Morton is Manhattan Beach Rotarian of the Year
Gerry Morton was named Rotarian of the Year. Photo courtesy Manhattan Beach Rotary Club Gerry Morton never set out to be a Rotarian. If you’d asked him at the beginning of his entrepreneurial career what a Rotarian was, in fact, he may have yawned. Morton made his first fortune at the turn of this century, only a few years after graduating from the University of Arizona. In 2001, at the age of 28, he returned to his native Manhattan Beach with more than $4.5 million in stock and commissions after working with a Silicon Valley startup. He subsequently lost most that first fortune when the stock market crashed, but then clawed his way back, first through a series of real estate deals and, later, founding two nutritional drink companies. The experience taught him a lesson: don’t take anything for granted. “Not people, not possessions, not experiences. Nothing,” he said in a presentation given to young entrepreneurs two years ago. It was this ethos, along with his experience as an Eagle Scout, that instilled in Morton the value of serving others. Eight years ago, Patrick Donahue, a fellow member of the Wall-Nuts, a running group that meets on Walnut Ave. every Sunday morning, told…
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