This Veterans Day offered a meaningful homecoming for Morton Brown Co-Founder Dennis Morton. More than 30 years after graduating from Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, Dennis returned as the featured speaker for the school’s Military Appreciation Day assembly, a moment that brought his journey of service and leadership full circle.
Dozens of veterans and over 1,200 students filled the auditorium for the event, creating a powerful setting of gratitude and community. Dennis’ parents, including his father (Class of 1970), were also in attendance, making the occasion especially meaningful.
Standing in the same building where he once sat as a student, Dennis shared how his years at Calvert Hall helped form the foundation of his leadership and faith. He spoke about the many ways service can take shape, not just in the military, but also at work, at home, and in communities everywhere. He encouraged the students to listen for their own call to serve.
“Returning to Calvert Hall was deeply meaningful. As I prepared my remarks, I wanted to honor the place that helped form my faith, my character, and the leader I’ve become.”
DENNIS MORTON
This return to Calvert Hall was a reminder of the people and places that shaped Dennis’ early path, and of the lasting ways service influences the trajectory of a life. We are honored to share his remarks from the event below.
Calvert Hall Remarks
Remarks delivered by Dennis Morton on Veterans Day, November 11, 2025 at Calvert Hall College High School
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to come back to the Hall and share this Veterans Day morning with all of you. I first want to thank my parents who are here this morning (my dad is class of 1970) for sending me to Calvert Hall. The three greatest influences on my life are the way my parents raised me in the Catholic faith, the way Calvert Hall shaped me as a young man, and the way the Army taught me to lead with purpose.
Today I want to share my military story, what it meant to wear the uniform and how my experience at Calvert Hall prepared me to serve in the Army. This story is about listening for/to God’s calling, finding opportunities to serve, and experiencing the life of adventure that follows.
To this day, I can’t imagine telling my Calvert Hall guidance counselor that I would be a history major who played in a Grateful Dead cover band, shot PATRIOT missiles for a living and went on to found a financial advisory firm. But that is exactly the arc of my career.
The last time I was in this building was as a senior in 1995. I remember being in those seats, thinking over a lot of very practical decisions. Where to go to college, what to study, who I was going to BE. Calvert Hall had challenged me to grow in my faith and grow both mentally and physically. But with the benefit of hindsight, what I really took away from my time here was being open to God’s plan for me. Listening to His call and allowing Him to guide me in some surprising ways.
I attended Loyola University, I studied History, and I had an Army ROTC scholarship which meant field exercises in the woods, military science classes, even Airborne school. Fun fact, by the time I was 21 I had jumped out of more airplanes than I had ever landed in.
The first time I remember clearly hearing God’s call to service, I was in Ft. Lewis, WA for a month of training the Summer before my senior year. I had decided I wanted to be an Army lawyer, I had taken the LSAT, it was a profession that would translate to the civilian world. It was practical and made sense to me. Then in the bleachers at Ft. Lewis I watched presentations from all of the branches we could choose from: Infantry, Armor, Artillery. And on the spot, I decided I was going to be a combat arms officer. There would always be time for law school, but I believe God was whispering that he had something different in mind. I believe that thought changed the trajectory of my life. I was willing to trust Him and embrace all of the adventures of the military, entrepreneurship, and life.
I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1999 and assigned to the 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade at Ft. Bliss, TX. I was in a PATRIOT missile unit with a mission to defend areas of the Middle East from incoming missiles and we were scheduled to deploy to Saudi Arabia within 6 months. On my first day as an Army officer, I didn’t shoot a missile, lead a mission, or even run a few miles in combat boots. That first day, before dawn, we had a health and welfare inspection of the barracks where many of our soldiers lived. It was a way of checking in on the men and women who were responsible for our mission. Are they taking care of themselves, are they making good choices? I learned that day that as a soldier and a leader, we needed to be able to ask the people around us, “how are you doing, really?” It was my first exposure to the human side of Army leadership.
At the time, the world seemed like a peaceful place. But in the Army, peace means preparation. We spent six months in Saudi Arabia, with no missiles in the sky preparing for a mission that could come at a moment’s notice. Returning to Texas I was promoted to be the Executive Officer of a PATRIOT missile battery, I had recently met my wife, Gina, and we started making plans for after the Army, a few years away.
In September 2001, we had a regularly scheduled Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercise. In the middle of the night on a Sunday I received a phone call and the voice on the other end, said “Exercise, Exercise, Exercise, report to headquarters immediately, with your A B and C bags (meaning everything I would take with me to war). This exercise meant that for the next week, we would be rehearsing to move hundreds of soldiers, dozens of vehicles and our warfighting capability right up to the point where we would get on planes. The date of that phone call? September 10th, 2001. On the second day of the exercise, while we were doing our morning physical training, the attacks of September 11th occurred, and the exercise became very real.
For the next 15 months, I was on alert, ready to go to war. I had to trust in God’s plan more than ever before. Trust that I could lead and prepare my soldiers, that Gina and I could build our relationship despite living hours away from each other, that I could withstand the constant fear and uncertainty. I know I heard God’s guidance at that time telling me to keep going, that he would guide me. I also know he put me in the company of other soldiers, leaders, and mentors who helped me to grow. I was witness to their service as I was discerning my own.
We did deploy in 2003 to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where we had a successful mission defending the skies over Southern Iraq. After that last deployment, I left the Army as a Captain, began a new life together with my wife. And what an adventure it has been. We are raising four awesome kids, leading a thriving business that we started from scratch, and finding meaningful ways to support our adopted community of Allentown, PA. Through it all, we are still listening for the next adventure where God’s call will lead us.
To all of our veterans I want to say, “Thank you” and “I see you.” I appreciate what you did in the prime of your life to serve our country and I thank you for carrying that spirit into our communities after your service. To all those currently serving you are in our prayers every day. We owe you a debt of gratitude for following your call.
And to the future leaders who fill this room: know that Calvert Hall has prepared you well to listen for your purpose, and to find God’s unique call for your service to the world.