Ivan Morrris and the Micarta Helmet Liner
Ivan Morris, a name few people from Trafford may recognize, was one of the most significant contributors to our local manufacturing history. And while we do not have a photo of Mr. Morris to share, it won’t stop us from recognizing his important impact on both our community and our nation.
Ivan Isadore Morris, an engineer in the Micarta Division of Westinghouse Electric Corp., once lived on Gilmore Avenue with his wife Fannie, and their daughter Jacqueline. Morris was a Westinghouse employee for more than 40 years and was reported to have been given high recognition for many labor-saving devices produced by the company. His most significant contribution (drum roll please) was his part in the origination of the process for making the Micarta helmet liner for the armed forces during World War II. During the war effort, more than 13 million Westinghouse Micarta helmet liners were produced in Trafford.
A woman stands by a machine making liners for combat helmets. Westinghouse Electric Corporation. World War, 1939-1945. Westinghouse Electric Corporation Photographs, 1886-1996, Thomas and Katherine Detre Library and Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center.
Morris was born in Kovono, Lithuania in 1898 and immigrated to the United States in 1913 at 15 years of age. When the United States entered World War I, Morris was twenty years old and working as a moulder for Westinghouse Electric in Turtle Creek. His immigration to the United States is paramount if you consider the fate of the Jewish people who lived in Kovono during the Second World War. Kovno (Kaunas), was in central Lithuania and was the country's largest city. In October 1941, the Germans staged what became known as the "Great Action," where close to 10,000 Jewish inhabitants in this town were deemed "unfit" for forced labor, half of them being children, and Einsatzgruppen units shot most of the Jewish people occupying the town. The death toll in Kovono in one day was 9,200 Jews.
Morris was a member of Beth Shalom Congregation in Pittsburgh. He and his family resided in Trafford until their daughter Jacqueline graduated from Trafford High (Class of 1941). They moved to the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh when Jacqueline began her studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
One of the endearing anecdotes we found on Morris was printed in a Westinghouse publication archived at the Heinz History Center stating that “Izzy Morris was somewhat deflated because he wasn’t allowed to list his seven new puppies as dependents on his income tax return.”
Ivan Morris passed away in May 1958 at West Penn Hospital at the age of 60. He was interred at the Beth Shalom Cemetery in Shaler Township, and his family had the following inscription placed on his headstone, “His Ideals as inspiration.” Ivan Isadore Morris 1898–1958
