Robert M. Moroney, PhD

Robert M. Moroney, PhD, was born in Boston, MA on February 6, 1936, and died in Tempe, AZ on February 18, 2023. He was the son of Irish immigrants, Michael Moroney from Claire and Helen Kineavy from Galway, who provided a loving childhood and modeled hard work and life-long learning. Throughout his life, Bob lived these two values daily. From third grade to high school, Bob delivered all the Boston newspapers both before and after school and was an altar server at daily Mass, and a golf caddy He turned all his pay over to his mother. He earned his Eagle Scout Award in Boy Scouts. He attended Boston Latin High School for a year and then transferred at the age of thirteen to the Irish Missionary Order of the Columbans at Silver Creek, NY where he stayed 3 years. It was very regimented. They played sports no matter the weather and with no protection. They went to Mass daily and ate breakfast in silence. From 1951-1953, he went to the college seminary in Milton, MA. After that, he entered a one-year spiritual novitiate in Bristol, RI. In 1957, Bob was the exchange student to the seminary in Dalgan Park, County Meath, Ireland. He decided to leave the seminary and completed a B.A.in 1960, while working nights at St. Elizabeth ‘s Hospital, and a MSW in 1962; both from Boston College. The same year, he was drafted into the United States Public Health Service as a Lieutenant, stationed in Philadelphia with a public health team and became engaged to Margaret “Peggy” Birmingham. They married a year later. In 1964, he enrolled in the Harvard School of Public Health’s master’s degree program, paid for by the military, in exchange for an additional two years of service at the Regional Office in Boston and then the NY state Health Department in Albany, NY. Bob resigned his commission after five years’ service with the rank of Commander. He then entered the doctoral program at the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University with a commitment to health care policy. By now he was the father of three girls.

Upon receiving his PhD in 1971, he accepted the position of assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning with a dual appointment in the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was Editor of the Urban and Social Change Review Journal for ten years and wrote his first book Central Planned Change in 1974. He spent a year in London funded by the Roundtree Foundation and the British Parliament and wrote his second book The Family and the State in 1976. Promoted to full professor after teaching for seven years in Chapel Hill, Bob was asked to organize and administer a doctoral program in the School of Social Work at ASU. After eight years Bob accepted a senior Fulbright award to teach at the University College Dublin 1994-95. In 2001, Bob was again offered another senior Fulbright at the University of Lithuania in Vilnius.

Altogether he published ten books and over 60 articles and chapters. Bob served on the board of the Rosalyn Carter Institute, the AZ Foster Care Review Board and the Casey Family Program. He continued to hold doctoral seminars at ASU until he was 75 years old and retired with emeritus status.

Bob Moroney is a difficult man to describe. He approached everyone and everything with an open mind. A man of integrity. In many ways he personified the definition of humility but, as a teacher he was extraordinary. His humility contrasted with his achievements. He wrote and taught about the shared responsibility between the family and the state at the policy level. He lived as a caring and approachable man.

Bob was the oldest of six siblings -Maureen Hermiston, Helene McDonald (deceased), Tom, twins Linda Iles and Judy Chevarley and Brenda Correia. Married to Peggy Moroney for 60 years, together they raised three wonderful daughters -Monica Gillooly, Micheen Panosh and Jeanine Wecks, who in turn provided them with five amazing grandchildren – Mairaed Hill, Jake Panosh, Megan Panosh, Liam Gillooly and Payson Bouchard.

The family will hold a Celebration of Bob’s Life on March 26, 2023 at 1:00 pm Arizona time. Those who wish to honor Professor Moroney’s memory may do so by donating to the Robert M. Moroney Scholarship Fund at ASU Graduate School of Social Work.