Sid Morrison

Sidney Wallace Morrison was born on 13 May 1933 in Yakima, Washington, to Charles and Anne Morrison. He was raised with his two brothers, Charles Jr. and Joe, on the family orchard near Zillah in the Yakima Valley, where the family first lived in the packing shed and grew soft fruit at a time when the area was thought too warm for apples.

He attended public schools in Toppenish and graduated from Toppenish High School, where he met Marcella Britton. He spent a year at Yakima Valley College from 1951 before transferring to Washington State College in Pullman, graduating in 1954 with a degree in horticulture. He was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon and sang in a barbershop quartet. He then served in the US Army from 1954 to 1956.

After the Army he returned to Zillah to farm apples, cherries, pears and other fruit with his father and brother Joe, and helped manage Morrison Fruit Co. until 1980. He was chairman of the Washington State Apple Commission, president of the Washington State Peach Council and a member of the USDA Research Advisory Committee.

At 33 he was elected to the Washington House of Representatives for the 15th District, following his father, and served from 1967 to 1975, then sat in the state Senate from 1975 to 1980. In 1980 he was elected to the US House for Washington's 4th district, covering much of central Washington, and served six terms from 1981 to 1993 on the Agriculture and Energy committees. In 1992 he ran for governor but lost the Republican primary to Attorney General Ken Eikenberry.

In January 1993 Governor Mike Lowry backed his appointment as Secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation, a post he held under Lowry and Gary Locke until April 2001. His tenure saw Interstate 90 completed, the Mount St. Helens Memorial Highway built, three new jumbo ferries constructed in Seattle and passenger rail between Bellingham and Oregon expanded. He was the first chair of Sound Transit.

He then served twenty years on the Energy Northwest executive board, the last fifteen as chairman, retiring at 88. He was a trustee of Central Washington University from 2005, chaired the centrist Mainstream Republicans of Washington and worked with the Yakima Basin Storage Alliance on water supply.

Morrison married his high school and college sweetheart, Marcella Britton, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1955 while stationed there with the Army. They had four children: a son, Wally, born a year later, followed by three daughters in three years, Mary Anne, Linda and Doris. The family made its home in Zillah. His family described him as a private man who spent most of his adult life in the public eye.

Sid Morrison died peacefully, surrounded by family, on Tuesday 10 November 2026, aged 93. His death was reported by the Yakima Herald-Republic and his obituary was handled by Valley Hills Funeral Home and Crematory. At his wish there was no public memorial service, and the family asked for contributions to the Sid Morrison Agricultural Education Fund through State Fair Park in Yakima.

Morrison worked with eight Washington governors over more than 60 years of public service. He was known for shaping legislation behind the scenes and building coalitions across party lines on agriculture, energy, water, forestry and transportation. In 2019 he worked with the family of Army Spc. Evan Mettie to rename the airstrip at the Yakima Training Center in his memory. His family wrote that his legacy is etched into the landscape of Washington, in the highways that connect its farms to its ports.