Richard Morley of Central Vermont Medical Center Named Champlain College's 2015 Distinguished Citizen

Richard Morley

 The 2015 Champlain College's Distinguished Citizen award goes to Richard R. Morley, vice president of support services at Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC). Morley will receive the award from Champlain College President Donald J. Laackman and the Board of Trustees at the College's Convocation on Friday, Aug. 28 at 3 p.m. at Roger H. Perry Hall.

Morley will speak to the members of the incoming Class of 2019 as part of the College's Orientation Weekend ceremonies. This is the 54th year of the award, which honors community leaders in Vermont.

In addition to Morley, the traditional academic welcome at Convocation will include a speech by Provost and Chief Academic Officer Laurie Quinn, who will then introduce Professor Elaine Young of Brookfield, Vt., the 2015 Edward Phelps Lyman Professorship Award recipient. The annual Lyman Award honors a senior faculty member who has demonstrated their dedication to students and Champlain College through a record of service and excellence in teaching and advising. Kirby McThompson ‘16, president of the Student Government Association, will also speak to the Class of 2019.

Morley graduated in 1974 with an associate's degree in Business Management from Champlain College. In 1980, he became a licensed Nursing Home Administrator. He was then president of the Vermont Health Care Association from 1995 to 1997. In 1998 he became a Fellow in the American College of Health Care Administrators. In 2002, Morley became a Certified Nursing Home Administrator with the American College of Health Care Administrators.

He has been part of the CVMC senior management team since 2000. His responsibilities include all the non-clinical departments (environmental services, food service, plant facilities and engineering), all building renovations and development, emergency management and property management including 23 off-site medical practice buildings and the 153-bed nursing home which is on the CVMC campus.

With Morley's leadership, CVMC was named the 2014 Vermont State Champion for energy efficiency by Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership (NEEP). In addition, CVMC won the 2015 Vermont Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence for the hospital wide energy savings initiative. CVMC continues to work toward the EPA Energy Star Award which will designate it the first and only hospital in Vermont to reach Energy Star and one of a handful in New England.

He lives with his wife Patty, and has a son, Nick, daughter-in-law, Sarah, granddaughter, Scarlett, son, Tom and daughter Katharine.


Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.