Harcourt Alexander Morgan was born on August 31, 1867 in Kerwood, Ontario, Canada. He earned his BS degree from Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph in 1889 and did some graduate work at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He began his teaching career at Louisiana State University as a professor of entomology and horticulture. In 1904, he accepted a position as a professor of entomology and zoology and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Tennessee. In this role, Morgan served as the primary contact between the University and the state's farmers. Through rotating "farmers' institutes," exhibits, and short courses, Morgan helped to close some of the political divides that had appeared during the Civil War and established an excellent reputation for himself among Tennessee's farmers.

In 1919, Morgan succeeded Brown Ayres as President of the University of Tennessee. During his administration, he emphasized UT's role as a statewide institution and managed to get a number of appropriations from the state legislature to help the university fulfill its role as "the vital center of the state's prosperity." In 1934, he left the University to become the Tennessee Valley Authority's agricultural specialist. Here, Morgan emphasized the need for the TVA to work with state and local organizations, took responsibility for convincing Tennessee's farmers that the TVA would be a positive influence in their lives, and continued to advocate scientific agriculture. He retired from the TVA in 1947, and died on August 25, 1950.