Marshall D. Moran

Marshall D. Moran
Born	May 29, 1906 Chicago, Illinois
Died	April 14, 1992 Kathmandu, Nepal
Resting place	Godavari, Nepal
Residence	Nepal
Nationality	American
Occupation	Priest
Title	Father
Religion	Roman Catholic

Marshall D. Moran, SJ was born in Chicago on May 29, 1906 and died April 14, 1992 in Delhi, India. He was a missionary in Nepal and founded multiple schools there, amongst them the St. Xavier's High School, Patna.

He also was an active radio amateur and used the call sign 9N1MM, pioneering amateur radio in Nepal. This location made him one of the most well-known Radio Amateurs of his time, described and visited many times by American and European Ham Radio magazines.

Biography

He founded St. Xavier's High School, Patna in 1940.

In 1949, he was the first Jesuit to enter Nepal since 1721 and the first Roman Catholic Priest since 1810.

He was awarded the ARRL International Humanitarian Award by the American Radio Relay League in 1986.

In about 1950, Moran set up an amateur ham radio station in his St. Xavier school, south of Kathmandu. He is reputed to have conducted several emergency communications events, including involving saving climbers on Everest and the life of a young boy in a separate incident. Due to the remoteness of his location and that he was the only radio ham in Nepal for decades, many hams worldwide sought a two-way radio communication with him. His call sign, 9N1MM, his rare location, and his pleasant demeanor on the air made him one of the most famous radio hams of all time. When he traveled in the West, he was avidly sought as a guest speaker at meetings of ham operators. After communicating with Moran, hams eagerly sought to receive the QSL post card of 9N1MM as a souvenir. Likely, Moran operated his radio in the absence of government permission for a time, but he was given oral and then later written permission to conduct radio transmissions by the Nepali King in recognition of his Everest safety work. It is probable that he died before the Nepali government had a legal mechanism to grant formal ham radio licenses. Nevertheless, Father Moran was widely loved in the worldwide ham radio community and, even now (2010) is cited as exemplary of the best of amateur ham radio operators and the ham communications code of behavior.

External links

• Biography from the Nepal Jesuit Society
• Biography stressing his radio amateur activity
• Father Moran's QSL card
• ARRL International Humanitarian Award criteria

Persondata
Name	Moran, Marshall
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 29, 1906
Place of birth	Chicago, Illinois
Date of death	April 14, 1992
Place of death	Kathmandu, Nepal