Horace Morelock is best known for his work in making the mountain country of Texas into the Big Bend National Park, the subject of his book, Big Bend Panorama (ca 1953). A UT graduate (1902), he was also Knoxville General Hospital’s first typhoid fever patient. Due to graduate from UT with honors in four days, he attended a street carnival held by Knoxville businessmen as a fund-raiser for the hospital and contracted typhoid fever. After graduation (and recovery) he taught at Charleston Academy (Polk County), at Tusculum College, and in Harriman.
In 1904 he became superintendent of schools in Kerrville, Texas. In 1910 he was named chairman of the English Department at West Texas State Normal College (now West Texas State University). In 1917 he entered Harvard University, where he became an Austin scholar and earned the MA degree. He returned to West Texas State and was appointed president of Sul Ross College in Abilene, Texas, a position he held until 1945. His works include A Handbook for English Teachers (1914), Big Bend Panorama, and Mountains of the Mind (1956). He received an honorary LLD degree from Trinity University in San Antonio.