In 2018, Marcia Stegath Dorr came back to Ann Arbor from Oman, a country on the Arabian Peninsula where she had been living and working, to settle her father’s affairs. She had no idea that before her visit ended, her life would be poised for a radical change. It started with a benefit dinner that a friend convinced her to go to on the night before she was to return to Oman.
It turned out that the honoree at the dinner was Elmo Morales, Marcia’s college sweetheart. They hadn’t seen each other in decades; each had married someone else, raised a family, and built a career in which they were now immersed 7,000 miles apart. But both were on their own and were surprised and happy to reconnect.
Elmo was a native New Yorker, but he was deeply invested in the Ann Arbor community by the time Marcia found him again. A Michigan alumnus, he had stayed on after graduating and in 1977 started a business, Elmo’s T-shirts, making locally themed and custom T-shirts and other apparel out of a one-car garage on the west side of Ann Arbor. It grew into a successful venture with a custom print shop and a retail location.
Now, after reconnecting by chance years later, he and Marcia became partners and with her help, he expanded his business in 2023 into a third location in the iconic Nickels Arcade in the old Van Boven Shoes location.
You can read about how all this unfolded in an Ann Arbor Observer article from 2023. It describes the complementary tie-in between Elmo’s work and Marcia’s career this way: “She sees Elmo’s colorful apparel design and hand print work, which celebrate the Ann Arbor area and events and issues of interest, as a local analog of the small-scale craftsmanship she’s devoted her career to illuminating from other cultures.”
Elmo’s T-shirts is involved in many giving-back initiatives in the community and Elmo’s philosophy for the business is, “Let’s go make people happy”. That’s a good reflection of his and Marcia’s warm and optimistic personalities. Be sure to stop by their shop the next time you’re in Ann Arbor. They have a guest book and would love to add the name of another member from the Class of ’65.
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