The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System District announces that entrepreneur and technology pioneer, Howard Morrison will speak on Thursday, January 21 at Woodville-Tomkins High School, in the Passport to Excellence Lecture Series. Morrison is the third and final presenter in the 2015-2016 inaugural series.

The free lecture series features presentations from accomplished individuals who previously attended or graduated from SCCPSS, sharing their unique career journeys and the insights they have learned about success and how to achieve it.

Although a graduate of Yale University, Morrison attributes much of the credit for his successes to the educational start he received through the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System. He attended Massie School, now Massie Heritage Center, from the second grade to the sixth grade, and will speak on those formative years and how they helped shape his career.

“When I was a student at Massie School, I learned to develop a curiosity for so many things,” said Morrison. “Curiosity is a wonderful thing and something I wish every child could have.”

The Savannah native has devoted a lifetime of service advocating educational and entrepreneurial related initiatives. After spending much of his career years in the Atlanta area, he retired from banking in 1996 and returned to his hometown where he has since added another career’s worth of accomplishments to his biography. To name a few, he established the organization that evolved into the Creative Coast Alliance and helped organized the Savannah Fund for Excellence in Public Education, which was subsequently merged into the ALL Foundation.

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Morrison graduated from Yale University and embarked on a banking career that spanned nearly 30 years. Along the way, he helped develop the C&S Bank’s (now Bank of America’s) High Technology Banking Group and Atlanta’s high technology business community. In 1995, Morrison was inducted into the Georgia High Technology Hall of Fame. In 2003, the Coastal Business, Education & Technology Alliance established an Outstanding Leadership Award in Morrison’s name and honored him as the inaugural recipient. The Georgia Tech Alumni Association named him an Honorary Alumnus for 2004. In 2009, the Junior Achievement of Georgia (Savannah) inducted Morrison into the Savannah Business Hall of Fame. In 2011, he received Savannah Technical College’s Opportunity Award.

Morrison’s latest entrepreneurial endeavor is Verdant Kitchen, which recently made Opera’s “favorite things” list in 2015. The gourmet health and wellness company sells products made from ginger and turmeric grown at his Lebanon Plantation in West Chatham County.

Morrison, who will be the third presenter in the series, will speak on Thursday, January 21 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School, 50 Market St, Savannah, GA, 31408. Previous presenters in the series were movie producer Stratton Leopold and WTOC-TV new anchor Dawn Baker.

The presentation is free and open to the public, but reservations are required to attend. To RSVP, please contact Cynthia Wright at [email protected]. The Passport to Excellence Series is sponsored by JCB North America, AT&T, 24E, Healthy Savannah, Carriage Trade PR and Cecilia Russo Marketing. For more information, visit http://www.passport2excellence.com/