Anita K. Morton

Scholarship Type: Endowed
Established Date: April 8, 2021

Anita K. Morton (1921-2003) contributed to Silver City’s quality of life in many ways over the four decades she spent in the community. A true visionary, she often recognized needs and saw possibilities in her surroundings long before these were evident to others.

Born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Anita Kezer grew up in a family of educators. She earned a BS in Home Economics from Oklahoma A&M and an MA in Child Development from the University of Nebraska, joining the faculty in the newly organized Child Development program at Iowa State College in 1944. Anita married chemistry grad student John W. Morton, Jr. in 1950, continuing to teach as her husband completed his PhD. Two daughters, Susan and Judy, were born to the couple.

The Mortons arrived in Silver City in 1962, when John began a 20-year tenure with New Mexico Western College (now WNMU). With both daughters in school, Anita occasionally taught classes in Western’s home economics program. She also became active with a number of community groups, especially the Silver City Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Serving as its Community Representative in 1965, Anita called the meeting that led to establishment of Silver City’s first Head Start program. She also taught adult basic education and vocational classes for low-income residents during the national “War on Poverty” initiatives of the 1960s.

The Mortons bought a corner lot near the university soon after arriving and began the design and construction of a unique octagonal house, doing much of the work themselves. Anita landscaped the property with native and drought-tolerant plants at a time when many locals favored luxuriant lawns. Through her efforts a native plant nursery was started at Fort Bayard in the early 1970s, and in 1988 she founded the Gila Native Plant Society. Anita’s early interest in resource conservation soon grew to encompass all forms of alternative energy. In 1975 she organized a statewide conference on practical applications of solar and wind energy, co-sponsored with the New Mexico Solar Energy Association and held on the WNMU campus.
Anita also founded the Practical Energy Application Center, a local group that produced countless educational programs, workshops, and tours on topics ranging from solar greenhouses to methane digesters and solar tax credits. She wrote grants, made presentations, and continually worked to educate public officials. Anita found inspiration everywhere, from Oregon’s beverage container deposit law to projects she toured in China with a People to People solar energy delegation in 1984. For years she lobbied the New Mexico legislature to pass a bill requiring returnable beverage containers. In 1990 she organized the first local committee to address area recycling needs, and through her efforts Silver City was one of New Mexico’s first communities with a municipal recycling program.