Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1112638
With banker Herbert Fleishhacker, he purchased the Del Monte Forest and cre- ated Del Monte Properties, establishing himself as president and his partner as vice president. He set about molding the forest to his vision of creating a luxurious playground for the well-to-do while pre- serving its natural beauty. In this sense, Morse was an early environmentalist. As impossibly misguided as is seems today, at one point the PIC proposed carving up part of Pebble Beach into a 400-lot suburban-style housing develop- ment. Morse scotched that plan, instead using the land to create the Pebble Beach Golf Links. The name Pebble Beach is today syn- onymous with a luxurious yet casual way of living with golf as the center- piece of a sporting lifestyle. Morse's forward-thinking method of develop- ment has evolved into a carefully thought out stewardship of the land that ensures its preservation for generations to come. His friend, crooner, actor and celebrity golf tournament founder Bing Crosby once said, "Without Sam Morse, Pebble Beach would be a West Coast Coney Island." At a ceremony honoring the Boss as Outstanding Citizen of the Monterey Peninsula in 1965, his son Jack described him as "an artist who spent a lifetime paint- ing a 20,000-acre canvas." Few men have the opportunity to paint on such a large scale in their lifetimes; fewer still do so with the single-minded attention to preserva- tion of Samuel Finley Brown Morse. "Boss" is available at River House Books in The Crossroads Carmel and at Pilgrim's Way Community Bookstore in Carmel and online at amazon.com. 126 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 1 9 The world-famous Hotel Del Monte as rebuilt by Morse after a devastating fire in the 1920s. This was the crown jewel of the holding company he ran for the Crocker family, the Pacific Improvement Company. Osborne's portrait of his grandfather is told through fascinating anecdotes and oral family history. Photo: Julian P. Graham courtesy of Loon Hill Studios