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Police Chief Dennis King had a piece of information he was saving, and about a minute into his pitch he decided not to save it.
"His birthday is today," the police chief told the Select Board on Wednesday, gesturing toward the young man in the navy suit seated beside him at Abbot Hall.
"It's a good gift," Chair Dan Fox said.as
As his mother, Kelly, his father, John, his brother Jake, his girlfriend, Maddy Damare, and former Select Board member Jim Nye looked on, the board voted unanimously moments later to make a conditional offer of employment to Luke Morris as a permanent full-time Marblehead police officer, effective Oct. 24 or the first available date at an eligible police academy. The offer is contingent on his passing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Physical Abilities Test and physical and psychological examinations conducted by the town's physician and a psychiatrist or psychologist of the town's choosing.
Morris grew up in town and graduated from Marblehead High School. He served in the Marine Corps from July 2021 to June 2025 and was honorably discharged.
King, who has run the department since 2020, told the board the two things he most likes doing in the job are asking it to hire someone and asking it to promote someone.
"So this is definitely one of the better parts of the job," he said.
Moses Grader, a Marine veteran himself, cut through the biography with one question: What was your military occupational specialty?
"I was an 0311 rifleman," Morris said. That is infantry, the Marine Corps' most common enlisted job. He left as a lance corporal.
Erin Noonan asked how long he had been thinking about becoming a police officer.
"It's kind of been an early childhood thought, having my dad be a police officer," Morris said. "It's always been I've been around it, and something I've always thought about doing."
The room behind him was full of Morrises
His mother, Kelly, and father, John, sat in the back rows, along with his brothers Patrick and Jake and his girlfriend, Maddy Damare. King told the board Morris would be a third-generation law enforcement officer, and then added one more: "We also recognize brother Jake serves on the fire department."
King said the department's background check covered medical and psychological screening and an oral review board, all completed before he brought the name forward. He framed the hire around the two things he said stood out — the service and the return.
"I'm offering to the Select Board to offer this conditional offer of employment to a son of Marblehead that is committing to serve his community, not unlike he served his country," King said.
The hire lands weeks after the board authorized King to pursue a local public safety register, a move that followed a civil service round that produced almost nothing. The department sent notices to 41 names on the list for two openings. Two people submitted completed applications.
Fox told Morris it was good to have him grow up here and come back. Then the board wished him a happy birthday and moved on to the next item on the agenda.
The board later took a photograph with him in front of the ‘Spirit of 76.’
