David Morriss is a native of Elizabethton, Tennessee. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1979, and spent the first five years of his Navy career as a surface warfare officer. After serving as the Supporting Arms Coordinator for the U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983 at the time of the Marine Barracks bombing, he was accepted to the University of Virginia School of Law under the Navy’s law education program. He graduated in 1987 with a Juris Doctors degree and was assigned to Charleston, South Carolina, prosecuting and defending courts-martial and providing legal advice to Navy commanders. In 1990, he was selected to become the Assistant Special Counsel to the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon. In 1992, Morriss was assigned to the Administrative Law Division in the Office of the Navy Judge Advocate General and in 1994 he was admitted to Harvard Law School to pursue a Masters in Law focusing on international and environmental law. Following graduation in 1995, Morriss was assigned as the Fleet and Force Judge Advocate for the U.S. Fifth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.
In 1997, he returned to the United States to serve in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs. Morriss was selected for and assumed command of Naval Legal Services Office, North Central in Washington, DC in 2000. In late 2001, he became the Legal and Legislative Counsel to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and in 2003 he returned to the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs as the Director of Legislation. Morriss retired from the Navy in 2005 as a Captain after 26 years of commissioned service and immediately joined the Senate Armed Services Committee staff under its Chairman John Warner. In 2007, Morriss was selected to become the Minority General Counsel for Senator John McCain. In 2011, Morriss became the Minority Staff Director. In 2012, Morriss left the Senate for the private sector and joined General Dynamics.
Morriss joined the Boy Scouts in 1968. He attended the 1969 National Boy Scout Jamboree, went to Philmont in 1972, and became an Eagle Scout that year. He served as Senior Patrol Leader for his troop at the National Jamboree in 1973. He is a member of the Order of the Arrow. His son, Graham, is also an Eagle Scout.
Congratulations to David and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.
