Randy Morgan ’65 selected as inaugural recipient of Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award
April 16, 2025 — Through his extraordinary service to Grinnell College and the medical profession, and his deep commitment to the elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities, Randall “Randy” C. Morgan, Jr. ’65, DS ’92 has upheld the mission and values that define Grinnell College.
Morgan is the first recipient of the new Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. He will receive the award from President Anne F. Harris at Alumni Assembly May 31 during Reunion 2025.
This prestigious honor is designed to recognize a distinguished senior member of the alumni community who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, a commitment to service, and exemplary character in their personal and professional lives.
Randy Morgan ’65
“It is a tremendous privilege to bestow this new award on a truly deserving alum, whose lifetime of service to the College and his profession has excelled by any measure,” Harris says. “Dr. Morgan’s work and service has benefitted fellow Grinnellians, improved the lives of others and catalyzed broader changes in the field of medicine and public health at the national level.”
Morgan says he was overjoyed when Harris notified him that he would receive the award during Reunion.
“There is no measurement of my love for Grinnell College and for the educational and social foundation I was given as a student and reinforced throughout my entire post-graduate career,” he says. “I especially salute my classmates of the class of 1965, who were there when we started this life’s journey and who will be able to accompany me as I receive this award, as well as those who have departed this life but not my memories.”
An orthopedic surgeon who has practiced in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida, since 2005, Morgan majored in chemistry at Grinnell and was involved in numerous activities, such as Choral Society, A.C.S. Chemistry Club, and the International Relations Committee. He played basketball and baseball for the Pioneers and was Norris Hall president.
After Grinnell, he earned an M.D. degree from Howard University. He served as a resident in orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University and completed a pediatric orthopedic fellowship at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. He later received an MBA degree from the University of South Florida and was awarded an honorary degree – Doctor of Science – from Grinnell in 1992.
Morgan practiced general orthopedic surgery and pediatric orthopedics in Evanston, Illinois, as well as in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, for more than 30 years prior to relocating to Sarasota. With the assistance of his father, Randall C. Morgan, Sr. DHL ’71, – who also was a Grinnell College trustee – Randy founded the Orthopedic Centers of Northwest Indiana and served as its president from 1975 to 1999. At one time, this was the largest minority-owned orthopedic practice in the U.S.
Morgan served as the 95th president of the National Medical Association during 1996-97. He was the first board-certified orthopedic surgeon to hold that position. A pioneer in his profession, he was among the first surgeons to perform total joint replacement surgery at Northwestern University.
He is also clinical associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Florida State University College of Medicine and a clinical associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.
For the past 20 years, Morgan has been president and CEO of the W. Montague Cobb/NMA Health Institute. Based in Washington, D.C., the institute functions as a national consortium of scholars that engages in innovative research and knowledge dissemination for the reduction and elimination of racial and ethnic health disparities and racism in medicine.
Morgan also has served Grinnell College in many capacities over the last 40 years. He was on the Alumni Board (a precursor to the Alumni Council) from 1986-1991. He volunteered as an Admission representative and on the Pioneer Career Development Network. He chaired the President’s Committee for a Stronger Minority Presence and was a member of the search committee that nominated presidents Pamela Ferguson and Russell Osgood.
In 1993, he was elected to the Board of Trustees, where he admirably served for the next 12 years before becoming a life trustee in 2005.
Randy Morgan ’65 founded the Soul Sensations in 2007, and the group continues to perform old school rhythm and blues music today.
A tenor-baritone who has been singing publicly since the age of 11, Morgan also has a distinguished singing background. He was a lead vocalist for “Raven,” a popular band in Gary and the Chicago area for almost 30 years that opened for many celebrities.
Morgan founded the Soul Sensations in 2007, a group which specializes in old school rhythm and blues music from the 1960s to today. The band was scheduled to perform at the Renfrow Hall dedication weekend in September, but a hurricane prevented the group from traveling from Florida. Plans are underway to try to bring Soul Sensations back for Family Weekend in the fall.
The Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award is a new recognition. Instead of an annual presentation, the award is bestowed when a distinguished senior alum’s lifetime of service to Grinnell College, their profession, and the community merits special recognition.
“The decision to present this honor in any given year is contingent upon identifying an alum whose contributions are exceptionally remarkable, as clearly is the case for Dr. Morgan,” says Bernadine Douglas, vice president of development and alumni relations. “This award not only honors the recipient but also serves as an inspiration to the broader alum community.”
—by Jeremy Shapiro