John F. Morrison, retired longtime reporter and editor for the Daily News and Bulletin, author, and poet, has died at 92

John F. Morrison, 92, of Media, a retired longtime reporter and editor for the Daily News and Bulletin, author, poet, and mentor to dozens of journalists, died Friday, Sept. 2, of complications from heart failure at Riddle Hospital.

Mr. Morrison, known as Jack to friends and family, spent nearly seven decades as a colorful writer, exacting editor, and reliable rewrite man at the Daily News, Bulletin, and Main Line Times. He spent 24 years at the Bulletin, covering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other big stories, and as night city editor, and the next 34 years as a staff writer at the Daily News.

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He wrote mostly features for the Daily News, worked the night rewrite desk flawlessly for years, and was known later in his career for his tenderhearted obituaries of the region’s famous and not-so-famous. Practical and reasonable yet imbued with a sentimental streak and poet’s eye, Mr. Morrison said he enjoyed writing life stories because they connected him with people and families.

“My theory was that everybody has a story,” he told the Daily News in 2016 when he retired at 87. “I felt I was doing a service to the community by honoring these people. Some of their families told me that the way I wrote the story of their loved one helped them with their grief and with the mourning process. That was very satisfying. I miss that.”

Known for his tough-love mentoring of young reporters, staunch support for colleagues in every department, and indefatigable work ethic, Mr. Morrison amassed thousands of bylines and wrote hundreds of headlines over his career. Some of his most memorable opening sentences came in his obituaries for the Daily News.

In 2002, he wrote: “You weren’t allowed to leave Rose W. Miller’s home without eating something. That was just a rule of the house. And if you were a visitor compelled to obey this immutable law, you were treated to culinary delights without peer.”

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He opened a 2006 obituary with: “Wherever you might have run into Dedra Copeland — in a restaurant, on the street, at the drycleaners — you were probably going to hear a pitch about the Lord.”

And he started a 2007 story with: “Kenneth R. Gray died doing what he enjoyed most, testing his limits against the odds. He died Saturday of a heart attack atop a cliff while rock-climbing in Tennessee. He was 55.”

“But he was so much more than an obit writer,” said his daughter Robin Frost.

Indeed, Mr. Morrison also wrote or cowrote several books for Chelsea House Publishers’ young adults division, including Syria in 2008, Sammy Sosa, in 2006, and Mathilde Krim and the Story of AIDS in 2004. He self-published more than a dozen books of poetry and produced novels and a newspaper-writing handbook that he left unpublished.

“He simply found joy in the process of creating them,” said writer, editor, and longtime friend Ernie Tremblay.

Born Sept. 23, 1929, in Media, Mr. Morrison graduated from Media High School in 1947, worked a few jobs for a few years, and joined the Air Force. It was then, assigned as a learn-on-the-job reporter for the weekly newspaper at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., that he discovered his attraction to and ability for journalism.

He worked for six years at the Main Line Times after the Air Force and joined the Bulletin in 1958. He married Valerie Sigilen, and they had daughters Heather, Holly, and Robin. After a divorce, he married Jan De Vries. They divorced later. Both former wives died earlier.

Gregarious, curious, and generous, Mr. Morrison met up with old friends almost daily for years to share lunch and hash over old times. They discussed philosophy, poetry, theater, music, literature, sports, and laughed a lot.

He ran several miles a day for years, preferred his ever-present coffee strong, and liked to ask babies he encountered, “So how do you like it so far?” He was funny, sarcastic, talked to practically everyone he met, and routinely gave money to folks on the street.

He taught his daughters how to play baseball, spit watermelon seeds, and make up stories about the lives of passersby they noticed out the window. “I was so proud to walk around and hold his hand,” Frost said.

A former colleague called Mr. Morrison “one of the most people persons I’ve ever met.” Tremblay said: “It’s an old cliché, but in this case, it’s true. To know Jack was to love him.”

In addition to his daughters, Mr. Morrison is survived by six grandchildren, one great-granddaughter, and other relatives. Two brothers died earlier.

A celebration of his life is to begin at 2 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, at Ridley Creek State Park, Pavilion 17, Rose Valley, Pa. 19063.

Donations in his name may be made to the Brandywine River Museum of Art, P.O. Box 141, Chadds Ford, Pa. 19317.