Johnny Morris, who with wife Jeanie raised four children in their hometown of Springfield, Mo., has created a charmed life of doing and creating what he's always loved. And none of it has come by accident, or without the support of parents, extended family, friends and employees.
The soft-spoken, cordial grandfather clad in a moss green Bass Pro shirt and tan pants stood in a crowded Durand Center the other night in Harrison as the featured speaker for the John Paul Hammerschmidt Lecture series.
Best known for the nearly 100 Bass Pro Shops he's created nationwide and in Canada since 1971, along with the Big Cedar Lodge and Top of the Rock Restaurant north of Harrison, the 68-year-old visionary entrepreneur displayed the down-home side that those who know him often talk about.
While the graduate of Drury University has notoriously high expectations and insists on tasks being completed in harmony with his specific visions, he's also willing to spend what's necessary of his net worth reported at over $4 billion to see those visions properly fulfilled.
He spoke this night of a love of country and two grandchildren as well as the magnificence of competition and free enterprise over misleading philosophies that tout a spirit-dulling socialism. Morris, who came from parents who were raised poor but filled with a strong sense of character they passed to their children, praised Commerce Bank in Springfield for believing in his vision enough to back his initial Bass Pro loan.
He spoke of the magnificence of the Buffalo National River as the float capitol of the world and recalled his early choice to become a tournament bass fisherman and the influences that choice would have on his future as a leading national conservationist and successful outdoor retailer.
His lifelong love of fishing and the outdoors, along with history and its artifacts, began early in life. It was back in the day when he began fishing rivers with his father and beloved mother's brother, Uncle Buck. It was obvious to me from his comments that tight family bonds have played the major role in his success.
As a young man, Morris was dissatisfied with the fishing lures he saw for sale around his native Springfield, and had the initiative to do something about it. He leased a trailer and traveled to gather the best tackle he could find. He returned home and began selling his lures in his dad's Brown Derby Liquor Store.
Soon, Johnny began mailing catalogs listing his popular merchandise at reduced rates. Later he'd further flex his fledgling entrepreneurial skills to include boats, motors and trailers, also sold at lowest possible prices.
It's hard for me to imagine how this young man's simple idea to fill an unmet need and his determination sowed the seeds for what would become the Bass Pro Shops that today employ 20,000, as well as a multibillion-dollar outdoor recreational empire.
And he's done it all in such an unassuming way that few would even recognize Johnny if standing in line behind him. In some ways, his monumental achievements make me think of an equally unpretentious Sam Walton and his worldwide retail legacy.
It was in his formative years that Morris discovered an arrowhead while running through a field. That found treasure triggered his imagination along with a curiosity deep enough to instill what's become a lifelong respect for history and the cultures of those who lived here long before us. This fascination is on display in the exhaustive Native American museum that winds through the lower level at his Top of the Rock Restaurant and shops.
Besides the Bass Pro Shops, Morris' company owns Ranger, Triton, Stratos and Tracker Boats; Big Cedar Lodge; Integrity Hills; the Dogwood Canyon Nature Park; and Top of the Rock. And, of course, there's the landmark Memphis Pyramid that Morris remodeled into a colossal Bass Pro Shop which, upon opening in 2015, became the world's largest outdoor-gear retail store.
The width of six football fields, this awe-inspiring destination attraction covers a half-million square feet. It features a bowling alley, a 103-room hotel, two restaurants, indoor ponds stocked with fish ... and on and on. I spent two hours there last year and saw less than half of the enchantment Morris has fashioned along the Mississippi. Next up to make folks gasp in coming years will be his spectacular Wonders of Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield.
My concern in 2016 America is that entrepreneurial visionaries like Johnny Morris may be a fading breed in our democratic republic as they become increasingly hamstrung by needless government regulation and vast bureaucracies capable of dimming even the most enlightened among us.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 04/03/2016