Rebecca Quinn Morgan (born December 4, 1938) is a former Republican

California State Senator The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

Early life and education

Born in

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of ...

, Morgan earned her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

in 1960. Morgan was a teacher from 1960 to 1962. Serving as the district office manager for Congressman

Pete McCloskey Paul Norton McCloskey Jr. (born September 29, 1927) is an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983. Born in Loma Linda, California, McCloskey pursued ...

in 1972, she served as an elected member of the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education from 1973 to 1978. After Morgan earned her MBA from the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it ...

in 1978.

Business career

Morgan became an assistant vice president at

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank ...

. She left Bank of America in 1980 when she was elected to the

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...

Board of Supervisors.

Political career

After one term on the Board of Supervisors, Morgan was elected to the

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature, the lower house being the California State Assembly. The State Senate convenes, along with the State Assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

in 1984 to represent the

11th District 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

and re-elected in 1988 and 1992. During her tenure in the Senate, she was Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Child Care and Development and Vice Chair of several other Senate committees. She was also a member of the Education; Budget and Fiscal Review; Transportation, Energy and Public Utilities; and Revenue and Taxation Committees in the Senate. In 1986, when Southern Pacific sought to withdraw from managing the

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as f ...

commuter rail Commuter rail, or suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates within a metropolitan area, connecting commuters to a central city from adjacent suburbs or commuter towns. Generally commuter rail systems are co ...

system and consequently, shutting the system down, Morgan wrote the legislation that created the

Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose, California, San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour se ...

to save the Caltrain by enabling the new board to run the system.

Philanthropy

She resigned from the Senate effective August 17, 1993, to become

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

composed of business, government, and education groups seeking to improve the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Count ...

region's economic growth and

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

the following the

early 1990s recession The early 1990s recession describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the Western world in the early 1990s. The impacts of the recession contributed in part to the 1992 U.S. presidential election victory of Bill Clinton over incum ...

. Later that year, she co-founded the Morgan Family Foundation, which awards grants to youth programs, education, and environmental conservation and was elected to a five-year term on the Stanford University

Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organ ...

. In 1998, Morgan was elected to the

Board of Trustees and re-elected in 2002. From 2008 to 2009, Morgan served on the State of California's Commission on the 21st Century Economy. In 2011, the Morgans donated a $10 million gift supports top priorities of Cornell. In 2019, it was announced that the couple would close the foundation as of December 31, 2019.

Personal life

Morgan resides in

Los Altos Hills, California Los Altos Hills (; ''Los Altos'', Spanish for "The Heights") is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 8,489 at the 2020 census. The town is known for its affluence and expensive residential ...

with her husband, James C. Morgan, whom she met while they were students at Cornell. James Morgan was CEO of Applied Materials from 1977 to 2003 and Chairman of the Applied Materials Board from 1987 to 2009. The Morgans have two adult children, Jeff and Mary.

References

External links

* http://www.morganfamilyfoundation.org/about.htm * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Becky 1938 births Living people People from Hanover, New Hampshire People from Los Altos Hills, California Cornell University alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni American bankers Republican Party California state senators American nonprofit executives American women bankers 20th-century American politicians Women state legislators in California 21st-century American women 20th-century American women politicians