In October, Kipp Delta Public Schools of Helena-West Helena presented its first Giving Tree Award to Fort Smith nursing home magnate Michael Morton.
“He’s given significant amounts over the past six or seven years,” said Carissa Godwin, Kipp’s chief development officer. Kipp’s goal is to “graduate students with the strength of character and academic abilities needed to succeed in life,” according to its website.
The Giving Tree Award will be given “to a donor or community member who has gone above and beyond in their generosity and helped us … achieve our mission,” Godwin said.
Morton, who has been in the nursing home industry for more than 40 years and has 27 nursing homes in Arkansas, said education has always been a passion.
“I’m extremely interested in education simply because I had a degree in accounting,” Morton, 64, told Arkansas Business. “So it made me think that everybody ought to get a college education because you never know what might come along.”
He said he’s given $500,000 to Kipp over the years.
Morton has also given money and buildings to colleges in Arkansas.
He said that when he builds a nursing home to replace an older building, the older structure is sometimes donated to a nonprofit or a school.
Morton said Arkansas Tech University’s Ozark Campus is using one of his donated buildings as housing for its occupational therapy assistant program. The building, in Russellville, is called Morton Hall, but Morton said he didn’t request that the building be named after him.
Morton has also been named a member of the J.W. Hull Society at Arkansas Tech. “This society celebrates our alumni and friends who have made an impact with cumulative gifts of $50,000 or more during their lifetime,” said an alumni association 2014 publication.
But not all schools have welcomed Morton’s financial support.
Morton gave $100,000 to the UCA Foundation Inc. on July 8, 2013, the same day he gave campaign contributions intended for former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Michael Maggio through political action committees set up by former state Sen. Gilbert Baker.
At the time, Baker was executive assistant to the president at the University of Central Arkansas. Baker resigned from the position in April 2014, as revelations about the timing of Morton’s campaign contributions came to light. Both Baker and Morton have denied any wrongdoing, although Maggio ultimately pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe in exchange for reducing a jury verdict against one of Morton’s nursing homes.
As a result of the scrutiny, the UCA Foundation decided in March 2014 to return Morton’s $100,000 donation.
“While we appreciate such private support, given recent developments we feel it is in everyone’s best interest to return this gift,” said a March 24, 2014, letter to Morton from the UCA Foundation, which was released to Arkansas Business under the Freedom of Information Act.
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