Remembering Dr. John Morris

In 1972 and following years, Morris ascended Mt. Ararat in search of Noah’s ark.

Shot at several times, robbed of expensive gear by marauding thieves, attacked by vicious packs of wolfhounds, and then struck by lightning, which paralyzed him for hours—all on the same trip! The account of this harrowing adventure still lingers in my mind 50 years later as I recall the college lecture Dr. John Morris gave in 1973 recounting his journey to eastern Turkey the previous year. John was certainly not on a vacation. His journey had a purpose: find the remains of Noah’s ark on the slopes of Mt. Ararat. If found, it would be the greatest archaeological discovery in history and confirm a major event in the Bible’s history.

Despite several dangerous trips to Turkey, John, of course, never found the ark. His earthly life came to an end 50 years later on January 29, 2023. He was 76.

John chronicled his exploits in his book Adventure on Ararat. He soon began giving lectures on Noah’s ark and the flood. One of John’s first talks on his ark search was given to dozens of spellbound students (me included) at Christian Heritage College, the school his father cofounded. John went on to earn his PhD in geological engineering with the purpose of spending his life studying how Noah’s global flood reshaped the earth’s surface. John sought to build on the monumental 1961 book The Genesis Flood, authored by his father, Dr. Henry Morris, and Dr. John Whitcomb. It was father passing the baton to son, as both sought to demonstrate how geology confirms the Bible’s account of the flood. John would go on to write several books, including The Young Earth.

Dr. John Morris and Ken Ham (2018) at the Creation Museum.

Ken Ham, the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, and John spent seven years traveling across America conducting large Back to Genesis seminars that I was privileged to organize for the Institute for Creation Research (ICR). The three of us also produced the radio feature Back to Genesis, which grew to be featured on a network of more than 1,000 radio outlets. John succeeded his father as president of ICR and served in that role until 2020.

Ken Ham said this about his former seminar partner and dear friend: “I first met John when I visited ICR from Australia in the early 1980s. I then invited him to speak at one of our major apologetics conferences in Australia. When we moved to the USA in 1987 to work full-time at ICR, I developed a close relationship with John. We had great camaraderie as we traveled the nation, impacting hundreds of thousands of lives for the Lord.”

John’s heart was all about proclaiming biblical truths, starting in Genesis—and the gospel most of all. In Adventure on Ararat, John wrote that he traveled to a highly dangerous place so that non-believers “might come to know Jesus Christ as personal Savior and that the faith of Christians might be strengthened.” That passion for apologetics and evangelism never left him.