Mort graduated from Marietta High School with the class of 1949, calling themselves "The Forty-Niners.". HIs father, as well as both his younger sisters, also graduated from MHS.

Subsequent to his graduation, Mort attended Ohio State University, and eventually enlisted in the United States Air Force, during the Korean conflict, along with five other MHS graduates. The Air Force assigned Mort to duty in Alaska, a rugged place that he came to love. After his Honorable Discharge from the Air Force, Mort returned to Alaska, where he became a Professional Hunter and bush pilot. And, after thirty-five years in the frozen forty-ninth state, re semi-retired to Florida, where he set about writing of his Alaskan experiences. He has dedicated copies of his books, "Flying the Alaska Wild" and "The Alaska Bush Pilot Chronicles", to the MHS Library.

While at MHS, Mort was a part of the three-man pole vaulting team that set a new high school record. It is interesting to note that one of Mort's ancestors was among the eight-man party of pioneers who first set foot on the site that was to become the LaFayette Hotel. William Mason was the guide for the LaFayette party that first set foot on the land that later became Fort Harmar and, eventually, Marietta, which, still later became Capitol of the Northtwest Territories.