Dodge Morgan

Dodge David Morgan (January 15, 1932 – September 14, 2010) was an American sailor, businessman, publisher and "self-proclaimed contrarian." He described himself as "a lousy student" who devoted most of his time to "sports and other such activities."

After being discharged from the Air Force, Morgan attended Boston University, where he received a degree in journalism. to Massachusetts.

Controlonics In 1971, Morgan formed Controlonics Corporation in Westford, Massachusetts. The company manufactured and marketed many early radio frequency devices, early radar and their most successful Whistler radar detector. He started the company with a $5,000 loan and built it "from three people in a garage to 300 people." Interviewed in 2005, Morgan said that, after his children, the accomplishment that made him proudest was "the culture of openness that I felt responsible for at my company. It was even more important than our financial success. There was a culture that accepted and celebrated individual eccentricities." As the American Promise sailed into St. George's Harbour, Morgan's project manager, Grant Robinson, noted that the boat looked spit-and-polished. He radioed, " "She doesn't look any the worse for wear at all. We see you've still got some paint on her." Morgan replied, "What do you mean 'some paint on her'? She's only been used once." At the time, Sports Illustrated reported, "Only [two] men before Morgan -- none of them American -- had sailed around the world alone without stopping. No taking on additional food or water; no assistance accepted from another vessel; no using the motor for propulsion."

Publisher In 1985, Morgan moved to Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He purchased the alternative weekly newspaper the Maine Times in 1985 and also purchased the Casco Bay Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Portland, Maine, in 1990. In 2002, the Casco Bay Weekly stopped publishing. When the paper was finally shut down, Morgan said, "I don't want to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for money buried in a small-market weekly newspaper."

Family and later years Morgan's first marriage was brief and ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Manny, in 1972, and they had two children, Kimberly Promise and Hoyt David.

In September 2010, Morgan died at age 78 from complications from cancer surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Selected works The Voyage of American Promise (Houghton Mifflin 1989) Around Alone (The New Film Company, Inc.: 1987)