Robert Jeptha Morgan

Robert Jeptha Morgan March 3, 1943 – March 31, 2021 Born in Anniston, Alabama to Gus and Geraldine Morgan, Jep passed away unexpectedly shortly after his 78th birthday. He completed high school at Gordon Military College, attended Auburn University, and received a degree from Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida, where he studied commercial art and advertising. After finishing college, he moved to Atlanta where he worked for Consumer and Industrial Marketing Corp. as an artist and Illustrator. It was during this time he met Linda Gilder. In 1966, he joined the Army and after training at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey as a combat motion picture cameraman, was assigned to the US Army Special Photo Team. Jep was sent all over the country to document events such as the Pentagon Peace Demonstration, Chicago riots after Martin Luther King’s assassination, Poor People March on Washington DC, and ultimately paratroop drops of the 82nd Airborne Training for Vietnam. In August of that year, he was sent to Vietnam and other southeast Asian countries. December 30, 1967, Jep and Linda Ann Gilder were married in Atlanta. He got into making documentary films and TV Commercials, making TV spots for Andrew Young, Lester Mattox, Gov. George Wallace, and some filming for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center. By 1972, Jep and Linda decided to “move back to the land” to Kennesaw and opened the organic “Morgan Farm” specializing in herbs and vegetables for the restaurant business in Atlanta. Food writers and TV crews were flocking to Morgan Farm, “they couldn’t believe that a former advertising man with no agricultural experience could do something like this!” In addition to the farm, Jep managed a greenhouse for the Youth Development Center in Marietta, gave tours and talks for patients from Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta, and provided part-time employment for alcoholics and partially disabled Vietnam veterans. In 1995, when larger companies took over the herb market, Jep joined Harry’s Farmers Market (later bought out by Whole Foods) as a Demo Chef and in the Seafood Dept. He taught in-store classes in cooking and menu selection for customers, as well as in local schools and junior colleges. In his retirement, he was very active in honoring his first cousin, Juliette Hampton Morgan – a librarian who fought for equality and lost her life during the Montgomery Civil Rights struggles in the 1950’s. He successfully set up a scholarship fund through her alma mater, the University of Alabama, for students in library science, and attended several events when Montgomery named their main library in her honor. Jep is pre-deceased by his wife, Linda Gilder Morgan, and his only brother, John Francis Morgan; he is survived by his brother’s wife, Delores Elkins Morgan, his sister, Paula Morgan Byrens (David), Niece Kathy Morgan Meyer (Eric), Nephew James E. Morgan (Dawn), niece Meridith Lynn Allen and nephew, Jeremy David Allen, great-nieces, and nephews and extended family in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia and California. Donations may be made in Jep’s memory to the Juliette Morgan Endowed Scholarship Fund: University of Alabama Office of Planned Giving, P.O. Box 870123, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487.