Bruce C. Morgan, guidance director, track coach

Bruce C. Morgan, 76, of Coatesville, who retired in 1993 as the guidance director at Haddonfield Memorial High School, died of progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder, on Monday, March 28, at the Neighborhood Hospice in West Chester.

Joseph G. Serico knew Mr. Morgan when Serico was assistant principal at Haddonfield from 1988 to 1990 and its principal from 1990 to 2002.

"He was very focused on helping us keep central that children need to come first in all decision-making," Serico said.

"He was a wonderful educator, who cared very deeply about kids," Serico said. "He was a really strong advocate for children who had challenges or deficiencies in school."

Born in Montclair, Mr. Morgan graduated from the former Clifford Scott High School in East Orange and earned a bachelor's in health and physical education at Montclair State University and a master's in guidance at what is now Rowan University.

After working briefly as a drivers' education teacher at what is now Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in Union County, he became a guidance counselor at Whippany Park High School, in Hanover Township, Morris County.

He was an assistant track coach at both schools, his wife, Judy, said.

Mr. Morgan became the guidance director at Haddonfield High in 1977 and, after he retired in 1993, he was an assistant track and field coach there into the late 1990s.

"He ran track through high school and college, a big love of his," his wife said.

"He was a sprinter," so in his workouts three times a week, unlike joggers, "mileage wasn't important to him."

Mr. Morgan had decided on a guidance career, his wife said, "because of his love of helping people."

Mr. Morgan was diagnosed with his palsy in 1996.

"Most people die in five to seven years," his wife said, "so he hung in for 20 years, which was amazing."

"And a credit to who he was as a person and his will to live."

One tactic, she said, was that "he tried to get as much exercise as he could."

A website for the National Institutes of Health states that his form of palsy was diagnosed as distinct from Parkinson's disease in 1964.

Besides his wife, Mr. Morgan is survived by daughter Christine Morgan. Their daughter Kathleen Morgan died in 1983.

Services were private.

Donations may be sent to CurePSP, Suite 201, 30 E. Padonia Rd., Timonium, Md. 21093, or www.psp.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at kainmurphy.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com 610-313-8134 @WNaedele