Jim Morouse’s 20-year marketing career working for some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world — including Procter & Gamble and The Walt Disney Co. — took him across the globe to live in three countries and seven cities.
Yet, it is for his dedicated volunteer contributions and profound commitment to the Santa Barbara community that he will be honored as the Santa Barbara Foundation’s 81st Person of the Year.
The sold-out awards luncheon will be held Wednesday at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort.
While Morouse’s career managing the marketing of brands such as Crest toothpaste, ESPN.com, NFL.com and ABCNews.com led him to London and Tokyo, he jokes that he got his first start in business in his hometown of Detroit, selling “Mother Waddles Soul Food Cookbook,” which contained recipes from a downtown soup kitchen, to unsuspecting neighbors.
While his post-business-school, globe-trotting career was rewarding, Morouse told Noozhawk that it was a solitary existence and he craved community.
“I was usually in one place for one or two years at most, so I never really had a sense of community,” he said.
It wasn’t until he met his wife, Mary, in Seattle and they decided to build their dream home in Montecito that Morouse established roots.
He and his wife raised their three children in the community and quickly immersed themselves in causes they cared about.
“The greatest joy for me is that after 20 years of running around chasing my career, I’ve been able to settle down, and both Mary and I have made so many friends through our service work,” Morouse said.
“If not for the nonprofit sector, our lives would be much less rich.”
Morouse’s professional expertise has benefited many local nonprofit organizations. His extensive volunteering includes service of more than 10 years each on the board of advisers of Westmont College (including as chairman), the Lobero Theatre Foundation (including the successful $7 million “Encore Lobero” Campaign), the Santa Barbara Foundation (including as chairman) and as a founding board member of Leading From Within, where he also developed and facilitated the Katherine Harvey Fellows Leadership program.
When not in the board room, Morouse could be found in the classroom, where for six years he taught business and economics classes at Westmont and entrepreneurial marketing at UC Santa Barbara.
It was at the Santa Barbara Foundation where Morouse gained a deeper appreciation for the business of philanthropy and for the valuable work of many local nonprofit organizations.
His friend, Ron Gallo, the previous president and CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation, encouraged Morouse to stay beyond his nine-year term, serving two additional years as board chairman and spearheading the organization’s strategic plan.
“Guiding an iconic institution through a bold and honest strategic planning process takes integrity, diplomacy and a commitment to bringing people of various points of view together toward a common vision,” said Gallo, who now serves as president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Louisville.
“Jim did exactly that, and precisely because he embodies those qualities and the commitment to keeping people in meaningful dialogue, even when there are difficult conversations to be had.”
Gallo said leadership can seem like an impossible task today.
“With so many of us happy to stay in our bubble of the like-minded, it takes an unshakable belief in our common humanity and basic decency to keep people listening and engaging with each other,” he explained.
“Jim has that unshakable belief, and that is why his leadership is effective and so deserving of recognition. It was an honor and a privilege to be his partner in leading Santa Barbara’s community foundation during an important period of its growth and evolution.”
After so many years as a nomad, Morouse finally feels at home.
“As a guy who has moved around a lot,” he said, “to be in one place for so long and see an organization as deeply as I got to see the Santa Barbara Foundation, and to feel like I could make a significant impact, was magical for me.”
He said he is driven by his strong Christian faith, a Jesuit upbringing focused on being a “person for others,” and the influence of his mother, a television actress who shared her love of arts and culture with her four children.
“Service work reminds me that we are all connected,” Morouse said. “It helps me to be more aware of the world around me and especially of those in different situations than myself.”
As previous board chairman of the Santa Barbara Foundation, Morouse is well aware of the Person of the Year awards, but never expected to be among the illustrious roster.
“I was in disbelief, and questioned if it was a prank call,” he said about learning of the tribute. “It’s precisely because I know the history of this award so well, and know more than half of the recipients and they are all rock stars.
“They are really the giants in our community, and I am so honored and excited to join them.”