It's hard to sum up a man like Lt. Col. William Swinney "Skip" Morgan.
He was a flight instructor afraid of heights. An avid hunter with terrible aim. A history buff from a pioneer Central Florida family who used to help his father deliver newspapers. A "golden palmed" pilot whose first time in a plane was the first day he flew one.
And yet, his family said, Morgan was so much more than they can put into words. He died Thursday at the age of 58 after a five-year battle with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
"It's hard to pick one or two aspects or attributes with him," said his brother Barry Morgan, 54, of Orlando. "Skip was one of those people where you'd pick a subject and get ready for him to educate you. And it could be anything from astrology, astronomy. . . to flying a B-52."
If you asked Morgan the time, his family joked, he'd tell you all about the inner workings of his watch. And used to a strict military schedule, Morgan was an early riser known to wake his family with the same ditty every morning: "Wake up, little children, wake up, wake up."
It was Morgan's humor and penchant for making up and singing songs that helped him catch his wife, Leigh Anne, daughter Alice Simmons said.
The couple met when Morgan was in his junior year at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C. It was a blind date at a Frisch's Big Boy restaurant.
"He was supposed to be going out with my roommate, but he looked at me and I looked at him. . . it was just love at first sight," said Leigh Anne Morgan, 57. "He would tell you that I was made for him -- we are one year, one month, one week and one day apart in age."
Morgan learned to fly while attending The Citadel, where he graduated in 1970 after being named to the elite Summerall Guard drill team. Leigh Anne Morgan said instructors selected her husband for the flight program because he played the piano and "they say most people who can play an instrument can fly."
Morgan later served as a flight instructor in the Air Force and also worked at the Pentagon with Colin Powell to negotiate arms-control agreements with the former Soviet Union, family members said.
On Friday, family remembered Morgan as a renaissance man who loved to rifle through old court records for pieces of history, had a taste for peanut butter pie and liked to hunt.
"There was a time he shot a tree instead of the deer," Barry Morgan remembered. "We were going to mount the tree for him, but he didn't think that was funny."
Simmons, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., said her father was a strict but protective man who knew how to make students feel comfortable.
"I remember when I first got my drivers license, he was pretty much the only person who would get into the car with me," said Simmons, 33. "He said, 'Now, Alice, this car isn't going to do anything that you don't make it do'. . . [and that] just made me feel very safe and secure."
Whenever he took his leave of a place, family also said, Morgan had a particular saying: "I'm a dot. I'm a dot. D-O-T."
Uncle Richard Morgan recalled that quirk fondly.
"I said, 'Skip, you always tell me that, and he said 'Well, Uncle Richard, when you take off in an airplane, and all your friends are watching you, eventually all they can see is a dot. . . so I'm a dot.' And he'd leave," Richard Morgan said.
"He was a man of many interests. . . he didn't live very long, but he tried to squeeze in as much as he could," said his son William Morgan V of Apopka. "He's a dot now, for sure."
Morgan also is survived by brothers Dan and Wayne Morgan.
Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, Orlando, is handling arrangements.
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5507.