Commemorative Speech

Kailey Morter

Public Speaking

Gary Gillespie

11/7/11

Commemorative Speech

Roger Morter

Who wears a greasy ball cap, a carhart shirt, a pair of holy wrangler jeans, and some worn our boots every day??? This would be my father, Roger Morter.

            Today I would like to stop and praise my father for everything he’s done in my life and still continues to be doing.

            Roger Morter was born in 1965 near a small town in eastern Oregon named Ione where he lived for the rest of his childhood. He was raised on a wheat farm, in a family of six kids where they all worked together to keep the farm going. Growing up he was his dad’s right hand man; he knew everything about farming at an early age.  He graduated from high school in 1983 in a class of five and after high school went to a community college in Pendleton, Oregon for two years to be a diesel mechanic. In 1985 he married his high school sweetheart, Carla Miles and started to do what he loved, farming. Since then he has been a loving husband for 26 years, has raised six children, continues to farm in eastern Oregon, started a farm in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, served and still serves on the church board, but most importantly, he has been an inspiration in life.

            My father has always been a hardworking man. Growing up I only saw him 7 months out of the year because he would be gone at our other farm in Idaho working. But even though he was gone a lot in my life, I will never forget my time with him. Most of my time with him was either spent in a big dirty tractor where all you could smell was the dirt from the farm and oil from the red rags he always used to hook up the hydraulics with or in a big red semi-truck where the AC never worked and the smell of dusty wheat consumed you senses until you could barely breathe anymore or even just in a farm pickup, driving down the road to check on the fields to see if we had disease or bugs in the wheat. During these times he would tell me about life, about God or about his good looks. He always told me that I would have a really hard time catching a man as good looking as him because the best looking man God ever made was sitting right next to me. He would always joke around with us kids, saying that, “You must have messed around in the gene pool because sure didn’t get my good looks.” My father has taught me much in life whether it was how to drive a car, a tractor, a motorcycle, a combine, a semi-truck or even how to change a tire or he oil in my car or how to serve the Lord and that we should to never give up in life, but through everything he’s taught the number thing that will always stick with me is how to work hard.

            He didn’t teach me how to work hard by telling me but rather by example. My father is the hardest working man I know. He wakes up before the sun rises and goes to bed after it’s down. He has spent the majority of his life out in the field doing whatever he can to make his crops grow so that he can provide and give opportunities for his family that he never had.  If that meant spending 15 hours in a tractor every day for a week, he would. If that meant spending all day branding stubborn cattle, he would. If that meant waking up at 1 o’clock to start the day, he would. And if it meant spending hours building another grain trailer to save money, he would. Through all his hard work he has provided us with a big roof over our heads, more than enough food on the table to eat, cars to drive, a college education, and more importantly good work values.

            My father, Roger Morter will be someone I will always look up to. When I think of a hard worker, I’ll think of my father. When I think of a good man, I’ll think of my father. When I think of good looks, I’ll think of my father. When I think of a man wearing a greasy ball cap, a carhart shirt, a pair of holy wrangler jeans, and a pair of worn out boots… I’ll think of my father.