James “Jim” Gilmor Morgan, Jr., who succumbed to ALS on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, spent his life looking forward—and, in doing so, left a map for everyone who loved him to follow. True to his word, Jim died the “right way,” passing peacefully while praying on the couch of his Timonium home, surrounded by the family he built, and in the presence of his wife of 64 years, Bernice. He was 86.

 

A commanding storyteller and larger-than-life presence, Jim rose from the rowhouses of Northwest Baltimore to become CEO of the largest insurance agency in Maryland. But titles never captured what mattered most: his family, his faith, and the way he made people feel.

 

“When he sat down to talk with you,” recalled his son Joe, “he made you feel like you were the most important person in the room.”

 

Jim was the son of James Gilmor Morgan Sr., a Baltimore City court clerk, and Frances “Fanny” Kell Morgan, who managed the gift shop at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Growing up with his sisters, Joan and Pat, Jim navigated an unsettled home life, finding stability with his grandparents and in a neighborhood of open doors, where families always welcomed him in for a warm meal.

 

Among those relationships, none endured as long as his friendship with Frank Cimino. Born thirty minutes apart on the same day in 1939, they grew up side by side. “Jim was always upbeat, always positive,” Frank recalled. “He had a great sense of humor and was a wonderful storyteller.” Their group of neighborhood friends, he added, never stopped getting together.

 

At sixteen, Jim met the love of his life, Bernice Kenney, while sledding in Cylburn Park. His persistence was tested early; Bernice recalls trying to rebuff him after her father, upon meeting Jim for the first time, flatly declared, “There’s something wrong with that boy.” Undeterred, Jim eventually won over both, beginning a partnership with Bernice that would anchor the next six decades of his life.

 

School never came easily for Jim, but his mother never let him define himself by his limitations. “You gotta go forward,” she insisted. At the University of Baltimore, when a professor told him he was not “college material,” Jim challenged him: “Wouldn’t it be a feather in your cap if you helped me get through?” The professor accepted. Jim graduated on time in 1961, earning ten varsity letters in basketball, golf, and baseball. Decades later, he would become the only UB alum to be named Alumnus of the Year, a Distinguished Entrepreneur, and an Athletic Hall of Fame member.

 

After graduation, Jim married Bernice on June 17. Soon after, he was drafted and served as a pay clerk in the U.S. Army at Fort Gordon, Georgia, where their daughter Cathy was born. Following his discharge in 1963, Jim returned to Baltimore to begin his insurance career at Aetna, and the family soon welcomed Kim.

 

By 1969, he joined Lincoln National Life. Guided by mentor Irving Abramowitz and supported by his assistant Debbie Giesman and partner George Buckless, he rose to CEO of Lincoln’s Baltimore agency. After retiring from Lincoln, he co-founded Heritage Financial Consultants with his protégé, Brian Gracie, in 1999 and fully retired in 2022.

 

Over time, Jim received many of the industry’s highest honors, including the George S. Robertson Award, the Helen C. Hottenbacher Service Award, and induction into the General Agents and Managers (GAMA) Hall of Fame.

 

Despite his success, the challenges of his early education never disappeared. During an Aetna training course, a supervisor called him “dumb as dirt.” Years later, he declined a corporate screening test, saying simply: “If you want somebody to sell insurance and hire agents, I can do that—but I’m not going to pass your test.”

 

In 1971, Jim finally found a name for the obstacle he had long faced: dyslexia. When his daughter Kim was diagnosed, followed by his sons Joe and Tom, Jim found a new purpose—ensuring other children would not have to struggle as he had.

 

That purpose found its platform in the Jemicy School, where he served as a longtime trustee. He later established programs for students with language-based learning differences at Calvert Hall, the Highlands School, and Bishop Walsh, and raised more than $2.5 million through the Morgan Family Foundation’s Annual Golf Classic to support students with similar challenges. In recognition of his impact, Jim was inducted into the Calvert Hall Hall of Fame, and the Jemicy School’s Development Office was named in his honor.

 

A lifelong sportsman, Jim coached youth teams, played softball and basketball, and skied well into adulthood. He also spent decades refereeing high school and college football. But his true passion was golf, which he played well into his ALS diagnosis. Jim was fortunate to play many of the top courses in the U.S. and around the world, including Augusta National and St. Andrews, and recorded eight holes-in-one.

 

Jim was a man of a thousand stories—famously sneaking into Super Bowl V to stand on the sidelines beside Tom Landry, finding himself in the front row of an All-Star Game with Tom Selleck, walking inside the ropes at the U.S. Open with John Daly. Whether at Deep Creek Lake or in Fort Myers, he was at his best when surrounded by family, friends, and an audience eager to hear what came next.

 

Diagnosed with ALS in 2022, doctors suggested a bucket list; Jim replied: “I’ve already done that twice!”

 

“A diagnosis doesn’t have to dictate your life,” he wrote. “You can move forward.”

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With the extraordinary support of Gilchrist Hospice and Avila Home Care, and with his deep faith, Jim spent his final months at home, focused on conversations, memories, and family. He remained, in the words of a friend, “an ambassador for Christ and a crusader for love.”

 

Jim is survived by his beloved wife, Bernice; his children, Catharine “Cathy” Morgan-Dendrinos and her husband, John, of Towson; Kimberly Kell Morgan of Hailey, ID; Joseph Kenney Morgan and his wife, Tracy, of Towson; and Thomas O’Neill Morgan of Andover, NH; ten grandchildren: Jimmy Dendrinos and his fiancée, Nancy Scott, of San Diego, CA; Allison Fluetsch of Portland, OR; Katy Morgan and her husband, Chris Hurt, of Chantilly, VA; Autumn Fluetsch and her fiancé, Arlo Rudy, of Portland, OR; Tom Dendrinos of New York, NY; Grace Morgan of Baltimore; Josh Morgan of Towson; Linden, Ember, and Azalea Morgan of Andover, NH; and a score of nieces and nephews who cared for him deeply.

 

He was predeceased by his newborn son, Scott James Morgan, and his sisters, Joan Thompson and Mary Patricia Hartley.

 

Jim Morgan lived a life defined by the words he wrote in his memoir, Gotta Go Forward: “Tomorrow is never promised... Part of living is dying. Both coming and going. I want to do it right.”

 

“Sharing a life with Jim has certainly been a journey,” Bernice reflected. “And I would not have traded it for the world.”

 

The family will receive friends on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, from 2:00–4:00 PM and 6:00–8:00 PM at Ruck Funeral Home in Towson. A funeral service will be held on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at 10:00 AM at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, followed by a reception. Interment will be private.

 

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Morgan Family Foundation, The Jemicy School, Calvert Hall’s La Salle Program, or The ALS 100.