Katherine Morgan, 77, of Portland, passed away peacefully at home on December 31, 2021, with her daughter, Addis Mason, and husband, Bemnet Damte at her bedside.
Katherine had a strong sense of justice and love of life. Her fearlessness, nonconformity, warmth, compassion, kindness, humor, intelligence, and joy were infectious, and caused people from all walks of life to gravitate to her.
She was born in Queens, NY, to Sava (Tarkanovska) and Harold Morgan on March 2, 1944. She received a B. A. in psychology from City College of New York and a J. D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Before earning her JD and practicing labor and discrimination law, Katherine earned a Master’s Degree in Urban Education from Brooklyn College, and worked as a fifth and sixth grade teacher in a special community-controlled inner city education project in Ocean Hill-
Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of three special experimental “demonstration districts” established in New York City, where she successfully educated young people whom the school system had given up on and considered unteachable. One of the few Jewish teachers appointed and accepted by the inner city community to teach in the schools, she was able, through innovative and creative teaching methods, to establish good relations with the community and students, to raise student reading levels and test scores, and to motivate the students to enjoy and desire learning.
In both NYC and Washington, DC, Katherine worked as an attorney for the National Labor
Relations Board. She also worked as a professional staff member with Congressman Claude Pepper’s House Select Committee on Aging in Washington DC, helping write the legislation for the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which eliminated most mandatory age requirements in the United States.
She served as a United States Administrative Law Judge in Houston, Texas for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in addition to teaching criminal justice, labor law, legal research, and legal practice and procedure in several Houston colleges and universities as an adjunct professor. Katherine also worked as an attorney in the District Counsel’s Office at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in Houston, and was honored for the quality and success of her work, including winning a major sexual harassment case involving a VA Hospital Department Chief who was engaging in gross sexual abuse of his employees. She also conducted an investigation, which led to the exoneration of a Hospital employee wrongly accused of causing a patient’s death; and was instrumental in establishing a smoke-free Hospital environment. At the Department of Veteran’s Affairs she also educated and trained employees on topics of racial, sexual, religious, and age discrimination prohibitions under federal law.
Katherine moved to Portland, Maine in 1994 to accept an appointment as a United States Administrative Law Judge, and is the first Jewish United States Administrative Law Judge appointed to hear cases in the state of Maine. She served in the Portland, Maine office of the Social Security Administration until her retirement in 2018, and her tenure included appointment as Chief United States Administrative Law Judge. As an ALJ, Katherine was recognized for her production and efficiency and has been acknowledged and held in high esteem nation-wide by the legal Bar. She is also held in high regard by the social security recipients, and medical and vocational expert witnesses who appeared before her, for her integrity and respectful and compassionate treatment of all who came before her in the courtroom.
Katherine also had a thriving arbitration practice in Houston, Texas, and Portland, Maine, which she continued after retirement, and for which she travelled to such locales as Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Boston, and New York.
Active in the Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movements, Katherine participated in sit-ins and demonstrations to integrate construction sites, and other segregated businesses in New York City, and boycotted businesses and universities investing in and supporting South Africa’s apartheid government and policies. She was also a lifelong friend and advocate of Ethiopia.
Katherine had a long and proud history as a humanist/activist contributing to the dignity and welfare of the needy, neglected, and injured in society. In all her endeavors she acquired a reputation for kindness, fairness, and compassion, in keeping with the values of the Torah. She was a true mensch who dedicated her life to tikkun olam (repair the world) and tzedakah (justice)—whether on the scale of large social, economic, and political issues or in her relationship with friends, family, loved ones, and acquaintances.
She is survived by her husband, two daughters, two sisters, and two grandchildren.
A graveside funeral service was held for her at the Mount Sinai Cemetery in Portland, Maine on Tuesday, January 4th.