Morris’ public service covers 16 years on local school board, 20 years in Senate
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Former Kansas Senate President Steve Morris, who served southwest Kansas for more than three decades as an elected school board member and state legislator, died Saturday. He was 79.
Morris died unexpectedly at home in Hugoton. He had undergone a series of bypass surgeries and underwent treatment for prostate cancer, said a daughter, Stephanie Heger.
“He was definitely someone who only wanted what was best and for people to work together,” Heger said in an interview Sunday. “He wanted to be a policymaker instead of a politician.”
As a father, she said, Morris was kind, humble and adhered to the biblical concept of “do to others as you you would have them do to you.”
“He was one of the people who never said a negative thing about anyone,” Heger said.
She said services were pending.
Morris was born in Garden City and raised in rural Hugoton. He graduated from Hugoton High School in 1964 and from Kansas State University in 1969. He served on active duty as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force from 1969 to 1974 before moving to the Air Force Reserve and returning to Hugoton to farm. His was married to Barbara Morris and they had three daughters — Susan Morris, Sara Tasset and Heger.
He was on the Hugoton Board of Education from 1977 to 1993 and the K-State Alumni Association Board of Directors from 1985 to 1991.
In 1992, Morris was elected to the Kansas Senate by defeating Democrat Leroy Hayden. Morris, a Republican, was a member of the Senate for 20 years.
He served as the chamber’s president from 2005 to 2013 during a period in which the Legislature grappled with controversial casino gambling legislation and court cases on funding of K-12 education. He was involved in shaping major bills on the budget, taxation, transportation and energy issues.
He lost a campaign for reelection in 2012 when defeated by Republican Larry Powell in the August primary. GOP Gov. Sam Brownback and Koch political interests had targeted Morris and one-half dozen other Senate Republicans they viewed as political moderates.
“Americans for Prosperity and Kansas Chamber sent out I think something like 40 negative, large postcards in the last two weeks of the campaign,” Morris said in an August 2024 interview with Kansas Oral History Project. “People had never seen something like that before. They assumed all those things were true, which they weren’t.”
Morris also was interviewed by Kansas Oral History Project in July 2020 regarding his legislative career.
Morris said that after leaving the Legislature he missed “the good people we worked with” and that “overall it was a good experience.”
In 2014, Morris played a role in Republicans for Kansas Values, which supported Democratic state Rep. Paul Davis’ unsuccessful campaign for governor against Brownback.
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said he was saddened by the passing of a longtime friend and dedicated public servant. Moran and Morris served together in the state Senate.
“He was a thoughtful, principled and dedicated statesman who represented Kansans well,” Moran said. “Robba and I send our deepest condolences to his wife Barbara, his family and all those whose lives he touched. We will miss him deeply.”