George F. Morrison

George Francis Morrison (1867–1943), was an American business executive, industrialist, Edison Pioneer, and a Director and Vice President of General Electric Company. He was one of Thomas Edison's closest associates and a pioneer in the production of the incandescent lamp, having held a number of patents including that of filament manufacture. Towards the latter part of his decades-long career, Morrison traveled the world introducing the lamp and promoting its use.

George Francis Morrison was born on February 22, 1867 in Wellsville, New York. His father William Morrison was born in County Clare, Ireland and worked as a teamster. His mother Susan Maguire was also from Ireland. The Morrisons initially settled in Harrison, New Jersey, where George's three older sisters Elizabeth, Mary Ann, and Margaret were born. William moved the family to the Wellsville area before George was born, most likely because of the perceived fortunes promised by the nascent crude oil industry in western New York. After ten years and the marriages of George's sisters Mary Ann and Elizabeth, the family returned to Harrison.

Morrison began his career in the summer of 1882 at Edison Lamp Works in Harrison when he was 15 years old. He was hired to unwrap and smooth tissue paper from incandescent light bulbs that arrived from the Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York so that they could be reused in packaging finished lamps. He was paid one and two-thirds cents per hour, equating to only one dollar per week if he worked sixty hours. He continued to perform other basic tasks at the plant but did them very well, which did not go unnoticed and created opportunities for advancement. A graduate of New Jersey Business College in Newark, Morrison was soon promoted to foreman and became associated with Thomas Edison in his experimental lamp testing department. After a few more promotions, Morrison then took charge of the instrument standardization department and eventually became the general foremen of the plant. He was promoted again to Plant Superintendent and then became the General Manager of all of GE's plants by 1903. In January 1917, Morrison was elected as a Vice President of General Electric Company (GE) and in February 1918 he became one of the original members of the Association of Edison Pioneers

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