San Marin founding father dies at 95
Namesake of gymnasium was high school’s first principal
Hank Moroski’s will forever be associated with San Marin High School. He is credited as one of its founding members and was the school’s first principal.
He served in that role for 20 years and is held in such high regard that the school eventually named it’s basketball gym after him — the Hank Moroski Gymnasium.
Mr. Moroski died on Sunday, Dec. 20, at 95 in Novato. He would have been 96 on New Year’s Day.
“He lived a great life and went out on his terms,” said Mike Moroski, the youngest of Mr. Moroski’s two sons and the current head football coach of the College of Idaho. “He was a great, great person.”
Mr. Moroski moved to Marin County in 1967 with an already decorated and extensive resume. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and raised in Brooklyn, New York, he served in the Navy in World War II. It was during his time stationed at a base in Virginia when he met Bob Mott, who would go on to be a legendary coach at Cal Poly. Like Mr. Moroski and San Marin, Mott is the namesake of Cal Poly’s gym.
Mott introduced Mr. Moroski to the game of basketball and, after the war ended, recruited him to play for the Cal Poly Mustangs. Mr. Moroski relocated to the West Coast and from 1947 to 1950 was a collegiate star at Cal Poly. He played baseball and basketball but was better in the latter as he was a multi-time all-conference player and the school’s first 1,000-point scorer. His career to
tal of 1,224 points, which he scored in 93 games, still ranks today at No. 10 alltime in school history.
The website for Cal Poly athletics says that Mr. Moroski’s achievements on the hardwood are “second to none” in school history.
His prowess on the basketball court earned him praise from the legendary UCLA Bruins head coach John Wooden. In a game against Wooden’s Bruins in the 1948- 49 season, Mr. Moroski scored 14 points to help keep the Mustangs competitive. They led the Bruins for three quarters but ultimately fell 68- 46. Still, Mr. Moroski’s effort and talent earned him the respect of Wooden, who named him to his all-opponent team in 1949.
Mr. Moroski was eventually inducted into the Cal Poly Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a member of the inaugural class in 1987 and was the first basketball player to be inducted. Among his class of inductees were other alltime greats like Mott, Mike Krukow, John Madden and Ozzie Smith.
“( My father) told me many times that your father was the best basketball player to play at Cal Poly,” wrote Hank Mott, son of Bob Mott, in a letter to Mr. Moroski’s oldest son, Marty. “But more importantly to him was the fact that your father was an outstanding person, an excellent student, a very hard worker, a great teammate and of the highest integrity.
“He was one of his favorite players.”
Mr. Moroski earned his bachelor’s degree from Cal Poly in 1949 and shortly after turned down an offer to play professional basketball for the Syracuse Nationals, the team that went on to become the Philadelphia 76ers. Mr. Moroksi had other plans in mind.
In 1950 he married Jo Ann Martinsen — the two were married for 68 years before her death in 2018 — and a year later, earned his master’s degree from Stanford.
He then began his decadescareer in education.
From 1951 until his arrival in Marin County in 1967, Mr. Moroski was a coach and a teacher at Lakeport High and Shafter High. He also served as an administrator at South
High in Bakersfield.
In 1967, with dreams of starting his own school, Mr. Moroski moved to Marin County and founded San Marin High School, which opened for instruction in 1968. Inf luenced by his Cal Poly days, Mr. Moroski chose green and gold to be the school colors and selected the Mustangs as the mascot.
For 20 years Mr. Moroski served as principal of San Marin. Upon his retirement
in 1988, after which he worked at the Fireman’s Fund in Novato, the school renamed its gym after him. Several years later, he was inducted into the Marin Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame as a special recognition selection.
Andy Frauenhofer, San Marin’s first boys basketball coach, worked closely with Mr. Moroski. Frauenhofer, who worked at San Marin for three decades as a coach and athletic director,
said that Mr. Moroski was a true professional and cared deeply about his students.
Frauenhofer was also an advocate for Title IX during his days as San Marin’s AD and said that Mr. Moroski was instrumental in the movement that helped provide more opportunities in athletics for girls.
“He exuded quality and he wanted quality for all the students,” Frauenhofer said. “He wanted the best for his students.”
While he never coached at San Marin, Mr. Moroski stayed heavily involved in the school’s athletic programs. He looked to hire coaches who would be teachers as well, for individuals who could help students on and off the field of play.
“He wanted the best teachers and the best coaches combined,” Mike said. “He really thought that was very important.”
Mr. Moroski is also not the only member of his family in the Marin Athletic Foundation Hall of Fame. Mike, who led Novato to multiple MCAL championships in football as the Hornets’ quarterback before starring at UC Davis and ultimately having an eightyear career in the NFL, is
also in the hall, as is Marty, who was a multi-sport star for the Hornets.
Mike said that his dad was always supportive of his kids and stressed the importance of academics and treating people well.
“It was always a blend of be a good person, be a good student and,” he paused, chuckled, and said, “really, really compete.”
Mike added his dad prioritized spending time with his family after he retired from San Marin. He was an avid reader and writer and was in the middle of crafting “detailed and thoughtful” Christmas notes to his children and grandchildren when he passed. He also stayed active long after retirement, shooting hoops almost every day until he was nearly 90 at the gym at Hill Middle School in Novato.
“He was very much a simple pleasures kind of guy,” Mike said. “It was enough for him to love his wife and love his family and stay current in terms of reading.”
Aside from his two sons, Mr. Moroski had three daughters — Kay, Mary and Jan. He is preceded in death by Jan but is survived by Mike, Marty, Kay and Mary, along with seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.