Sallie Morton

Finding limited employment as an accountant, Morton worked with her husband at his watch repair shop in San Jose, California.^[5] Their business grew into Morton Jewelers, with various locations around San Jose and Los Gatos, California. As a gemologist, she lectured internationally, and toured mines, factories, and private collections in Australia, Africa, Asia, and South America.^[6] "I go primarily to see how jewelry is made, not to buy," she explained in 1978.^[7] In 1986, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Women's Jewelry Association. Morton sold her business, Morton Jewelers, when she retired in 1993.^[3]

From 1977 to 1979, Morton was president of the American Gem Society, the first woman to hold that executive position.^[1] She served on the Society's board from 1980 to 1992. In 1982, she was the first woman recipient of the Society's Robert M. Shipley Award.^[1] She took the lead in raising funds to replace the Society's San Francisco headquarters, which were destroyed in a 1983 fire. She was a member of the editorial board of the Society's journal, Gems & Gemology.^[8] In 2014, the Society launched the Sallie Morton Award.^[9]

Morton was active in the Rotary Club of San Jose, as one of its first female members; she also served on the board of the Santa Clara Girl Scout Council.^[3]

Sallie Miller married watchmaker MacDonald G. Morton in 1949.^[2] They had a son, Philip. She died in 2017, aged 91 years,^[10] from mesothelioma.^[11][12]