This is the 92nd article in Bears Doing Big Things, a weekly column celebrating the stories of notable M-A alumni.
“I was always a pretty good writer, but I was shy and didn’t talk much, so I decided to kind of scare the voice out of me with journalism,” David Morrill ’91 said. “I forced myself to talk to and interview people, and it brought out a lot of my personality.”
Morrill has been a writer since day one. “In eighth grade at La Entrada there was a writing contest and whoever won became valedictorian to speak at graduation. I won, and it was the first time I talked to a big audience like that, but it also inspired me to write more,” he said.
At M-A, Morrill enjoyed biology with Stan Ogren, all of his English classes, and competing in track and field, where he was named most valuable player for two years. “I found a lot of my voice through track and met many close friends there,” he said. Morrill also wrote for M-A’s newspaper, called Bear Tracks at the time.
After graduating from M-A, Morrill attended the University of Colorado Boulder and majored in journalism. He joined the local newspaper, the Colorado Daily, as a sports editor and department manager, covering major sports like football and basketball. “With journalism, you obviously need to know how to write, but you really have to learn how to interview people and interact with everyone you meet,” he said.
Before his senior year of college, Morrill was awarded the Washington Politics and Journalism Fellowship and worked at the Chicago Tribune in the Washington Bureau, covering the 1996 presidential race. “I learned early on that if you’re a student, you can ask anybody anything, but once you’re not and just unemployed, it’s harder to get people to talk to you,” Morrill said.
After college, Morrill furthered his journalism career by working at various newspapers. He was a reporter for the San Diego Union-Tribune and The Desert Sun and spent nine years with the Bay Area News Group, which includes the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, and the San Jose Mercury.
Morrill also founded his own company, ROI Catalysts, a consultancy focused on strategic communication and media marketing. Using his experience in journalism, Morill creates content, shares expert insights, and helps clients build their brands.
Currently, Morrill is working with The Golf Magician as his director of marketing and content, where he handles promotions, creates content, and builds relationships with sponsors and event organizers. “He’s one of my childhood idols, and I ran into him at a lecture and asked if I could work with him,” he said. “Usually I just work with smaller companies and do a lot of consulting for people to become more successful.”
“My most memorable article was called the cancer revolution, where I followed four people with stage four cancer and talked about how a new drug helped them,” Morrill said. “Somebody had read my article in Australia and gave it to his sister who had stage four cancer. She ended up surviving, so my article indirectly saved her life, which was a really incredible feeling.”
As for the challenges of being a journalist and working in the media, “Fighting the evolution of journalism and how people get their media is very difficult,” he said. “There’s a lot of distrust in journalism which is unfair in a lot of ways.”
Morrill’s advice for current M-A students: “Build as many skill sets as you possibly can and connect with people you don’t normally hang out with. Reach out to companies, talk to them, interview them, just to get your name out there.”
To those interested in journalism, marketing, and consulting: “Find a niche or a certain thing to be an expert in. There was a period of many layoffs at a newspaper I was working at, so I became an expert in biotech. I found an expertise that I knew I was better at than everyone else.”
