Toby Morriss During a Christmas visit to town this past December, Andrea Morriss decided she wanted to spend her March 26 birthday in Columbia with her son, Toby, who lived and worked in the capital city. At the time she was envisioning enjoying events and sights of the area along with scrumptious dinners, much laughter and many happy memories. During that bright Christmas season, she had no idea her birthday would be spent saying farewell to her youngest child amid memorials and fundraisers, and thanking mourners who came to pay respects to a beloved friend, teacher and mentor.

Toby Morriss was a USC photography professor who died February 28 from a February 21 hit–and–run motorcycle accident in Cayce. He was 36. He was riding his motorcycle when a driver ran him over and left him for dead at Knox Abbot Blvd. and Ninth Street. Another driver saw Morriss’s still form lying in the street and called an ambulance. He seemed to be recovering and on the mend and was in good spirits, according to his father, Mike Morriss, who lives in Oklahoma with his wife.

“We wanted to come back to Columbia right away and be with him,” the senior Morriss said. “But he told us to wait. He wanted us to come when he was out of the hospital. He was walking well, and they were talking about releasing him.”

But the injuries Morriss suffered during the accident claimed his life February 28 when he died almost instantly at Lexington County Medical Center. A close friend, Jenny Prather was with him.

“He was going for a walk down the hall, which was part of his physical therapy,” Prather said. “He suddenly told me he felt light headed and just fell. I cradled his head, and he just kept calling my name until he couldn’t. Then he was gone.”

Morriss was raised in Ponca City, Okla., where his parents still live. He completed his bachelor’s degree in philosophy at the University of Oklahoma in 1998 and a Master of Fine Arts in photography at Tulane University in 2005. After becoming a refugee of Hurricane Katrina, Morriss relocated to Columbia. He became an adjunct professor of photography at the University of South Carolina and a machinist– mechanic for vintage motorcycles at Machinery and Design Company in Lexington.

Cynthia Colbert was chair of the USC Art Department when Morriss applied for the teaching job. She said she knew he was meant to teach at the school.

“He just walked in off the street looking for a job,” she remembered. “When you met him you felt like you knew him, and I just knew he belonged with us. I knew he was the right fit.”

And so he was.

After his death, friends and students, family members and even the medical staff who had worked with him after the accident came to the memorial service. People came from all over the country, his father said.

“We met people from Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida as well as from all over South Carolina,” Mike Morriss said. “It was an amazing tribute.”

The memorial service was held at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community where Professor Morriss had assigned his students a photo project that entailed getting to know the residents.

“Toby told his students to get to know a resident and become their friend and the residents did the same thing,” the father said. “Then they were to produce a photo collage that would express their lives. It was a great thing for the students and for the residents. I think Toby was counting on the bonding being good for both sides. A lot of the residents, if not all, were at the service.”

While the memorial service was packed, even more came to an art show on April 1 where student potters, sculptors, photographers, and painters from the school and community donated their work to help defray the medical bills the family will face.

His mother Andrea said it didn’t surprise her that so many people showed up to pay their last respects.

“Toby had a way of touching people,” she said, her eyes filling with tears but with a brave smile on her face. “You didn’t have to know him long to know him deeply.”

Andrea Morris entered the art show clutching a stuffed elephant and took it to the shrine the students and friends had set up for their beloved friend and teacher. It included some of his art work and a doll Andrea had made for him when he was a just a tot, she said.

“I carried the doll on the plane trip here after we were told of his death,” the mother said. “I didn’t’ want to trust it to the airlines.”

The elephant was something the parents found in their son’s effects when they went to his apartment to clear it out. His mother said finding the long forgotten toy was a balm to her spirit.

“When Toby was just a little boy we were grocery shopping, and he saw this silly stuffed elephant on the shelf. He couldn’t have been more than two years old. He grabbed it and hugged it and began calling it ‘el–ma–me.’ He was so cute with it and wanted it so much. We were on such a strict budget at the time that it really was a big decision to buy it for him, but he seemed to love it instantly. And now, to find it all these years later in his adult belongings, it feels like he’s silently thanking us and loving us again. I’m so glad we got it for him.”

All through the night at the art show people gathered to reminisce about the man who died too soon. Snatches of conversations along with the slide show of his life and various memorabilia arranged around the room left even the strangers with a feeling of loss at his passing.

“I never met the man,” one woman said with tears in her eyes. “But talking to his parents and his friends, I feel like I actually knew him a little.”

His best friend, Eric Plaag, a student and fellow photographer said that Morriss’s death was frustrating because of its senselessness.

“The people who didn’t know him may not understand the reach he had on so many people’s lives,” Plaag said. “Toby had a gentleness to his soul that allowed people to find themselves in his presence. That was his gift.”

The hardest part for the family and his friends is knowing that someone is accountable for Toby’s death and that person is going about his or her life like nothing ever happened, Mike Morriss said.

“Nothing will bring my son back,” Morriss said, as his voice cracked with emotion. “But if we knew who did it and why they left him there without trying to help him. If that person took the responsibility for their actions, maybe we could begin to find some peace. Maybe that driver could too. It must be a terrible weight on the person.”

According to the police report, the accident happened around 10 pm, and the streets were dry, Morris said

“His bike was a BMW, and they have large bright headlights,” the father said. “It wasn’t raining, and the police said the driving conditions were normal. I don’t know how anyone could have not seen him coming.”

Cayce detective Ed Pereira is one of the investigating officers working on the case. He said that several people stopped that night when they saw Morriss lying in the street, and the officers need them to come forward.

“Anyone who was at the scene could have information that we don’t have,” Pereira said. “We’re asking anyone who stopped or drove by or who saw what happened to please contact us. They need to come forward because they may know something they don’t even realize they know. We only want to talk to them.”

SLED is also involved in the case, Pereira said. “We can’t discuss the case at this time because the investigation is still going on. But again, we really need anyone who saw the accident to come by and talk to us.”

Perhaps it’s in his artist statement regarding his photography work that Morriss speaks loudest and the most profound.

“I am a simple person. I shy away from complexity,” the statement reads.

“My thoughts occur in images and not words. I communicate best through photography. Look for me in the dark.”

But for his family, his friends, his students, and some who never knew him until his passing, Toby Morriss will forever live in the light of hope and inspiration. His mother may have said it best after the art show.

“Even though Toby’s life was shorter than he/we would have wanted, he had chosen well, loved well, and made a significant difference within his sphere of influence. I am humbled by the overwhelming love shown to us as Toby’s family. I am full of grief; yet full of joy.”

To contact Cayce police with information on the accident, call (803) 739-5371.