RETIREMENT STORIES
Brian Moroney It wasn’t until the age of twenty-eight that Mr. Brian Moroney became interested in opera. In fact, by his own account, he had resisted opera all his life. But it was the voice of the great Franco Corelli singing “Panis Angelicus” that changed his life and, one could say, helped create the Brian Moroney thousands of Xavier graduates came to know. Moroney purchased an album one day just by chance, and he was overwhelmed by the beauty of Corelli’s hymns and arias.“This is an amazing, awesome, gorgeous, powerful voice,” Moroney remembers thinking.“I became an opera fan right on the spot.” Few teachers share more of their passions in the classroom than Brian Moroney. His desk is covered with papers, stereo speakers, photographs; his shelves littered with vinyl records
and opera programs. To say that Mr. Moroney jumps at the chance to speak on the things he loves would be too simple a statement. He is inspired and well-spoken, and spreading that excitement has become his way of life for the past forty-three years teaching at Xavier. “Repetition leads itself to boredom unless you learn to love along the way,” he said. Right from the start, Mr. Moroney had difficulty adhering to the teacher typecast. In 1962, he started teaching Engish and French at Brooklyn Prep, but when it came to the English courses, he remembers spending less time on required material than on literature he preferred to focus on. At the end of two years, he got a note saying his services were no longer needed after a departmental reorganization. As an Astoria, Queens, native, Mr. Moroney