Emmett Hall, University Chancellor, making presentation of an Honourary Degree to George Morris, founder of the Morris Rod-Weeding Company, at the 69th spring Convocation held in Physical Education gymnasium.

Bio/Historical Note: George Morris was a pioneer inventor and manufacturer of agricultural equipment. He was born in 1904 at Llewellyn, North West Territories and farmed with his father until 1924. After a course in motor mechanics he opened an implement dealership in Bangor, Saskatchewan in 1929. The same year he invented a unique rod-weeder with a patented trip device, guaranteed to work in stony land. These first eight-foot (2.4 meter) horse drawn weeders were manufactured in his small garage. George Morris sold his first Morris rod weeder to a farmer at Goodeve, Saskatchewan for $148. That sale launched the Morris Rod-Weeder Company, which was to become one of Canada’s largest family-owned farm equipment companies. The company moved from Bangor to Yorkton in 1916. In 1951, George Morris located and bought back one of his early rod weeders and donated it to the Western Development Museum, where it is on display at the Yorkton WDM. Morris died in 1989.