March 12, 2018

OBITUARY: Marist Brother Vincent Moriarty, native of Westfield

REGIONAL

MIAMI, Fla. – Marist Brother Vincent B. Moriarty, 80, died on Feb. 25 in Miami. 

Brother Vincent was born Oct. 25, 1937 in Westfield as Thomas F. Moriarty, the third child of four boys. He was educated in the public elementary schools and St. Mary High School. He entered the Marist Novitiate in August 1955, took the habit in 1956, and his first vows in 1957.

He graduated from Marian College (Marist College) Poughkeepsie, New York, and in 1960, cooked at the scholasticate for a year, and pronounced his final vows in 1962. 

He began his professional career at Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx, New York, where he taught history and served as dean of discipline in the late 1960s. He then moved on to Marist College for four years where he was director of the college students waiting to enter the novitiate. While at Marist College, he pronounced his vow of stability. 

His next assignment was Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie, where he taught history and economics. In 1979, he was assigned to St. Agnes High School in New York City, where he was a teacher and later assistant principal for academics. While in New York City, he also became one the alternate delegates to the United Nations for the Movement for a Better World – Protection of Children. 

He was later moved to Suma-ku, Kobe, Japan, where he became the principal of Marist Brother International School. After the “Great Hansin” earthquake of January 1995, Brother Moriarty returned to New York City for open heart surgery and did not return to Japan. 

He took a sabbatical year and then was asked to go to Our Lady of Lourdes High School in Poughkeepsie to assist in moving the school to a new location and to teach history and be dean of admissions. 

In 2001 he moved to Msgr. Pace High School in Miami, where for three years he was an academic dean. He then went to Christopher Columbus High School in Miami where he served as academic administrative assistant to Brother Patrick McNamara.

Brother Moriarty retired in 2015 but continued volunteering in campus ministry.

A Liturgy of Christian Burial was held Feb. 27 at St. Brendan Church in Miami.