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Morris Kay
Biography
[EPA press release - December 1, 1982]
Anne M. Gorsuch, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, today announced the appointment of Morris Kay as Regional Administrator for EPA's four-state Region 7, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The region encompasses Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska.
"Morris Kay draws on nearly three decades of experience in business and government," she said. "The unusual perspective he brings to EPA will strengthen our ability to forge a better working partnership between EPA and state and local governments in achieving environmental goals."
Kay, 50, is a partner in the Insurance Managers Association and served as Regional Vice President for the National Guardian Life Insurance Co. from 1973 to 1980.
He served for three terms in the Kansas House of Representatives, from 1966 to 1972 and was Majority Floor Leader there from 1960-72. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in 1982 and is a member of the site selection committee for the 1984 Republican Convention. He was elected Republican State Chairman in 1979 and re-elected in 1981. He also was Republican nominee for Governor in 1972, and was a Reagan delegate to the 1980 Republican National Convention.
He served as president of the Lawrence, Kansas Chamber of Commerce in 1970, and received the Distinguished Service Award for outstanding community service in 1968 from the Lawrence Jaycees. He was president of the Cosmopolitan International Civic club in 1962, and received its Man of the Year award in 1959. He also has served on the Kansas Advisory Council and Kansas State Geological Survey.
Kay, a native of St. John, Kansas, received a B.S. degree in 1954 from the University of Kansas, and has been in the life insurance business since 1957. He and his wife Judy have four children.