that, right? Ok. Then what's your favorite holiday? Thanksgiving? Ok. Would you ever bungee jump? Never in my life? Talk about crazy. Ok. In your teen years? What was your favorite movie? The Sting came out? I think when I was a junior in high school. Absolutely loved it. It's the movie I've seen the most often repetition. What is one thing you wished you enjoyed more small talk chatter?
The 73 minutes before a meeting, the 10 minutes after I can do it. I'm just not great at it. Don't enjoy it as much to the business. You might be like ad or something like that, huh? Ok. Here we go. Last question. Glass, half full or half empty, half full. Yeah, I like that about you. Ok, good. Do you ever feel like your business is stuck? It's time to get traction and move it forward. Call Chris Spear, your business coach and certified E US implementer. They'll help you use the entrepreneurial operating system to get traction and achieve your vision.
Call Chris today at 4808483037. That's 4808483037. Well, welcome to the show. We wanna start probably in the very beginning. That's usually where we start. Right. It's a great place to start in the beginning. Talk about your childhood where you grew up in. It sounds like Gilbert native of Gilbert. Um, my mom still lives in the home that she grew up in since she was seven. It's three quarters of a mile west of Gilbert and Elliott in the north side of the road within the Neely Ranch Compound. My mom's in Neely and so I um was born right there with two older brothers.
Richard's 231 years older, Scott's four years older and went through the Gilbert school system, which at that time was one elementary, one junior high, one high school. Yeah. So, um, all was on the farm, uh, church school and athletics that was growing up. So, talk about the high school because that's usually the areas that we had the most interesting changes in our lives. Junior high two. But, um, high school life like then, what was that like? Well, that was Gilbert High School, which is now mesquite junior high.
And of course, there's a big swimming pool in the parking lot now, which didn't exist and a number of the buildings didn't exist. One of the interesting times in my life, our youngest daughter went there for junior high and went in for teacher orientation or getting to get to meet the teacher night and walked into, what was my chemistry lab? It wasn't gonna be her chemistry lab as a freshman or excuse me, as a sophomore. Everything was the same. The bookshelves were the same. The smell in the lab was the same.
Like it, it appeared, the countertops were the same. It was unbelievable. And, um, Mrs Pritchard who had great patience with uh many of us, uh right in those square feet that, that was quite an experience to walk into that situation. High school years. Yes. Um That's where my spiritual transformation occurred was during those years. And so, you know, whole new life trans transformation occurring during those years. In my freshman year, sophomore year, I was a late bloomer in all things except relating to adults. I did really well, relating to adults didn't do great with my peers.
Ok. Just not great. And so I had a lot of growing up to do physically, uh, probably emotionally that didn't really occur all that much during my high school years, should have, could have et cetera. But athletics was a big thing that helped me overcome me. And so I was football, basketball and track, not because I was good, but because I could and get what were small enough, you could, I was in the band and in F fa and so I was in high school at the school from 232 at the latest for first period band or a period, whatever it was called then till about six or 230 days a week.
That was my life was, that was my high school life. Were you one of the football players that had to go in and change for halftime show for the band to come back out? And then all we did was take the shoulder pads off and put the jersey back. So change was a, is a relative term. Yes, I did that for a couple of years. I don't think I did that in my junior and senior year, but I did do that. Uh, freshman and sophomore. Any teachers stand out to you when you think back in those years.
Well, I, I mentioned Mrs Pritchard. Yeah, you did. She, uh, again I related to my teachers and to my, uh, to adults, uh, pretty well. And she recognized that and she also recognized how hard it was for me to rec, uh, to relate to my peers really well. And she helped in that space unlike anybody else. But I have to mention my vocational agriculture teacher, Clifford Kinney, he was a hero to hundreds of people. He impacted men and women, one on one in the classroom outside of the classroom trips to the national convention in Kansas City trips to the state convention in Tucson as a quiet, steady presence.
His nickname, we didn't give it to him. His nickname before he came to Arizona was the Silver Fox and he was, he was wise steady. Uh He didn't try to be a father figure, but he was one, he didn't take anybody's place is my point. He wasn't trying to, but he had that fatherly advice and that kind of support that you were looking for. Yeah, a great man. I love that. I'm curious because your parents have such a mark on this community as you were growing up observing them doing the work that they were doing in the community.
What did that look like for you? And what do you remember as their legacy? Outside of your family, it was normal because it is the environment I grew up in. So I didn't have the self awareness to say, oh my gosh, my parents are involved in so many things in the community. I, I didn't say that probably till I was in college. Maybe I did in high school. One of the markers that I remember very significantly because my dad was involved in all kinds of boards and commissions all across the state.
And, and outside the state is when I was in eighth grade, he ran for another term for school board. He wound up serving 225 years. He must have taken somebody's place. Um At the beginning of all of his terms, my recollection is, it was 210 years. My point here was that at eighth grade, he decided to run for school board for four years one more time so he could hand we might be. And um that's amazing. That's really, really cool outside of the community. Was that your question? You said that was my, my uh my uh awareness of the impact outside of the community, outside of your family.
Thank you. Thank you. My dad lived in the community and my mom in different ways if he wasn't on the farm and he wasn't home eating or sleeping, he was in this community somewhere doing something. And of course, as I mentioned, that was normal for our, for them and for our family. And so it comes pretty natural for me as well. College I want to hear about college. So, you go from Gilbert High school to college. Where'd you go? Well, I kind of like to tease. It took three colleges to graduate me.
Ok. Well, but it's not quite that stretch a bit. Went to University of Arizona because that's where the agriculture college was. And I just had presumed I would major in agriculture and do something in agriculture. When I finished, after my first year, I went to Mesa Community College because I was nominated from Arizona to run for National F fa office. And that took some manipulation during the fall as far schedules and completing assignments and particularly toward the end of the semester with finals because the convention fell in November, right when you're trying to finish stuff up.
And so I went to MC C to make that a little easier on me. I was out of college for a year then because I was elected as an officer and then came back and it was sort of discombobulated. What, what, what, where's my North Star at this point? So I went to a su for a semester. So I would be closer to my family because it'd been gone too much out of the year. Then I went back to U of A and finished up my junior and senior year.
Part of what that did was separate me from my incoming classmates and that didn't help on the relational side of things. So, one of the things I regret to this day is that I don't have any close friends from my college years, some acquaintances but nobody I spend time with that's on me. But life circumstances pushed that a little bit as well. The F fa experience was unbelievable. Wouldn't trade it for anything. It, it marks my life to this day, but it also had some consequences in that regard with college.
Where did that take you? So the F fa was out of state. It's a national organization, its headquarters at the time was Washington DC. It's now in Indianapolis. And so there were six officers and we separated out, spread out all of the opportunities that existed for all kinds of things like state conferences. And so I traveled from Alaska to Florida, California to Pennsylvania snowed in, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, January of 23 and uh and Mojave Desert Nevada for their state convention on and on. So lots of travel on planes and a lot of speaking engagements.
I find it interesting that you have the perspective you do about um making those changes um to different colleges and universities because as you were sharing it, my thought was how insightful that at that age, you knew how to balance your commitments and your obligations and chase something that you wanted to do and be realistic about it. At the same time. I don't think that's insight that most people at a college age have or that maybe they're challenged by other pressures to stick to something rather than say, I'm going to make a change to balance it all.
Well, as we started this, you talked about things and people that formed me. And at that point point, obviously, I had great teachers, I had great coaches and I had great parents and brothers. So I was very fortunate to grow up in Gilbert in the sixties and then adolescence in the seventies, that was not necessarily everybody else's experience because Gilbert in the sixties was more like the fifties in a lot of other places because it was so small and, and somewhat isolated, certainly separate from Mason and Chandler and Timpe.
And so adults just factored as a bigger part of my upbringing and information. Then maybe some and I was the beneficiary of that in those college years and was the expectation that once you graduated, you'd come back to the farm and to Gilbert and, and work with the family. No one expressed that. And uh, the opportunity technically wasn't there now. That might sound strange and maybe I could have made a place. But one of the benefits of having older brothers is watching them. And Scott had gotten an agricultural engineering degree and he had been doing some farming Richard.
Once he got his law out of the Navy and his law degree, he also did some farming and it became fairly clear to both of them. If they were gonna farm, they were gonna do it separate from their dad and their uncle. So that was already the template of they're just gonna keep doing what they're doing because they love it and they're good at it and they don't want to do anything else. So there really wasn't room to come back to the farm in that sense. So, in my mind, I had said, I probably will need to be involved in agribusiness somehow beyond the production side of things.
And so my intent after college was to get a master's in ag economics that didn't wind up happening. But that was, that's kind of a placeholder because I didn't really know what I wanted to do next. And so I'll never know because I didn't go that direction how that might have. So where did you go? What happens next? I was challenged by some people to consider um pastoral ministry. And I had a kind of a proclivity toward the scriptures didn't have a lot of church experience as far as being involved in what would that look like.
And so the short story is I wound up going to Dallas Seminary and got a masters in theology at the time. Still is true today, it was a four year master program which is pretty long and that obviously redirected many things in my life. Unbelievable valuable experience that I use those skills and and growth to today and pass on to others. That seems like it would be uh an area. You probably made some connections. Yes. The game changer for me relationally was meeting my wife Jenna and she has patiently uh helped to be, to be more of a relational person and warm person uh to the degree that that exists and uh but certainly being involved with church, church, community, church families and those responsibilities being looked to for leadership growing in leadership.
We have all been factors. I think I've probably actually changed the most in the last 153 years than I did the previous 215. So I told you I was a late bloomer. Go back to A S the U of A. You said you graduated from there. What did you go to graduate in agribusiness, agribusiness? OK. And then you went to the, the theology side. OK. Got it. I missed that part. OK. Good. So during that theology time, then um talk about the people that influenced you in that, that model because it seems like there you had a lot of transformations there, there's gotta be some people there that, that stand out in your mind and, and that kind of guided you through some of those journeys. Yes.
Three, very quickly that come to mind. One is a professor that impacted every student at Dallas Seminary and his name was Howard Hendricks and he taught basic Bible study for every student. Every incoming uh student and he was, seemed ancient then and was a professor for another 210 years after that and marked many people, scores of people attribute what they're doing today to Howard Henry. Me included. Second was Bill Lawrence. He came out of a pastoral environment but had gotten his phd. That's kind of an unusual, uh, an, a, uh, you know, purely academic degree for pastor was a bit unusual but he was a, is still uh a, a great man and I learned much from his uh character, his demeanor, his love for the studentss, he modeled very well what the school was trying to produce in its students.
That wasn't true about all professors, but it was true for him. And then there was a gentleman who uh his name is Walt Baker and he taught in the World Missions Department and he gave me a heart for what God's doing all around the globe. And there's much to say about that. He has since passed away. I miss him dearly. But his impact on my life has been long lasting when you are um going through uh this degree and you're studying it. What is your hope or your intention to make use of it at the time?
All I knew was to be a pastor. The best thing for in my experience at Dallas Seme was chapel. Now that may sound strange and other people probably roll their eyes and say you gotta go to chapel every day. Uh That's true. What I saw were models of people coming across the stage every day of what God can do through a person. And it wasn't just one thing, my whole world opened up to what the possibilities were. And I'm grateful to this day for that because it too changed the traject trajectory of how I viewed myself doing ministry.
So even though I graduated and went to a church in Austin, I was a singles pastor and then Christian education and kind of leadership development there for seven years, Dallas Seminary taught me how to study, not what all the answers were. And I needed that one of that. And I still am an adult learner, a voracious reader and hopefully continue to grow in from that. But what it also did was set me up for what I've done at Morrison Ranch. He said now that's a stretch howard.
Not at all. Because one of the things I learned in that environment was God uses all kinds of people in all kinds of places for all kinds of intent purposes. So my transition out of being paid for by a church to being in the workplace and in the marketplace was seamless. It's usually not, but it was for me because I had read a book and I'd met the author. He was just a couple years older than I was. And uh it was entitled Your Work Matters To God.
And that impacted how I viewed what I did at Morrison Ranch and to what I do today. So I'm not involved in church ministry in the sense of being paid for it or have a title or anything like that. It's infused in my daily life. And that started back then. When did you know that Morrison Ranch was going to be different than what you knew growing up growing up and, and that you were probably going to be involved in something different than being in ministry in Texas.
Scott was the tip of the spear for our family, learning about development and what could be and that was basically out of a stewardship responsibility. We have some ownership of this property, but we're not really directing its outcome. Maybe we should learn more about what that could be beyond our dad and uncle's lifetime. And even during the latter parts of their years, and my wife challenged me says, let's go back and help Scott. So that's what we did. The path for the next 215 years was totally unknown.
It usually is. But for the first couple of years, we were getting our feet wet. We're learning some things. I didn't know if that was even gonna be economically viable for me. And so that's when I got my doctorate at Phoenix Seminary was to keep a, a foot in the um church world, but I never went back to be a pastor during those years or after I would say we knew something was up, so to speak. When we a completed Neely Ranch, that's the property around my mom's home, Cooper and Elliott, northeast corner.
And then we had an opportunity to do some planning on a part of what is now Morrison ranch. That wasn't a part of a master plan. It was just kind of our first project and that's where the other big influences in our life, for this part of my careers, so to speak, came into play. And there's two gentlemen in California, in particular, Al Lunsford and Don Tompkins who tutored us on how to do this and what that meant was not all again, all the answers but sometimes asking the right questions.
But what it meant to get entitlements on a piece of property in order to do what you want to do on or, or what you envision doing on that property and what's allowable. So we got our development agreement and Master plan in 98 November 2nd, 98. So just a few weeks ago, we had our 25th anniversary. So it was pretty cool. What 25 years will do? Yes. Yes. And it was their tutelage where and we are coming together and the family saying yes, we want to do this and pursue that master plan when what was possible became clear for us.
Do you as you look back, especially in those early years, does anything stand out as being a lesson learned or, you know, something that stands out as might have done that differently. Had I known than what I know? Now, there are very few things that we would do differently. And the reason why is because we listened to our mentors and they said you have to Stephen Covey's principle, you have to begin with the end in mind. And that's really what a master plan is. It's the cover of a jigsaw puzzle box. Yeah.
And you got all these pieces that then fit in there somewhere. And uh the cover of that box in 98 looks uncannily familiar when you look at what's on the ground today, which is amazing to me because I can't, honestly, that sort of blows my mind like I can't imagine seeing something like that and that you were able to do that and make it happen is pretty incredible. Well, we stood on the shoulders of others and we got a lot of help and the town played a role in that when you change your master, uh excuse me, a general plan and you get your zoning and they have been put into all that.
It's not just do whatever you want and shouldn't be. So a lot of things coming together. Could we see every nuance? No. And one of those was, there was no idea that a freeway was going to be coming through the middle of Gilbert. That was a total unknown now, maybe not A O but it, I don't even think Gilbert's leadership was aware of, of that coming through town or potentially coming through town that's impacted us. We've made some minor tweaks. They are really minor. We're talking about some commercial.
We had five acres of commercial along. Recorder and Elliott. That didn't make any sense to try to do commercial there because it all goes to the freeway over overstatement. Much of it goes to the freeway. Well, we just changed that to residential for that five acres. I mean, just there was no big deal. Uh, still looks like the jigsaw puzzle cover. Um, but we've, we've stuck with that for those 103 years now. Is Morrison Ranch completely built out now or do you still have more to go? All the single family is sold?
Ok. We all the multifamily is sold but not built. We have two that are in the hands approved by the town and so forth. They're just not completed. One's under construction, uh, by Cactus Yards south of Elliott. There is under construction and one just east of Higley and Warner is approved hasn't started construction. So completed is not the right term, but it's out of our hands now at this one and we're literally down to about 40 acres, started with 2000 and it's primarily commercial property Higley and Warner. So one of the comments you shared with us, which I found to be really important is um the saying be the same person in public and in private.
I think it's a challenge that we all should accept in our lives. And I'm curious why that's important to you and what it means. The first thing that comes to mind is my dad. He was the same person in private as he was in public. And that was an unbelievable model to be able to be exposed to, to be loved by. He rarely sat us down for a lesson. He just lived his life. And so I don't wanna say that was easy to follow because we all have our own internal challenges with that at some level, it was easier to follow because it was real in his life.
Dad was generous and he often uh people know about the public things. They have no idea of the hundreds of private things that he did. Same person, right? The other reason why that's really important to me is when you learn about leadership and you practice leadership and you say I want to be a leader, you will bump into the subject of character. Character shows whether you want it to or not, it will be exposed and a good leader is going to have good character. Well, I wanted to be a good leader.
I wanted that to be true about me. So that's integral to this discussion about inside and outside. This might be somewhat of a more difficult illustration, but most people know the f fa students by the blue and gold jackets that they wear and that I learned this early that you don't just become a different person because you put the jacket on. You're the same person. Now you may pretend or put a facade up or try to pull something off. I don't mean nefariously. I mean, just you want to put your best foot forward.
There's nothing wrong with that, But I just thought it was silly when I would see somebody who was one way with a jacket on and one way with it off, it didn't make any sense to me. And I just said that's not who I'm going to be. And I'd like to think that's true today, even though I don't put that jacket on, I love the saying and I love the intention behind it and I think it's important. So let's just share with Ben now that this is actually an intervention.
Let's do that. Let's go there. We need you to be the same person, both inside and outside. OK? You can learn from Howard. OK. I like that. I always look for good mentors. So I'm up for that challenge. That's awesome. All right. I know Texas is important to you too. Um Where do you find the balance? Because I know you, Gilbert is your heart. You spend a lot of time in Texas. Talk a little bit about what that looks like for you. My wife's family is in Texas.
I, I married a Texan in Dallas and while I was going through school as she was, uh, teaching as well. And so her family is there. My family's here. So I get to, I get to split the time. I, I spend more nights there with my head on the pillow than I do here in Gilbert. But it's regular for me to be here and still have our home here. My mom was born in Texas. Many people would not know that uh even fewer people would have ever heard of Lari Texas.
And for the, those of nuance that's west of Carrizo Springs, southwest of San Antonio on the way to the border out in the middle of nowhere except cotton field. So the neely family was there for a long time before they came to Cochise County and Maricopa County. And uh so her first year, she, she was born there and then immediately moved to Arizona. So I'm, I'm already, you know, half Texan and then married a Texan. Our two oldest were born in Austin during those years at my first job in Austin.
And uh so, yeah, I, I've spent educated graduate school there. It's an important place for, for me and my wife's family and for me and for our kids. So let's talk a little bit about all the, um, committees and things you've been involved with, with Gilbert because there's been a long list of those type of things. What programs stand out, what things that come to mind that you're like, maybe not so much so proud of, but that you enjoyed the most or things like that that you want to share.
Gilbert leadership is at the top of the list. You're only saying that because Sarah's here, you're not saying that. I, I say that because I'm a proud graduate of class three. How many classes do you want me to say? We're in class 32. I was gonna say 31 and I missed the year, sorry, 32. Well, 30. Um my brother Scott was in class one with Ky Tilke others, obviously. And so I, I benefited so much from that. My years on the board actually were just as meaningful as going through the class itself.
Um seeing other really fine, mature and maturing leaders doing their best and giving back and serving and working alongside them for an Issue Day. Whatever it may be. One of the fun things about Issue Day was the History Day was virtually always just, you know, based at the um HD South as it referred to now. Uh but my mom was always on the panel. She's, yeah, I am telling you she's um been a major contributor to that day. So, yeah, and so uh one of my most embarrassing moments in life occurred in front of my mom at History Day.
You got to share that one I, I said, mom, I, I know how you grew up. I know the house, grew up in the house myself and it was so hot. I said, how did you stay? Cool? And she looked up from her chair, she was seated at the time. I was at a little podium. She looked up with this look on my face that rarely did a mother give a son this look. And she said, we didn't, we just suffered through it. Don't you remember? Uh, at much laughter at my expense from the class participants and others in the audience that uh that day, uh Gilbert leadership was uh is stellar program.
And uh I thank the chamber for it. Yep. Yep. That's great. So, bringing back to some of these other, um you know, Gilbert leadership and other organizations you've been part of, uh you were telling. So some of those stories any more that you wanna share on that? I got involved with Toastmasters really early in life because my mom and dad were both in Toastmasters. I'd probably start good means before I could officially become a member by age because I wasn't even driving. My dad would take me to the Chandler, uh Sideburns and Chandler was where Toastmasters was held at the time.
And so that's been a, a group. It, you can serve others and do serve others. It's not intended to be a service organization, but your input as an evaluator and encouraging somebody else is a way of serving people, but it's primarily sharpening your own saw. And I did that for years. I did, it started a chapter at the University of Arizona because of it because I want to keep it going. And there are college, I don't know what they call them chapters, but affiliates did it in Austin, a great organization recommended.
And I have taught a version of it for Gilbert leadership as a workshop as a something points for if you want to go to public speaking sort of thing. And Mark does that. Now. It's such a very, very fine way three times as good as I ever did it. But um he was one of my, he participated in it and got hooked on it. So I'm happy for him and others that have benefited from him. So that's a way of serving people. And there were a number of things that people won't remember anymore that had to do with the airport.
Its impact on Gilbert's zoning and overflight uh uh overlays and on zoning maps and all that kind of stuff. And uh yes, I do enjoy going to meetings. Uh Most of my family does not understand that, but that's ok. I do. And I, I look back at some of those uh quite fondly, I also helped, I was on a board, an initial board that helped the Center for Arizona Policy get started. And that is about 25 years old, I think now and helped to chair the board that was started me on my journey of learning about nonprofit boards and how they function and how governance and bylaws can actually serve an organization really well.
And it's an area where I've grown a lot in the last 10 years. And I'm giving back primarily in Austin and some organizations there on what, what can a nonprofit board look like and how can it function? Well, um, many of them don't. Um, and I'm, I'm glad to be in a space where I can help others that started here in Arizona. It sounds like you were equally involved in things in Austin as you have been in Gilbert sounds like been in Austin for uh nine years now.
So it's starting to even out a little bit. It's, it's harder for me to be involved with something consistently here in Gilbert, outside of our, the family business. That's very consistent. Uh It's uh easier for in Austin to be involved in serving just because of the number of days I'm there. Got it. Makes sense. OK. So let's talk about the future now. Where's the horizon look like for you? What do you got going on next? My sense is that Morrison Ranch has anywhere from 3 to 7 years to go commercial development lags.
And it's takes, it could take just as long if not longer to see from point A to point Z in its uh process. It's also an opportunity for us to stay involved with some of the components of commercial development, not necessarily as owners, but maybe a joint venture partner and have a voice and influence or maybe owning a business in that a commercial. And so those opportunities are all ahead. None of them are predetermined. Like I know what I want to do for the next 15 years of my life.
That's not the case. Um What I do most of my time when I'm not working on Morrison ranch is mentor young men. So I spent time one on one. Most of the time. There's no agenda. It's just logging time with them. And uh there's a, he's not a young man anymore in his early thirties here in Austin. And I've spent over 10 years every time I'm back in Gilbert. We get together. Uh There's three people in Austin, I'm doing that with and then I have about three peers of my own peers of, of my age, my stage in life, a couple in Austin, a couple here that um I spend time with and I love every minute of it.
Don't ever want to stop and pussy how that, that journey goes. So, in that sense, this isn't intended to sound boring, but more of the same because I'm really doing what I like to do and that's important. That's kind of what makes life unique, isn't it? I had an appreciation for you before this conversation, I have a greater appreciation. Now, I think what I want to say is thank you for caring. You have built something out of grace and care and really a community that will last for so long, but a community in the sense of not just buildings but people in place and belonging and that's so important and I really can see now how that's happened through, through heart.
So thank you. Well, that's very kind of you. Uh, just a couple of comments, we all stand on the shoulders of other people and I do too and I'm mindful of that. Uh, number two, we've done this as a family. None of us knew how to do what we're doing as far as entitlements of the town and zoning and working with home builders and we, we haven't built a thing, but working with all the people who do build them and all that kind of stuff. And there have been people that have helped us along the way and Don Tompkins, um, passed away this last year.
Um, he, he is a hero for the town of the Gilbert that the town will never be able to fully appreciate. And, um, so there's many, many people, um, you know, the old football sleds when the offensive line would hit that sled and push it, you know, 15 yards or whatever. Well, that's what Morrison Ranch has been. We've all put our shoulders to the sled and, and pushed it down the road and you can't do it by yourself. Just try and with that analogy. And I totally agree, but it also takes people who care.
Well, thank you. That, that's very kind of you. Um, this is, this is just a, an obvious point. It's not to be, um, something that's unique to us. Nobody cares more about Morrison ranch than the Morrisons. Well, duh, I mean, that's not surprising if there is anything unique to us is that we stayed involved with the process and what we envisioned, we determined to build and what we determined to build. We did, um, that truly was out of caring. We can't make people be in community with one another.
But what we decided to do is remove some of the obstacles that seem to be present in some developments, not all, but some of them, we tried to remove as many of those as we could and make an orientation in a sense that people would want to meet their neighbor when they went out to their mailbox that their kids would want to be in the front yard because it was green and cooler than maybe the DG that's in their backyard, that they had a porch that somebody could come over and sit on and talk.
They could walk down tree lined streets to the elementary school rather than get in the car and go three blocks because it was hot or maybe it was dangerous to the side rock right up next to the road and on and on and on. So we tried to remove obstacles and then create that place where people wanted to be, that seems to have been proven to be the case. Uh And that's very rewarding. Uh It's when we see community happening when it might not have occurred otherwise. Yeah. Absolutely.
Love that. Love the planning, love the forethought and that, you know, and just looking at how the town itself has grown and seeing the developments all around the town, uh Morrison ranch definitely has had a stronghold in that and it's very obvious in how that was built with care and kindness. So, thank you for that. Thank you, Ben. It was going to be ok. Well, I've enjoyed this conversation. I know you have too. If you want to get more of these shows, sign up for our, our email box so you can get these in your inbox and um join our tribe.
We'd love to have you. Thank you, guiding growth, conversations with community leaders. Ben. Let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it.
We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.
