Strolling through the Terry College of Business, there’s no shortage of inspiration.
Plaques throughout the Business Learning Community display written messages from some of the college’s distinguished alumni. These words give thanks, reveal wisdom, build confidence.
They tell stories, too — even if they’re not always the whole story.
Tucked inside a sun-filled nook on the ground floor of Ivester Hall is a small gold sign with one such story.
In 19 words, the message captures a decades-long journey beginning with a Rabun County elementary school principal and featuring a cast of characters including an open-hearted guidance counselor and even one of the Terry College’s namesakes.
“In honor of all those who have invested in me,” reads the panel, donated by Morgan Moore, “so that I, in turn, can invest in others.”
In many ways, Moore found a family at Terry.
It was something he sought for much of his life.
Placed in foster care multiple times throughout his childhood, he was living with his biological mother when he surprised his kindergarten principal with an unusual question.
“I walked into the lunchroom,” recalls the principal, Iris Gillespie. “He jumped out of his seat and said, ‘Hi! I’m Morgan. Can I go home with you?’”
He asked again the next day, and the day after that.
“Finally,” she says, “I thought, ‘Something’s going on with this kid.’”
Moore, she learned, had a stormy home life. (“It was instability, chaos, poverty,” he says. “There was a lot of violence.”)
Though Gillespie (EdS ’89) lacked the proper licensure to formally take Moore in, he began staying with her for stretches, her home a reliable safe haven.
As was school.
“I would wake up excited to go to school and build relationships with people that made me feel safe,” Moore says. “Especially as my relationship with Iris grew, teachers went out of their way to give me a sense of purpose.”
Moore became a model student. He rose to the top of his class in math and science. He became an avid reader.
“He’d pick out a book that was way too advanced for him,” says Gillespie, “and dang if he didn’t read it.”
Moore recalls making a conscious decision to put every effort into overcoming the difficult circumstances he found himself in.
“It became clear to me that there existed two very different approaches to life,” he says. “And each time I went into foster care, those two worlds became very distinct.”
In middle school, he led clubs and made the football team. In high school, he ran for — and was elected — class president.
“I realized I had to take responsibility; I had to take control,” he says. “If I wanted to get from where I was to where I wanted to go, I had to take ownership of that.”
Moore got to where he wanted thanks in large part to a chance invite from his high school guidance counselor.
The school had given him its annual Wildcat Pride Award and needed a photo for the plaque. The counselor, Sherrie Stockton, offered her home as a location for the shoot.
The visit sparked a deep relationship with the Stocktons — including then-toddler and future Georgia quarterback Gunner — ultimately leading to Moore officially joining the family. (“Sherrie jokes that she literally took her work home with her,” he says.)
“It was the first family I lived with that was exactly the family I wanted,” he says. “They gave me the space I needed to excel, but they were also tough, because they wanted the best out of me. I think that’s translated into how I approach work and life.”
The Stocktons supported Moore as he graduated high school and enrolled at UGA.
“In a small town, there’s an expectation of who you should be. (At) Georgia, my freshman dorm had more bodies in it than my entire high school class. … That was something I was excited about: how big and diverse it was.”
Moore joined numerous student organizations and was hired as a football assistant. Entering Terry, he majored in marketing, served as a Terry Ambassador and was named a Deer Run Fellow.
He also formed an unexpected friendship.
“One of my roles as an ambassador was working on events, and I had the honor of escorting Mary Virginia Terry a number of times,” he says. “We ended up becoming pretty close.”
Their relationship showed him the power of giving.
“I had some bills that were kind of hanging over my head,” says Moore. “I’d taken out a small loan to pay for them.”
At graduation, he received an anonymous financial gift.
“Mary Virginia wanted to take care of any (debt) I had when I graduated,” he later learned.
Several years on, Moore made his own gift to his alma mater. He dedicated it to those who invested in him — including Mary Virginia.
Hired at Principal Financial Group’s Charlotte, North Carolina, office right out of school, Moore quickly made a name for himself within the Fortune 500 company.
“What struck me was his personality, energy and enthusiasm,” says Reid Matheny, a regional vice president at the firm and one of Moore’s early mentors.
Jenifer Moses, a now-retired Principal VP who was part of the hiring team offering Moore his first job, agrees that he stood out immediately.
“There is a light in Morgan,” she says. “When you’re interviewing 20 people right out of college, it gets a little routine. But there is an energy (from) Morgan where everybody saw the same person, the same level of energy, the same excitement, the curiosity. … He was a unanimous yes, which was rare.”
As a sales representative offering group insurance products to small- and mid-sized businesses, Moore earned a reputation as a leader in his division.
“We have a (sales) contest, and it’s not easy — the top 20 percent in each group qualify — and he qualified very early on,” says Matheny. “I could tell that was just the start.”
He has since won the contest three times. Moreover, Moore is known throughout the company as a relationship-builder — someone who truly cares about improving experiences for his colleagues, customers and brokers.
“Some reps go an inch deep and a mile wide, and that’s the complete opposite of Morgan,” says Matheny. “He loves to develop and deepen relationships, and (people) notice it.”
Moore served on and chaired Principal’s LGBTQ+ employee resource group and, knowing the impact of a strong support system, he mentors younger co-workers and played a large role in expanding the company’s sales development program.
It’s something he’s clearly proud to now be able to do — invest in others.
“I’m a reflection of the journey I’ve had. I’m a collage of all these different experiences,” he says. “And I think it’s uniquely positioned me to empower people.”
He inspires, as well. As someone who grew up shuttling between identities by necessity, his message to those he invests in is simple.
“I try to build their confidence in terms of being authentic. I want them to feel safe, because when you take away the stress of trying to conform to a specific mold, that’s when you can really excel.
“Do what you want,” he adds. “But be who you are.”