Friends of WAM

It is an age of "selfies" so I have a seen several group shots from golf outings and random gatherings. Still I am keenly aware of those pictures that exist from 1980 (the year I married Lynn and the same year that my close friend Dave Brunner married Dianne) and prior to that time. I am also becoming more and more aware od the precious moments in time in which I enjoy the here and now. I have always been a social person (extroverted and open to new friends). 

Above: That's Dave and hi brother surrounded by groomsmen and best man (me) on October 11, 1980. Mark Errington, Jim McNea, Bos Seelie, and Wes Morgan (last one in back row). Ken Brunner (Dave's dad) was coach of St. Clement CYO team. St. Luke beat them in the Rosary Bowl when Dave and I were in 8th grade at St. Clement and St. Luke respectively.

  

Dave Drimer (with wife Donna above) has been a deer friend since college, That's Wes Morgan, my brother Greg Morgan, Dave Drimer and Steve Manzi visiting the Edgewater Drive Morgan backyard overlooking Lake Erie in Lakewood, Ohio. We lost Dave in April 2026 after a heart valve replacement he had a heart attack and spent another 3 weeks in the hospital before he passed. I am devastated as I ponder my wife passing in Feb 2022. We'll remain Hurricanes forever, Dave and Lynn.

That's Rick and Emelio and Wes working a National Association of Admissions Counselors fair in New York City, Dave Drimer was there too. Maybe he took this picture. (Columbus Circle as I recall). Dave gave a fun toast at the wedding of my daughter Lindsey to Chris Dewey in 2014 at Jeckle Island, Georgia. He recalled a time when Lindsey was just a toddler out on the town for a day in NYC (from Hoboken, NJ). 

It was fun gathering four of the six Morgan siblings on the occasion of the marriage of Ben Morgan to Allison Farrar. This photo was taken at the Key Biscayne Beach Club. I think Dan supplied the St. Luke Crusader caps. Rob, Greg, Wes and Dan huddle with Dad (James O'C Morgan b. July 1918 ...94 years). Wedding at Matheson Hammock in Miami on 10-27-2012 "The Best Day Ever".

My dad taught me two things about the game of golf: 1. Play fast and 2. Hit it as hard as you can. I've been trying to unlearn those things ever since. I found the HBE golf league in the 1990's. HBE folded after founder Fred Kummer died in April 2021. A Hearty group of golfers (mostly from HBE) have kept Thursday night gold league alive. Lately, we convene at a shade tree adjacent the Creve Coeur Golf Course parking lot. Don Pickens, Darryl Vandiver, Wes Morgan. Joe Voss, Greg Miles, Tony Augustine, Rand Niederer, George Robin, Front: Jerry Petry, Fred Scott, Dave Cox. That's Pete Conant, Wes Morgan and Fred Scott with the league trophy. (My assigned handicap at the time qualified for our three man team to win that year.)

This family picture (from another wedding) has us all flanked by dad (James O'Connell Morgan b. July 20,1918 d. 2013) on the left and Mom (Mary Francis Lawton Morgan b. February 26, 1922 d. 2011).  

  

Thanks to Lindsey, who arranged a professional photographer this New Jersey photo in Ben's backyard in Ocean, New Jersey the Matriarch is flanked by Deborah Stevens Scvhatzow, David Schatzow, Autumn and Perry Schatzow, with Marlow (knockout) and Samson Schatzow. Max and Mary Schatzow with Lily and Daniel, Ben and Allison Morgan and Wes (in black) with Randy Zendell. James is looking left to Matriarch and Lawton is on the Right with Lindsey. 

 

Perry Drake and his wife Rhonda moved back to St. Louis in 2013 after teaching Marketing at New York University, Perry decided to pursue a PhD in Digital Marketing at the University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL). His wife died in 2021 of Cancer. Perry hatched an ongoing annual commitment to Marketing with the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference attracting over 300 participant at the J C Penny building on campus. MDMC grew and hosted over 2,000 participants prior to COVID 19 made them downsize. I met Perry at the AMA St Louis chapter annual conference in Spring of 2013. We've been friends since. I am an honored member of the UMSL Marketing Council. Drake and marketing students and select faculty members like Marketing professor Michael and others have supported AMA's annual golf outing. 

Mary Ross took this selfie with Matt Lipstrue, Peg Cleary (maybe 2024) at a reunion at Around the Corner in Lakewood. Mary was in my Art Class with Phyllis Koehring (she married coach Fannen). Matt lived on Summit (the center of the universe) and Peg Cleary is part of that gang from St. Clement. Peg was an associate of the late Bob Seelie (Lakewood City Councilman). Bob was among those at wedding of Dave and Dianne Brunner in 1980.

Married Lynn Stevens on October 8, 1980. I flew to Lakewood to be Dave Brunner's Best Man on October 11, 1980. Dave Brunner's mom asked me: Where is your new bride, Wes? My answer brought a smile: She's still in Miami on her honeymoon. 

(RIP Bing b. 3/30/1956 d. 2/3/2022) 

I've lived in Saint Louiis since 1996. I worked for two flagship advertising firms, TBWA Chiat Day and Darcy before account migration (i.e. the merger of Boatmen's Bank with Nation's Bank and eventually Bank of America, and Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell consolidation back to AT&T). I decided to stay put, instead of chasing another advertising agency position. So I became a client with HBE as head of marketing. That decision to stay in Saint Louis solidified my involvement with the American Marketing Association. HBE got me involved with golf at Creve Coeur Golf Course. Along the way my friend Dave Cox convinced me to participate in Rowdy Golf trips to the Ozarks where a band of us played 18-27-36 or more holes a day for a crash n burn experience (around 2001-2008).

Rowdy golfer foursome at Cardinals Baseball Game. Wes, Dave, Tom Shaughnessy, Rowdy Jones. We play together less often, but when we do it's because "the Band is getting back together, Lads".

AMA hosted an advertising panel in 2000. Dave Shogren took this photo and it was picked up by Adweek. John Lewington of Maryville University, Tom Townsend of Rogers-Townsend, Wes Morgan, Cliff Franklin of Fuse, Mark Kempter of Core and Arlo from D'Arcy. 

Steve Williams, Sally Eaton, Jane House, Vickie Napier, Wes Morgan, Steve O'Rourke, Linda Jones. The Marketing department at HBE (circa 1998). 

John and his brother Jeff Kristofeld with Wes Morgan, Melissa and Chris Galloway ready for boat ride on the Lake of the Ozarks (circa 2024)

Bill and Tars Ellis photo with me at their third anniversary party. Bill is podcaster of: What's the Point? and Tara is a global PR business owner in DuBai. Bill worked at Anheuser Busch for 25 yrs before reinventing himself as author and branding expert. He has served as MC for AMA St. Louis annual conference several times. 

   

HBE Golfers League 2026

Week One of 2026 HBE League Season is officially set to begin on May 28, 2026. HBE officially closed and ended it's existence with Jim Phillips wrapping up the business and facilitating the re-population of the big house on Olive Boulevard. Fortunately, one can still visit the impressive collection of Brother Mel Meyer sculpture and enjoy the premier acomodations at the Creve Coeur office building. 

Golfers couldn't help but ramp up the season with several weeks of pre-season meeting. Jerry Ornellas has negotiated our 11 week schedule behind the Watlow folks that got priority tee-times before our group (Tee-offs beginning at 4pm). Jerry manages the schedule and is collecting to make "closest to the pin on #2 and #9" into an incentive. A hearty band of golfers are determined to keep the HBE band on the run. 

Darryl Vandiver continues as "chair Chair" for our post round conference. Darryl has also agreed to step up as "hospitality chair" (which means he's agreeing to stock the beverage cooler.) Wes Morgan is among the first to arrive at CCGC. He is happy to share first tee-time each week with the hospitality chair (Darryl). Will Wes ever run out of attendance prizes?

Pre-season enthusiasts have started appearing at CCGC this spring and and some "sponsor exemptions" are being granted to accept a few outsiders into the exclusive group. Randy Niederer joined us a couple of years ago with Dave Cox as sponsor. Randy will occasionally get his pilot son Ben to join us if it doesn't interfere with his flight schedule. Randy's pal Jim joined us in week one. (Even as Randy soon plans to relocate to Florida in retirement.)

Adman/creative director Marco Tocco has been a reliable sub familiar with HBE as he worked on the advertising when he was a honcho at Adamson back in the day. Tom Shaughnessy is all in with ample material for storytelling and a love of the game.

Greg Miles arrives just in time and offers golf instruction when a suitable time and place can be arranged at a driving range in Kirkwood or South County. George Robin has been to Peeble Beach and Hilton Head but easing his sore back into the weekly round at CCGC. George Robin!

Joe Voss is a solid supporter of the weekly tradition if he can manage his parental car-pooling responsibilities. Just a couple of weeks ago he had to rush home. Marco had to peal off early that week too. (His wife needed his help with a financial matter involving cancelling a credit card.)

Jerry Petry is on the mend from a surgery but he made an appearance at our post-round tree conference. He was presented with a signed copy of Ron Untereiner's book for making the effort. Meanwhile Jerry O. reports on the health of Fred Scott while he is in a hospital bed somewhere with access to facetime on his cell phone. (As we age, tales of healthcare, daily living and retirement are creeping into our scholarly lecture/pointers on our golf technique.) 

Hit Fairways and Greens. Make Putts. (It's a simple game really.)

Group Photo from last year includes Jerry Petry (seated), Don Pickens, George Robin, Dave Cox, Greg Miles, Fred Scott, Jerry Ornellas, Tony Augustine, Darryl Vandiver (seated) and Joe Voss. Wes Morgan with Maestro. 

  

 

Bing

Of Mere Being

Of Mere Being

Wallace Stevens was a businessman who worked most of his career in the insurance industry in Connecticut. He wrote poetry as a way to calm himself, often while commuting to and from work. If you read poetry, no doubt you have favorite poem you revisit from time to time. Such a poem becomes an old friend. That being said, I would like to introduce you to this one.

Of Mere Being                                                            

The palm at the end of the mind,
Beyond the last thought, rises
In the bronze decor,

A gold-feathered bird
Sings in the palm, without human meaning,
Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason
That makes us happy or unhappy.
The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.
The wind moves slowly in the branches.
The bird's fire-fangled feathers dangle down.                              

The palm at the end of the mind with a bird singing a song without feeling reminds us that merely being is not enough. The poem seems to challenge us to see the beauty, hear the bird’s song and give it meaning and reason. Find the joy.

Thank You Wallace Stevens

Photo Caption:

ST LOUIS - Artist Robert Lobe (b. 1945) was inspired by Wallace Stevens poem Of Mere Being when he used a dying walnut tree as a starting point/substrate for his sculpture The Palm at the End of the Parking Lot. Photo (above)  by Wes Morgan captures the sculpture under threatening skies last fall (2012).  

ROBERT LOBE

(AMERICAN, BORN 1945)

The Palm at the End of the Parking Lot, 1995/2023
annealed hammered aluminum, stainless steel
204 x 96 x 84 inches (126 inch circumference)
Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission, with funds from the Mark Twain Laumeier Endowment Fund

Robert Lobe has described his sculptures as “involving an interrupted, sacrificed Nature that is not just borrowed but violated.” His works are created in nature as sculptural echoes of natural form, usually rocks or trees. The signature process Lobe uses is an adaptation of repoussé, an ancient technique in which metal is hammered to create designs or shapes. The fusion of natural beauty and metal handiwork shows the wildly disorganized aspect of nature rather than the tranquil one presented in a park setting.

The sculpture is a re-imagining of his original work from 1995 that included the trunk of a walnut tree. Incorporating the now empty space where the tree once stood, the hollowed artwork amplifies his focus on the violence of ‘nature and culture.’ The aura of the sculpture obliterates the formal distinction between nature and technology by imposing a distressed layer of armor plate implying the tree’s old contours. The punch marks left by the pneumatic hammer that formed the aluminum become a matrix of penny size scars through which Lobe has preserved and mimicked the tree’s original textural surface. Are technological interventions strong enough to reverse the ravages technology has already visited upon the landscape? Lobe’s answer to this question remains enigmatic.

---

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Robert Lobe was born in Detroit in 1945. He earned his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1967. Lobe received National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1979 and 1984 and an award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2001. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United States at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The White House, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Lobe's works are in numerous collections, including the Brooklyn Museum; the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Mihama-cho International Outdoor Sculpture Garden, Japan; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Visit www.robertlobe.com for more information.

BC and AD to BCE and CE

 

The Saint Louis Art Museum exhibit on view now celebrated the Emperor Trajan from the 1st Century into the second Century. The Roman Empire time line from history and antiquity now designates time with CE or Current Era and/or BCE or Before Curent Era.  

Imagine a fresco painted on plaster lasting 20 centuries! This Narcissus and Echo fresco shows the story of Narcissus becoming so in love with his own image. A myth from ancient Greece.  

Matilda as Thelia, Muse of Comedy 120-138 CE Marble  from the Vatican Museum - Vatican City (Trajan's niece)

 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Copyright Credit: Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” from The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923, © 1969 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc., renewed 1951, by Robert Frost. Reprinted with the permission of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Source: Collected Poems, Prose, & Plays (Library of America, 1995)

AI

 

 

A I A I Ohhh!

Atificial Intelligence - more digital disruption and away we go

More than you’d imagine

More than you’d ever know

No emoji to convey

No projection can tell

Regardless of algorithm or code

Large language model – the mother lode

Peruse, scan, click; Tell us more.

Forever in space and time

Data-driven action items on line

Intelligence, not real, completely fake

But well-crafted corrections are easy to make

Chat, Share, Share some more.

 Your input is held in the highest regard

Technology to the rescue – Solutions are here.

Your identity. Our program.  Never fear.

P.S. Full disclosure. I wrote this ditty (poem) with my typical sense of sarcastic response to the positive affirmation I heard at the MDMC 26 conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Saint Louis.