Morris (Mo) Becker: 7/22/1910-9/24/1996

Family: Married to Shirley, and had 4 siblings Betty, Sue, Phil and Rosie and two children Ellen and Jerome, who died in a commercial plane crash in the Everglades in 1972.

Mo's parents were born in Romania.

Mo and his wife moved to Chapel Hill in 1974 to be in the same community with their daughter Ellen, son-in-law Phil, and their family.

Mo, with a college degree in civil engineering, worked for the city of New York, rising to the position of Deputy Chief of the Gas, Water, and Utility Commission before retiring. He is remembered as having a strong work ethic, taking pride in the precision of his engineering drafting and penmanship, a man of total integrity, and very family oriented. His years in Chapel Hill gave him the opportunity to enjoy close and playful friendships with his grandchildren as they were growing up. In later years, he continued to take special pleasure in tutoring and volunteering at Ephesus School in Chapel Hill. One year he was honored as Volunteer of the Year in Orange County for this work.

While neither he nor Shirley were involved in Jewish religious activities when in Brooklyn, she was an active Hadassah member and inspired her daughter Ellen to be a life member. Joining Beth El after moving here, they not only shared the celebrations of many family events, but also were a visible presence in many other happy occasions in the Jewish and broader community.

While the couple did not "live forever", they did have a full post-retirement life in their adopted North Carolina community and had many friends here who mourned their passing.