As longtime Avalon resident Ralph Morrow turns over the reins of the city’s only cable TV company he started in 1984, he can look back on a past that is fairly unparalleled in the Island community.
Before moving to Catalina with his beloved wife Pat, Morrow, who was trained as an electrical engineer, worked in the aerospace industry.
“I worked with McDonnell Douglas in the Apollo Skylab program until 1975,” he said.
Before that he had purchased a small vacation/rental property in Avalon.
As longtime Avalon resident Ralph Morrow turns over the reins of the city’s only cable TV company he started in 1984, he can look back on a past that is fairly unparalleled in the Island community.
Before moving to Catalina with his beloved wife Pat, Morrow, who was trained as an electrical engineer, worked in the aerospace industry.
“I worked with McDonnell Douglas in the Apollo Skylab program until 1975,” he said.
Before that he had purchased a small vacation/rental property in Avalon.
The Morrows spent time on and off the Island and they ultimately decided to purchase a clothing store in Avalon.
Their Catalina Island Department Store was located where the Avalon Grille now operates.
“It’s the best location in town,” Morrow said. “You did not have to be a genius to make it successful at that location. It’s the prime spot in town.”
The Morrows ran the business for 27 years.
Meanwhile, in 1984, the Avalon City Council decided the city needed a cable TV company.
“At that point I had no clue what a cable company was,” Morrow said. “However, I did help send guys to the moon, so I figured it could not be that hard.”
Morrow applied to the city and was awarded the contract to provide cable TV service to the Island.
“By June of 1985, we had 500 subscribers,” he said. “We ran it from then all the way up until Sep. 20 of this year. Meanwhile, 15 years ago, we introduced Internet Broadband service. We had the first and only Internet service for about five years until ATT brought in their DSL service.
While he ran the cable TV company on the Island, Morrow also became involved in public service in his adopted hometown. He was drawn into local politics with a little urging from his good friend and fellow local politician, the late Bud Smith.
Smith might have spent more years on the Avalon City Council, but Morrow appears to have been a close second. In fact, he is currently serving as a councilman.
“I was first elected to the council in 1992,” he said. “I was mayor in 94 and 96 and then I took time off in 98 to train to do the Ironman Marathon.”
Morrow returned to the Avalon City Council in 2004 and served until 2008 when his wife, who is known affectionately in town as “Miss Pat,” became ill.
“I took off a year and then I was re-elected in 2010,” he said.
Morrow civic service has extended beyond the Avalon City Council.
In 1975, he was appointed to the board of the Board of Trustees of the Catalina Island Medical Center. He served about 17 years and spent about 10 of them as the board’s president.
“Back then it was an independent board,” he said. “Now, the City Council acts as the Board of Trustees.”
Ironically, Morrow said, he was fired from the board when he opposed the idea of the City Council taking over the board’s responsibilities.
“That got me mad, so I ran for the City Council,” he said.
While Morrow says he found his “Blue Heaven” so to speak by becoming an Island resident, life, such as it is, has not been without its challenges.
“I’ve just recently celebrated my 20th anniversary of recovering from bladder cancer,” he said. “In 1993, I had bladder and prostate cancer.”
He underwent a major set of surgeries in which his bladder and prostate were removed from his body and then rebuilt inside of him.
“I never received any chemo or radiation,” he said. “I then got a call from my doctor who told me he had seen my photograph on the cover of the Catalina Islander finishing a marathon. He said, ‘You idiot. Don’t your realize it takes about a year and a half for your body to heal from what I did to you?’”
Lately, Morrow has slowed down on his running schedule as he is needed these days as a caregiver to his wife Pat.
The Morrow’s love story is as vibrant as any on “The Island of Romance.” He credits her with any success he has had in local Avalon politics.
Morrow is fond of telling a story of how he met someone on the street while serving on the Avalon City Council.
“This guy was looking at me and finally he said I looked familiar,” he said. “I thought he might have recognized me from the City Council, but then he said ‘Oh yeah, you’re married to Miss Pat.”
Meanwhile Morrow said he thinks it has been his wife’s popularity in town that has helped him get elected to the City Council.
Morrow said he is happy with the vision he has seen in the commitment of Catalina Broadband Solutions to improve cable TV service to the Island.
“They are taking the dream I have had for 30 years and making it happen,” he said.
