Johnny Morris | |
|---|---|
 Morris in 2013 | |
| Born | 1948 (age 75–76) |
| Education | Drury University |
| Occupation(s) | Founder, majority owner, and CEO, Bass Pro Shops |
| Spouse | Jeanie |
| Children | 4 |
John L. Morris (born 1948) is an American billionaire businessman, and the founder, majority owner, and CEO of Bass Pro Shops, a hunting and fishing retail chain in the US and Canada. [1] As of February 2023, his net worth was estimated at US$8.3 billion. [2]
John Morris was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1948. [3] Morris was educated at Drury University. [2]
Morris founded Bass Pro Shops in 1972 when he began selling fishing equipment in the back of one of his father's Brown Derby liquor stores in Springfield. [4] [5] According to Forbes , Morris has a net worth of $8.3 billion. [2] Morris is also the founder of the White River Marine Group. [2]
Morris opened the Wonders of Wildlife Museum & Aquarium in Springfield, in 2017. [2] The museum helps bring visitors to Bass Pro's store there, with which it shares a location. [6] [7] In September 2017, Bass Pro acquired Cabela’s, another retailer of outdoor merchandise, for $4 billion. [8]
Morris and his family were presented with the Audubon Medal in February 2019, in recognition of their conservation efforts. [9] The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America awarded Morris its highest honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, in 2023 for his continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf and conservation efforts. [10]
Morris also founded the Top of the Rock golf course in Branson, Missouri, which houses one of the largest collections of Native American arrowheads and art in the region. [11] Top of the Rock experienced a 70-foot-wide sinkhole on May 22, 2016. [12]
Morris contributed $200,000 to Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign. [13]
He is married, with four children, and lives in Springfield, Missouri. [2]
Sidney is a city in and the county seat of Cheyenne County, Nebraska, United States. The city is nine miles (14 km) north of the Colorado state line. The population was 6,410 at the 2020 census.
Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman, media proprietor and investor. He is the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company. He is the wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of about US$199.1 billion as of March 2, 2024. He was also the wealthiest from 2017 to 2021, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes.
Branson is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. Most of the city is situated in Taney County, with a small portion in the west extending into Stone County. Branson is in the Ozark Mountains. The community was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s. The population was 12,638 at the 2020 census.
Karl Hans Albrecht was a German entrepreneur who founded the discount supermarket chain Aldi with his brother Theo. He was the richest person in Germany for many years. In February 2014, he was ranked the 21st-richest person in the world by Hurun Report.
BPS Direct, LLC, doing business as Bass Pro Shops, is an American privately held sporting goods retailer that offers hunting, fishing, camping, and other related outdoor recreation equipment, marine manufacturing and sales, and outdoor resorts. The company is recognized by its retail stores, Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s, that feature natural outdoor designs and decorations. Bass Pro Shops supports conservation efforts, organizations that support America’s Armed Services and Veterans, and outdoor education and recreation for youth. The company partners with conservation groups, including Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The company’s headquarters, original store, and the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium are located in Springfield, Missouri.
Bernard Marcus is an American billionaire businessman. He co-founded The Home Depot. He was the company's first CEO and first chairman until retiring in 2002.
Cabela's Inc. is an American retailer that specializes in hunting, fishing, boating, camping, and other outdoor recreation merchandise. The chain was founded by Richard N. Cabela and Jim Cabela in 1961. Cabela's was acquired by Springfield, Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops in 2017 and has been a subsidiary since then. The brand’s retail locations feature wildlife exhibits and outdoor designs, and are viewed as tourist attractions. Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s support conservation efforts and organizations such as the America’s Armed Services and Veterans.
The Baltusrol Golf Club is a private 36-hole golf club in the eastern United States, located in Springfield, New Jersey, about twenty miles (30 km) west of New York City. It was founded 129 years ago in 1895 by Louis Keller.
The Johnny Morris Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, also known as simply Wonders of Wildlife is a not-for-profit educational conservation-themed attraction in Springfield, Missouri. It is located adjacent to the Bass Pro Shops National headquarters, and is named for Johnny Morris, the Bass Pro Shops' founder. The 350,000 square foot facility consists of two major sections. The Wildlife Museum presents a series of immersive wildlife galleries containing taxidermied animals from around the world displayed in elaborate and detailed dioramas representing a variety of natural habitats, as well as historic artifacts, artwork, films, and special exhibits, including the Boone and Crockett Club's North American Heads and Horns Collection of big game mounts. The 1.5 million gallon Aquarium showcases 35,000 individual fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in a series of themed areas including an ocean shipwreck, Louisiana swamp, Ozark forest, and the Amazon rainforest. In a press release accompanying the facility's grand opening announcement Morris was quoted as saying, “Wonders of Wildlife is an inspirational journey around the world that celebrates the role of hunters and anglers as America’s true conservation heroes.”
The James River is a 130-mile-long (210 km) river in southern Missouri. It flows from northeast Webster County until it is impounded into Table Rock Lake. It is part of the White River watershed. The river forms Lake Springfield and supplies drinking water for the city of Springfield.
The Springfield, Missouri, metropolitan area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of five counties in southwestern Missouri, anchored by the city of Springfield, the state's third largest city. Other primary population centers in the metro area include Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Bolivar, Marshfield and Willard. Currently, the city limits of Springfield reach the Nixa, and Ozark city limits at the Christian County line on US 160, and US 65 respectively, the city limits of Republic at James River Freeway on the southwest side of the city, and the Strafford city limits on Route 744 on the northeast side of the city.
The Brown Derby is a chain of liquor stores located in and around Springfield, Missouri. The first Brown Derby was opened in Springfield in 1937 by John A. Morris. The Brown Derby is famous for being the first retail location for fishing lures and other fishing accessories sold by John L. Morris, the son of the Brown Derby's founder, and the future proprietor of the Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops. John L. Morris began selling fishing and other outdoor products from an 8×8 ft section of his father's store and eventually incorporated Bass Pro Shops in 1972.
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The Shoppes at Gateway, formerly Gateway Mall, is a shopping center located in Springfield, Oregon, United States owned and managed by Balboa Retail Properties. It has 820,000 square feet (76,000 m2) of retail space. The mall opened in 1990 and is located next to Interstate 5, which largely divides the cities of Eugene and Springfield. Located at the mall is one Cinemark theater and 58 retail stores.
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Gander Mountain, later known as Gander Outdoors and Gander RV, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, was a retail network of stores for hunting, fishing, camping, and other outdoor recreation products and services.
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Sara Parker Pauley is the director of the Missouri Department of Conservation and former president of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies. In each of those roles she was the first woman to serve.