Having grown up in Walton, Indiana on a small hog farm, Kevin Morgan left his hometown to attend college at Ball State University in Muncie, where he received his degree in communications. After college, Morgan lived in South Haven, MI for a time, working as a radio sales rep, before moving back to the Ball State area to manage the Applewood 9 theater in Anderson, IN.
When a management position became available at the Portage 9 theater, Morgan took the opportunity and moved to Portage in order to manage the busiest theater in their chain. Currently, Morgan works as the manager of the Portage 16 IMAX, where he has worked since construction first began in 2006. Responsible for all of the things that go unseen, Morgan always has his hands full with various jobs at the IMAX. Some of his responsibilities include hiring, maintaining, and scheduling of a staff of 80 to 110, as well as handling day-to-day operations of the theater including general maintenance, and Morgan handles the theater placement and time scheduling of features.
“All of this, everything that I do on a daily basis, would not be possible without my teams both above my level (at the corporate level) and in the building,” Morgan said. “I am fortunate enough to work for a company, and particularly an owner, that does care about their employees. I am also fortunate to have a strong management team with the combined experience of over 50 years in theater management. I could not handle all of the tasks in this building without their time and dedication. We as a team don’t get everything right all of the time, but I am proud to say that each management team member does truly care about our patrons, and always try to accommodate them in the best way possible.”
2015 is on track to be one of the busiest blockbuster movie seasons with titles like Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, with many of those having prescreening and IMAX events. Morgan and his staff will have their hands full, ready to provide moviegoers with memorable movie experiences.
In his spare time, Morgan volunteers much of his time with the youth ministries through Real Life Community Church. He has been involved regularly with the youth ministries for the past three years, assisting the youth pastor with regular activities, weekly gatherings, and occasionally filling in to give lessons and lead discussions. Morgan is also a member of Team World Vision for the Chicago Marathon 2015.
“I ran my first marathon in 2013 in Chicago with World Vision,” Morgan said. “Along with the physical accomplishment of completing the marathon, I worked to raise funds to assist World Vision with getting clean water to communities in need throughout the world.”
He also coaches youth basketball for his son and daughter, having been a youth coach through the Wheeler youth basketball programs for the past five years. Through his work at the theater, he is in contact with many volunteer organizations.
“I am pleased to be able to facilitate different organizations through the use of the unique space our building offers,” Morgan said. “We often host events for groups as diverse as the Boys and Girls Club of South Haven’s annual awards show to Mary Kay parties in our party rooms. We are a place that can handle large groups for showings or meetings and make it easy for businesses to use our facility.”
In what remains of his spare time, Morgan enjoys playing video games with his kids, marathon training, and just spending as much time as he can with his wife and kids.
“I am very blessed to have in my life the people that I do,” Morgan said. “My wife, kids, parents, friends, co-workers and church family are spectacular. I would not be able to accomplish the things I do without them and their support.”