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Richard Byron Morron, 90, passed away peacefully on April 18 in Guilford with his family at his side. He had lived in Connecticut (Wilton, Greenwich, and Madison) since 1966.

Richard (sometimes called “Ricardo” by close friends) was born in 1928 in Denver, Colorado. He attended Columbia University (class of 1951), and after graduation he enlisted in the Navy, where he served during and after the Korean War, and was later a member of the Reserve in the greater Chicago area. He was employed by IBM in several New York facilities, and retired in 1992 after 25 years.

Throughout his entire life, Richard’s greatest passion was music. A gifted pianist, he also loved to sing. While at Columbia he was a member of the Chapel Choir and member-director of the Glee Club, and in Chicago during the mid-60s, he became a member of the Apollo Chorus and other choral groups. After moving to Wilton, Richard became a member of the St. Cecilia Chorus in New York City, then joined the Westchester Choral Society, the Greenwich Choral Society, the Hartford Chorale, and the Connecticut Choral Artists (Concora)—with solo engagements on the side. He also sang with the Robert Shaw Chorale in both the United States and in Europe.

He became interested in the genealogy of his family after meeting distant cousins and visiting historical family sites including the Pettingill-Morron House Museum in Peoria, Illinois.

Richard will be dearly missed by his daughters Kelly Morron (Wilton) and Jocelyn M. Gebhardt and her husband Robert (Broomfield, Colorado); granddaughter Sarah S. Mack, her husband Kevin, and their children (great granddaughters) Hannah and Caitlin (Snohomish, Washington); grandsons J. Matthew Gore (Seattle, Washington), Christopher Gebhardt (San Francisco, California), and Thomas Gebhardt and his wife Heather (Lawrence, Kansas); and cousins Susan M. Crews and Lynn M. Smith (Stow, Ohio). He was predeceased by parents Cecil L. and E. Ruth Maddox Morron, Aunt Mary Alice Maddox, and daughter Trudi M. Spierling.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Swan Funeral Home in Madison and at a later date for the Denver areas. Memorial donations may be made to the Peoria Historical Society, 611 SW Washington St., Peoria, Illinois 61602, or a local musical group of your choice.