Sir Howard Morrison – How Great Thou Art

Sir Howard Morrison entertained New Zealanders for five decades.

The Howard Morrison Quartet on the radio is a backdrop to childhood memories and I met him once.

He was a guest at an IHC conference dinner.

He charmed us with a speech, he charmed us more with his singing and then he charmed us most by working the room, taking the time to speak to everyone.

I was sad to learn he died this morning, aged 74.

TVNZ has a tribute here.

Youtube has several clips of him in concert.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Good people, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to Sir Howard Morrison – How Great Thou Art

  1. Deborah's avatar Deborah says:
    24/09/2009 at 2:47 pm

    I feel very sad that he has gone. I’ve been watching some of the Youtube clips, and loving his velvety voice.

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  2. Christopher Wingate's avatar Christopher Wingate says:
    24/09/2009 at 4:03 pm

    I recall sitting around smoking pot with a group of Rotorua lads in Melbourne back in the early eighties when suddenly the idea to call Howard Morrison popped into our heads. One of the guys was from the UK so he made the call pretending to be from the BBC and invited Howard to the Royal Gala Performance, airfares expenses all paid for. Howard was ecstatic and gladly accepted the invitation. Once the phone was down we all laughed on the floor imagining Howard calling everyone with the news and I recall someone saying it got on the local news. A week later we all gathered again and called Howard back with the sad news it was not going to happen. I really can’t use the words to say what we said but I recall we were all on the floor laughing for a least half an hour unable to breathe. It was all in fun and humor. Howard was a part of our community and in growing up in Rotorua I would regularly see him dressed up to the nines looking around to see who recognised him. He was to him and to us our local star, RIP Howard; sorry about the Royal Gala joke, but being a Vegas lad you know we meant no harm. And thanks for entertaining us as it made us feel a belonging to the beautiful Rotorua.

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  3. Papa Jakey's avatar Papa Jakey says:
    25/09/2009 at 1:03 pm

    A New Zealand Maori Entertainer, who was an inspiration to all entertainers who strove to make their place in the a venue of music and entertainment, left the building quietly in his sleep, but your voice and professionalism will inspire Entertainers , Musicians in Maoridom, and Musicians all over New Zealand. HOW GREAT THOU WAS *** RIP***
    *****SIR HOWARD MORRISON*****

    GIVE OUR BEST TO** GERRY ** BILLY ** TUI AND RICKY**

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  4. pdm's avatar pdm says:
    25/09/2009 at 8:59 pm

    I have been away for a couple of days so have just caught up with this. Apart from growing up to the Quartet I have this abiding memory of Sir Howard.

    When he did his Horse Trek as an old Te Aute boy he called at the college. While there he asked about the barber who cut the boys hair while he was a student in the early 1950’s. When told that that the barber `bullashong Bob’ was what the boys called him, was sitll alive and living in Waipawa he insisted on seeing him at his Waipawa stop over.

    The Barber was my father in law and my wife took him to the venue for Howards stopover. Howard spent at least half an hour reminiscing with him with his arm draped over my father in laws shoulder most of that time.
    Unfortunately my father in law had had a serious stroke a few years before and probably did not get the best from the occasion.

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