What to say about my old friend Wyatt?

Wyatt hated Facebook, so I’m not posting this there. He would be horrified at the teardrop emojis and the praying hands. He recoiled at being the center of so much attention.

Wyatt was the middle son of Dr. Carl and Maggie Morgan. Dr. Morgan was “the Dean of Tulsa’s anesthesiologists” as we used to wisecrack, but it was really no joke. The Morgan boys had wonderful, loving parents. Wyatt once told me that when he was a toddler he wore leg braces for some affliction; Maggie exercised his little legs endlessly. As a teenager, Wyatt had tremendous jumping ability which translated into success in basketball and later in track as a hurdler. He was proud of the fact that his high school standard in the high hurdles stood for many years.

Wyatt majored in business at Oklahoma State, and later earned an MBA from the University of Tulsa. For several years he was a petroleum landman in Denver for Amerada Hess; he covered North Dakota for them long before the Bakken Shale became a thing. He tried selling insurance for a while before he moved on to selling cars.

Wyatt would sell cars at Lexus of Tulsa for the rest of his career. He was an effective salesman who could talk to anyone. He believed deeply in his product. He knew what his customers wanted and he treated them the way they expected to be treated. Early on, he sold a lot of Lexus cars (as he always called them) to WalMart executives in Bentonville, before there was a Lexus dealer in Northwest Arkansas. Wyatt would shuttle their cars to them because his buyers deserved that kind of service. Of course, he had many repeat customers from his contacts in the Tulsa community. That in turn led to many referral customers.

[Hmm. Service. That’s a theme.]

Wyatt once told me that his bosses complained that he did not sell enough used cars. Wyatt sold so many new Lexus cars that the trade-ins would accumulate on the lot and create a problem for the used car manager. A car dealership makes a lot of its money efficiently turning its used car inventory, but Wyatt’s passion was selling the best cars in the world to the best customers in the world.

Wyatt never married. He was a devoted son, and after Dr. Morgan died, Wyatt cared for Maggie. She lived through several years of declining health at the facility once known as Methodist Manor. Wyatt visited her several times a week. Maggie died on New Year’s Day 2023. Wyatt was unable to attend her funeral because of COVID. I’m sure it affected him deeply.

Wyatt would devote the remainder of his life to serving the homeless in the Tulsa community, both through his home church, Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, and Vernon AME Church on Tulsa’s northside. He’d pick up day old bread and pastries from Panera Bread, and uneaten pizzas from CiCi’s.

Wyatt was also a devoted friend to our friends Jeff and Scott, both of whom died way too soon. Even though his knees were killing him, Wyatt would make his way to their graves as often as he could to leave a pebble of remembrance on their and their parents’ graves.

Devotion. Service. Loyalty. Quite an example you set, buddy. Now rest in peace.