Bason, Robert E.

Christopher Darlington Morley was born in Haverford, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1890. Morley's family moved to Baltimore in 1900. He attended Haverford College from 1906 to 1910. He then spent the following three years studying at Oxford University in England as a Rhodes scholar. While there, his first book of poems, The Eighth Sin (1912) was published. After returning to the United States, he worked as an editor and columnist, while also finding success as a novelist. He married Helen Booth Fairchild in 1914, and they would have four children together. His first novel, Parnassus on Wheels, was published in 1917. His most popular novel, Kitty Foyle, was published in 1939 and the next year was made into a movie with Ginger Rogers. Morley was very popular in literary, academic, theatrical, and publishing circles, and also served on the editorial board of Book-Of-The-Month Club for thirty years. After suffering a series of severe strokes, Morley died in March 1957.

Robert E. Bason was born February 10, 1939 in Des Moines, Iowa. He decided early on that he would become a Methodist minister, and spent the 1960s attending a Christian college in Illinois and going to Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. At this time he married Carol Hamman, and they had two daughters. He became disenchanted with the work of a pastor and became a professional fundraiser. After serving as director of African Enterprises, Inc., which raised money for missionaries, Bason moved to Santa Barbara to take a post at Westmont College. In 1972, he became Director of Development at UC Santa Barbara. After two years he decided to establish his own consulting firm, Charitable Funding Services, Inc., which he ran for many years. When he returned to UCSB in the early 1980s as Assistant Chancellor, he began collecting books, especially those of Christopher Morley. He rapidly amassed a large collection of Morley books, letters, and ephemera. Because of his love of books, he served on UCSB's Friends of the Library committee, and eventually donated his Morley collection to the library. In 2001, he purchased Santa Barbara's Capra Press and now serves as its owner and publisher.

Robert E. Bason was born February 10, 1939 in Des Moines, Iowa. He decided early on that he would become a Methodist minister, and spent the 1960s attending a Christian college in Illinois and going to Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. At this time he married Carol Hamman, and they had two daughters. He became disenchanted with the work of a pastor and became a professional fundraiser. After serving as director of African Enterprises, Inc., which raised money for missionaries, Bason moved to Santa Barbara to take a post at Westmont College. In 1972, he became Director of Development at UC Santa Barbara.

After two years he decided to establish his own consulting firm, Charitable Funding Services, Inc., which he ran for many years. When he returned to UCSB in the early 1980s as Assistant Chancellor, he began collecting books, especially those of Christopher Morley. He rapidly amassed a large collection of Morley books, letters, and ephemera. Because of his love of books, he served on UCSB's Friends of the Library committee, and eventually donated his Morley collection to the library. In 2001, he purchased Santa Barbara's Capra Press and now serves as its owner and publisher.