LEWISTON — Chip Morrison was overseeing 10 states, plus Maine, for a national retirement-planning company from his office in Great Falls Plaza when management told him they were moving the job to Detroit.

He’d moved to Auburn from Washington, D.C., 18 years before to be city manager, and he didn’t want to leave.

At the same time, the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce had an opening. 

During interviews, board member Ray Martel “looked me in the eye, ‘Our real concern is you won’t stay very long. Maybe here a year and then something better (comes along),'” Morrison said. “I tease him about it unmercifully now. I said, ‘You finally got rid of me Ray, after all these years.'”

Morrison capped 20 years of leading the chamber on Wednesday.

He’s officially done, but for the little details. He’ll be back Thursday to set up the out-of-office auto-reply in his email.

Morrison, 70 this month, teases that he has two jobs lined up, maybe three, despite what would seem like a natural time for retirement. One is starting his own company; the other two are under wraps.

“It’s a speech I give all the time: Careers are made as much by happenstance,” Morrison said.

Twenty years ago, after landing the job, he could see staying at the chamber maybe 15 years. The next five just happened.

“I just loved it too much,” he said.

When Morrison started as president in October 1995, only 3 percent of the 623 members had email. The area was still recovering from the severe 1991-92 recession. 

Lisbon Street was a different place.

“None of this was here,” Morrison said, ticking off Kaplan University, Oxford Networks, Northeast Bank and others. “This was lower Lisbon Street. You could get anything you wanted, on the street; it was a matter of haggling over the price. There’s a business center down here now.”

One of his proudest points, he said, was helping to bring the chamber into the old Pontiac Building, with members raising $630,000 in a capital campaign to rehab the first floor.

“This building had been vacant for 25 years before we came here,” Morrison said. “Twenty-five years, the only occupants were dead pigeons, and there were a lot of those.”

Today, there’s a conference center booked for 400-plus events per year, offices and business incubator space.

He gauges the change in the area’s image over the two decades by talking to people visiting from even slightly away.

“They talk about the changes over time and what a vibrant community they see,” Morrison said. “Part of my job is to be positive. We put together this whole, huge brochure on all the things going on here and nobody believes. Some people won’t believe it, they always want to be negative. It’s not what I see. I see tremendous stuff happening.”

Bates Mill No. 5 is going to be a community centerpiece and getting closer to reality every day, he said.

“There’s some big stuff that’s about to blow, and it just makes a whole different place, different feel,” Morrison said. “There’s some big stuff beyond Mill 5. In both communities.”

Asked to name a career low, Morrison said it was discovering the in-house theft of $17,000 about a decade ago.

“We made it very public, so our members could learn,” he said. “Others learned from what we did; it still happens all the time. That’s a low I think we handled well.”

There are too many highs to name, Morrison said. Each day brought a new one.

The Young People of the Lewiston-Auburn Area has grown by leaps and bounds. The chamber’s membership, about 1,400, has occasionally surpassed Portland’s chamber, despite that area’s much larger size.

The annual golf tournament, now named after Morrison, has raised $563,000 for scholarships over 15 years.

An avid golfer, he will play in it for the first time this summer.

“Now I’ve got to win,” he said.

His new plans include staying in the area and staying involved. Morrison’s new business idea will likely take shape over the next four to six months. He wants to start a company that provides interim leadership for nonprofits, helping them transition or search for new executives.

It will be statewide, likely with others and there’s no name yet.

“I have time to figure that out,” he said.

Morrison, known for his smile and boundless energy, described his candle as always burning at both ends. He likes it that way.

“I get out of bed running every day,” he said. “I wake up, I am instantly in motion.”

He drinks two to three cups of coffee a day, but it’s not that.

“I don’t know where (the energy) comes from. It’s my defining characteristic,” Morrison said. “I just go, and I don’t sleep.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com 

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