Pat Morgan '91 — Rhodes College
Interview by Isabelle Campbell, Rhodes College ′15
Hometown: Turrell, AR
Major at Rhodes: Urban Studies Current Residence: Memphis, TN
What first inspired your passion to combat homelessness, as you have?
I had been very political in Arkansas. I moved to Memphis and I immediately started looking for a church home. I knew that I wanted to give. Within six months of attending Calvary Episcopal Church I had volunteered to help with the food pantry, and I went on to volunteer regularly with the church’s street ministry program. The first day I walked into the Great Hall at Calvary I was completely and totally and utterly hooked. I noticed the chandeliers, antique furniture, polished wood floors, rich, red velvet drapes, and ten to twelve of the sickest human beings I had ever seen in my life. My heart just went out to them. I went into homelessness because I was called. In the arrogance of ignorance, I thought there was nothing that homeless people could do for me, but they have changed my life. Homelessness is about losses. You start dealing with their losses, and the first thing you know, you’re dealing with your own losses. My book, The Concrete Killing Fields, is about those experiences.