PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College trustees have unanimously agreed to award former student Mark Morey an honorary Associate of Arts degree.
Morey studied journalism at the college in the 1990s and did not graduate; however, he went on to an award-winning career as a reporter at the Peninsula Daily News and the Yakima Herald-Republic.
Morey died Jan. 29 in Port Angeles of complications from colorectal cancer at age 46.
Trustees took action on the degree during their Tuesday meeting.
Robbie Mantooth, who taught journalism at the college when Morey studied there, urged the board to approve the honorary degree.
“Mark was what we hope will happen with students who come here,” Mantooth said. “This would be a wonderful representation of what Peninsula College is about.”
Morey’s friends and former colleagues organized a campaign to award him the degree shortly before his death. The faculty Senate voted to award the degree and forwarded it to the trustees for final approval.
This is at least the third honorary degree that Peninsula College has awarded to a former student.
In October 2015, the board awarded a degree to Stella Williams, a student in the addiction studies program who had to suspend her studies when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. At the time, Williams was 27 credits shy of finishing her degree.
Welding student John Zeller was awarded an honorary degree in February 2022, four months after his death in October 2021. Zimmer had been just 15 credits away from earning his degree.
A college spokesperson said it would be up to Morey’s family to decide if they wanted to receive his honorary degree at spring graduation or in a private ceremony.
Morey’s mother, Patty Morey, said she wanted to wait until after her son’s memorial service Friday to decide what she wanted to do.
The service will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the dining room of the Port Angeles Senior Center, 328 E. Seventh St., Port Angeles. Former Peninsula Daily News publisher John Brewer will deliver the eulogy.
Contributions to a scholarship at Peninsula College established in Morey’s and his father’s names, the Brian and Mark Morey Scholarship Fund, can be made online at: https://pencol.edu/foundation/ways-give or mailed to the Peninsula College Foundation, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles, WA 98362 with “Morey Scholarship Fund” in the subject line.
Other items from the trustee agenda:
• The board was introduced to the Peninsula College men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Coach Alison Crumb’s women’s team (7-2 conference, 15-4 overall) is tied for first in the north region of the Northwest Athletic Conference with Shoreline. They are on a seven-game winning streak going into tonight’s game at 5 p.m. at Skagit Valley College (7-2, 14-9).
The men’s team, coached by Donald Rollman, has a combined 3.45 GPA and leads the Northwest Athletic Conference’s north division. The men (8-1, 21-2) face Skagit Valley (3-6, 15-9) tonight at 7 p.m.
• When community colleges like Peninsula have been struggling to rebound and rebuild enrollment after emerging from COVID-19, Terye Senderhauf, director of grants and institutional effectiveness, reported that the number of full-time enrolled students in the winter quarter was up 4.3 percent over winter quarter 2022.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
