Willie Morrow, inventor of Afro pick, dies at 82

Willie Morrow, an entrepreneur and pillar of the Black community in San Diego, died June 22. He was 82.

Morrow died at his home surrounded by family, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Credited as the inventor of the Afro pick, Morrow was also known as a pioneering stylist of Black hair. His California curl style was a precursor of the world-conquering Jheri curl.

Morrow parlayed his cornerstone role as a barber into a wide-ranging business that included a radio station, XHRM, and newspaper, the San Diego Monitor.

“He just believed in community being the source of the economy,” his daughter Cheryl Morrow told the L.A. Times. “That you should not have to go out of your own community for the resources and wealth that you needed. It should be in your community.”

Born Oct. 9, 1939, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Morrow moved across the country for opportunity in California.

“For many Black people from the South, San Diego became home because of military service and jobs, and my father saw an opportunity to flourish by supplying the beauty needs of African American military personnel as well as civilians. He turned a Black hair care company into a tech-design industrial giant,” Morrow wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Morrow was so well-known that the military actually hired him to teach barbershop classes and cut servicemen’s hair on bases and war zones.

San Diego was also where Morrow met his wife, Gloria. They were married for 56 years until his death and had two daughters.

“Thank you, San Diego, for giving an Alabama boy the reality of dreams fulfilled,” Cheryl wrote. “Willie L. Morrow, a man whose life needed neither introduction nor exit. The great San Diego craftsman left pieces of himself with his beloved community, memories in the repositories of people’s hearts.”