Richard L. Morris Sr., SoHo Developer

Richard Lee Morris Sr., a pioneering developer of SoHo properties in Manhattan who spent summers for more than 50 years at the Montauk Shores Condominium, died on Sept. 26 at Stony Brook University Hospital. He was 87. The cause of death was heart disease, his family said.

Mr. Morris was remembered as a strong force in his family. His love of Montauk began on camping trips to Hither Hills State Park and the campground at Ditch Plain before the condominium was organized. His family said his days in Montauk were filled with swimming and sailing, body surfing, biking, hikes, bonfires, and festive lobster dinners on the family’s deck. He and his wife, the former Anne Elizabeth Davis, and their six children kept a horse at Montauk’s Deep Hollow Ranch. 

He also was an enthusiastic reader of The New York Times and Investor’s Business Daily and would send clippings he thought relevant to his children.

He was born in Brooklyn on May 11, 1930, to Leon Morris and the former Miriam Arkin. He attended the Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, where he played football. He received a degree in textile engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he and Ms. Davis met.

After they were married, the couple moved to Rockville Centre, and Mr. Morris went to work in the family textile business, Denemark and Morris, a company for which he had been trained but that he eventually transformed into a ­real estate investment firm.

He is survived by his children, Deborah Lee Morris, Richard Lee Morris Jr., and Alison Elizabeth Morris of Atlanta, Lee Anne Lightfoot of Houston, Scott Morris of Albany, and Eric Morris of East Hampton, 12 grandchildren, and 4 great-grandchildren.

Mr. Morris was cremated. His ashes will be dispersed at his Montauk residence overlooking the ocean.