Justine "Tina" Ward Macpherson Morris

Tina was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on Friday, Oct. 13, 1944, to Mr. James G. and Julia E. (LeDoux) Macpherson. Tina grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and spent her childhood summers at the idyllic Cottage Grove Association on Higgins Lake in central Michigan with her parents and her two sisters. It was here that she found a love of nature, walking woodland lakeside paths, canoeing on the Au Sable River and boating on the lake itself.

In 1954, Tina attended the Knox School, a private preparatory school on Long Island, N.Y., and graduated as president of her class. She went on to attend Bennet College in Millbrook, N.Y., briefly, before she attended secretarial school in Boston. It was in Boston, in the spring of 1965, that Tina met Thomas D.C. Morris, her future husband. Tom courted Tina in a canoe on the Charles River and they married soon after, on Oct. 16, 1965, in Grosse Pointe, Mich.

Tina and Tom resided outside of Philadelphia until 1972 when they moved to Maine with their two eldest children. In this same year, Tina would help Tom found Morris Yachts, where she managed the bookkeeping in the early years of the business. In 1974, their third and final child was born. While assisting with the business and raising three children, Tina created a loving home, grew flowers in the backyard and was an avid cook.

In the early ’80s, Tina completed an interior design course and started her business, Interior Revelations. She had a beautiful sense of design and her creative spirit showed in her detail to aesthetics. She decorated the iconic Historical Registry property, the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor and the Maine Seacoast Mission in Bar Harbor during her career. She also traveled by lobster boat out of Bass Harbor to decorate a home on Frenchboro, a job she always spoke of with great fondness and a sense of adventure.

Tina’s decade-long tenure at the Southwest Harbor Public Library included serving as a board member and chairman of the board of trustees. Tina was devoted to ensuring access to literature for all. She was an avid reader with floor-to-ceiling bookcases throughout her home. Poetry was a dear friend to her. Tina was also on the board of the Maine Seacoast Mission, an island outreach organization in Bar Harbor.

Tina was a passionate gardener and found her greatest solace turning the earth and planting flowers. She loved the bees, butterflies and birds that benefited from her extensive plantings. Tina’s gardens were featured on the Southwest Harbor Public Library tour several times and admired by many. They were also the breathtaking backdrop for both of her daughters’ wedding receptions held in the yard. She was known for gathering exquisite bouquets of flowers from her gardens and sharing them with loved ones.

As a grandmother to eight grandchildren, “TT” was famous for packing picnics to take to the outer islands when her eldest grandchildren were young. These picnics were enjoyed by friends and family for many years and were a highlight of their Maine summers. Walking the beaches and trails of Baker, or the Cranberries or Great Gott Island with her grandchildren in tow, gave her great joy. She also played many rounds of croquet with her grandchildren in her yard and most often won.

While attending to career, board duties and meeting the needs of a growing family Tina was famous for whipping up beautiful gourmet meals for her family and friends. If Tom called from the boat yard at 3 p.m. and suddenly had customers needing dinner by 6, she never failed to accommodate with perfection. Her hospitality was genuine and never to be forgotten. She made the best blueberry pie ever — known as “spoon pie” for its soft filling.

In Tom’s later years he and Tina had many days of beautiful sailing and cruising along the coast of Maine, as well as memorable travels to the Bahamas to be with dear friends or to Cascais, Portugal, to visit Tom’s family, before he predeceased her at the young age of 68 in 2008. Tina was a caretaker by nature and not only cared for her father, in hospice, in her home but also cared with infinite attention to Tom on his 18-month journey with cancer. Tina’s mother, Julia, would live next door to Tina, very independently, until her death in 2009 when Tina was at her side at the Mount Desert Island Hospital.

Lastly, Tina loved many canine companions over the years, her last being a Boston terrier named Sweetie, who she spoiled beyond words and who offered her great comfort in return.

Tina was a warm and generous human being and loved by all who knew her. She will be deeply missed. May she find Tom in heaven and find peace. She is survived by her son Dewitt Cuyler Morris and his wife, Cynthia Morris, of Aspen, Colo., daughters Helen Tirone and her husband, Bradley Tirone, of Freedom, Maine, and Lia Morris and her husband, Daniel Siff, of Oakland, Maine, as well as eight beautiful grandchildren: Samuel Morris, August Tirone, Sophia Morris, Stella Tirone, Thomas Morris, Owen Siff, Abigail Siff and Charlie Morris. She is also survived by her dear sister and consummate friend Julia Hancock of Naples, Fla., and her children Michelle Hancock and Scott Hancock, sister-in-law Gerd Grace of New York, N.Y., and her four children Ingrid Grace, Charles Grace, Melissa Grace and Gerd Grace and brother-in-law William Morris of Stonington, Conn. She was predeceased by her parents, James and Julia Macpherson, sister Pamela Monroe and her husband, Thomas D.C. Morris.

Services will be held at a later date.

Those who desire may make contributions in Tina’s memory to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, 2361 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10306 or the Southwest Harbor Library, P.O. Box 157, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679.

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things

Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.