Thomas W. Moritz, Alpha Kappa Psi, Delta Nu, Class of 1959
By: Tim Kearney ‘67
The other day my granddaughter Meghan, who is attending the University of Dayton in the Class of ‘26, asked me why I went to UD. I told her without hesitation that UD was where my cousin and role model, Tom Moritz, went to college. Tom was eight years older than me, but I always looked up to him and wanted to be like him. Then I started to think back and remember Tom and his impact on my life.
Tom Moritz was a founding member of Alpha Kappa Psi at the University of Dayton when he graduated in 1959. He was in the ROTC program and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U. S. Army upon graduation. Tom was a farm boy from Wooster, Ohio where he learned the values of hard work and a strong faith. Tom was active in many different clubs while at UD but remembered AKPsi the most. After graduation, Tom served as an Airborne Ranger and helicopter pilot where his dedication and bravery earned him the respect of his peers and superiors alike. His service included two combat tours in Vietnam where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, five Bronze Stars for Valor and 23 Air Medal citations representing over 350 combat missions. After 21 years in the U.S. Army, Tom retired as a Lieutenant Colonel to Newport News, Virginia to continue to support his growing family by starting a successful advertising company. Tom’s wife of forty years, Joy, was an Army nurse and they were blessed with five children and many grandchildren. Tom was buried at Arlington Cemetery in Washington D.C. with full honors.
I want to emphasize what a humble man Tom was. He never really wanted to discuss his Army career nor the many honors that he received during his twenty years of service. In Vietnam he dodged bullets and rescued wounded soldiers.
One of his medals came for rescuing the crew of a downed helicopter amid free fire, then returning to lift the crashed chopper out of the war zone. He recalled to me years later, that it was the University of Dayton that matured him and where his life values developed. He was proud to say that he was assigned with a young Colin Powell in his first assignment in Germany and they became good friends. He corresponded regularly with General Powell even up to his death. General Powell sent his regrets to his family that he could not make it to Tom’s burial at Arlington.
Tom’s family is humbled and thankful that Tom is being remembered as one of the deceased members in the Alpha Kappa Psi Memorial Fund that was started recently at U.D. to remember former members of the chapter. The family has made contributions to the Fund in Tom’s memory and hopes that others will do the same to sustain the Fund in the future.
