A great public servant

John was born John Deloss Morgan 20 May 1925 in Paul, Cassia, Idaho. He was the only child of Lawrence Deloss Morgan and Wilda Marston. At about the age of 3 John was taken into the home of his aunt, Martha Marston Warnick and her husband Elmer Richelieu Warnick who lived on a farm about 10 miles from Burley, Idaho. He was raised in this home but not legally adopted until after he turned 18 and was in the Marine Corps. He officially had his name changed to John D. Warnick while home on furlough from the Marines.

John married first 22 July 1946 in Manti, Sanpete, Utah to Letha Ruby Jorgenson, daughter of Enock Jorgenson and Elvira Nielsen. She died of cancer 22 February 1980 in Bountiful, Davis, Utah. John married second Phyllis H. Peterson on 22 August 1980 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

During his early life in Idaho his father encouraged him to join the Boy Scouts of America and Scouting was to become his home for most of his life. He joined the marines where he served in five major campaigns in the South Pacific and the Phillipines. His professional life after the Marines was spent as a Boy Scout Executive in several councils, as Director of Mormon relationships, and he served on the Young Men's General Board. He traveled extensively in the cause and service of Scouting and left a legacy of great worth.

Our first contact with John Warnick, as Morgan family history resesarchers, came as a result of John's visit to the Shelton, Idaho cemetery and his inquiries to the sexton about his ancestors buried there. Impressed, the sexton contacted us and we contacted John. This began a most interesting and most rewarding phase of our Morgan family history research. We visited John at his home in Utah where he took us out to dinner and showed us his workshop in the basement. Then a family history party consisting of Leon Pitman, Robert Gourley, Roberta Gourley, John Warnick, Phyllis Warnick, and James Morgan made a tour of some of the Utah cities, such as Goshen, Oak City, and Leamington, that our ancestors had been instrumental in founding. We visited Thomas Morgan's old log cabin and adobe house in Leamington, and walked through graveyards. It was a special day for a group of, ah, aging, Morgan descendants.

To understand why our relationship with John Warnick was so special one has to know how isolated family history research can be. There are few of us and we usually labor away in relative obscurity while being ignored by most people who could care less about family history. So when we meet someone who is as enthusiastic about family history as John was, it is a great treat to us and an encouragement to press on with the work.

John Warnick Father and Mother

Click on the link above to see pictures of John Warnick's Morgan father.

John Warnick Family

Click on the link above to see pictures of John Warnick's family.