Canton native led the first search for Bigfoot

By Diana Rossetti
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Nov 25, 2009 @ 09:40 AM

At 74 years old, Robert W. Morgan still muses, only half joking, about what he wants to do when he grows up.

Until he narrows the possibilities, here is what the 1954 Lincoln High School graduate already has under his belt:

Morgan led the first expeditions in search of what he now calls “forest giant people” and others variously dubbed Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti and the Abominable Snowman.

He still believes the hairy, strong-smelling giants exist, and plans a private expedition to Washington in June.

He was commissioned by developers of a multimillion-dollar condominium project on Maui to search for the world’s most beautiful fountain.

One of life’s proudest moments, aside from the birth of his only child, a daughter, was being adopted by the then-100-year-old Nino Cochise, grandson of the original Cochise, nephew of Geronimo and the last Apache born free.

Morgan was on a movie set when a hanging scene featuring screen actor Harold “Oddjob” Sakata, best known for his role in “Goldfinger,” went awry, leaving the 270-pound thespian actually dangling by his neck.

“Bill Shatner ran up and lifted him up by his legs, and another guy and I climbed up and cut the rope,” Morgan recalled. The rope that nearly took Sakata’s life is on Morgan’s desk today.

“When Sakata was dying of stomach cancer in a Honolulu hospital, his nurse was Nancy Thomas. She was from Canton. It turned out, I had dated her sister, Gwen,” he recalled, adding that there is a “special lady” in his life these days.

AUTHOR, FILMMAKER, SCREENWRITER

The late Frank Sturgis, sometimes remembered as one of the Watergate burglars but also as a decorated World War II U.S. Marine, enlisted Morgan in a Miami-based, CIA-funded paramilitary group training to overthrow Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

The kid with the piercing blue eyes who grew up on Prospect Avenue in Canton’s southwest end is a successful screenwriter and filmmaker, having worked around the world, including a stint in the former Soviet Union.

He recently completed a two-year radio blog and remains a popular radio talk show guest in the Pacific Northwest.

Currently, Morgan is burning the midnight oil at his home, where bears wandering his deck are the only visitors. He is steaming toward a publisher’s deadline for his latest book, “Citizen Spy,” due for release in January.

The nonfiction thriller reveals Morgan’s own story of teaming with the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Adminis-tration to foil a drug-trafficking ring operated by the Mafia.

“It’s a story about a father who found out drugs were being sold on a child’s playground. He took it to the police and they ignored it, so he tracked down the dealer and finally infiltrated the big guys by making them believe they could fund his movies as a way of laundering money,” Morgan said during a phone interview.

“But when his daughter came to live with him while he was involved with the Mafia, he called the DEA, and they got the FBI. He worked undercover with both of them, and it all ended with half a billion dollars coming back into American coffers.”

The book is an autobiography of a man — Morgan — whose restless mind and desire to make a difference led him into the dens of killers.

Retired DEA agent Norman C.P. Jones and retired FBI special agent Frederick Coward, fast friends with Morgan, wrote the introduction for “Citizen Spy.”

An eight-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, Morgan, who long has shaved his head and sported a Van Dyke beard, stays fit by bicycling. It is obvious that weight-training and the lifelong practice of martial arts still are part of his regimen.

Only two cousins remain in Stark County, Morgan said — Neil Spring of Canton and David Roshong of North Canton.

To learn more, visit: www.robertwmorgan-alive.com.

Why “alive” in the address? Because there was another Robert W. Morgan from Ohio who became a well-known radio personality in California. He’s the dead one.
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