Thursday, October 1, 2026
For Patrick Morris, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center has never simply been a workplace. It has been part of his life since he was 14 years old, when he landed his first job at the center.
More than four decades later, he continues serving the community as its director, helping shape the lives of young people in the same building that helped shape his own.
A lifelong Rockville Centre resident and 1988 South Side High School graduate, Morris, 56, has spent most of his life connected to the center. He first served as director from 2000 to 2005 before leaving to pursue opportunities in teaching and coaching. Although he enjoyed that work, he eventually realized the community center was where he belonged.
In July 2010, he returned for good.
Morris said he never envisioned leading the center when he first walked through its doors as a teenager, but community service always seemed to be part of his future. His mother, Elizabeth, organized grassroots community activism and youth programs, exposing him at an early age to the importance of giving back.
“Not really, but I always knew my path would have something, some type of community involvement, some type of giving back to young people,” Morris said. “My mother did grassroots community activism. She did youth programs as well, so I grew up under that umbrella.”
Growing up without a father in the home also influenced his journey. Morris credits former director Frank Robinson, along with Sylvester Bush, Eugene Munlin, Anthony Brunetta, and other community leaders, with becoming the role models he looked up to as a boy.
Today, Morris oversees the center’s summer camp, after-school programs, weekend activities and special events while managing budgets, resolving conflicts and working with families behind the scenes. He said much of his day is spent making difficult decisions that residents rarely see but are necessary to keep programs running smoothly.
Morris believes his greatest responsibility is setting an example for young people, especially those beginning their first jobs at the center, just as he did decades ago. He encourages teenage counselors to remember that younger children are watching them and learning from their example.
“Kids, younger kids, are watching you,” Morris said. “You have to continue to be a role model. You got to continue to do the right thing because kids, younger kids are watching you, emulating, wanting to be like you. It’s just paying it forward.”
In 2011, Morris established the MLK Center’s Wall of Recognition to honor residents whose contributions helped strengthen Rockville Centre and preserve the community’s history for future generations.
For Morris, the greatest reward has never been recognition or longevity but hearing from former participants whose lives were positively influenced by the center.
“That’s the reward of this job,” he said. “It’s not always the money, the salary, but the reward is when kids or young people come back. ‘Pat, you helped me through this. You made a difference in my life.’ Those are the moments that I cherish.”
