Moorestown Friends Honors Alum For Leadership During Crucial Time

Fred Tamotsu Moriuchi was honored with the Moorestown Friends School’s Alumni Association Service Award on May 1 at the school’s annual Dinner Among Friends. Moriuchi graduated from the school in 1965.

The Service Award is reserved for individuals who have made significant contributions to the life and spirit of Moorestown Friends through loyalty, personal commitment, and service to the community.

Moriuchi was selected for his leadership during a crucial period in the school’s history. He was a Trustee from 1971 to 1995, during the terms of four Heads of School: Alexander MacColl, Gardiner Bridge, Clint Wilkins, and Alan Craig. He was a member of the School Committee and its clerk during this period.

He helped lead the search for Craig, and he shepherded through a revision of the School Committee’s Articles of Incorporation and by-laws.

He led the School Committee through lengthy discussion and consensus-building around the idea of starting a program for three-year-olds, which began at Moorestown Friends in September of 1992.

“Since the days when Caroline and I attended, MFS has become more and more our school,” Moriuchi said. “Even though much has changed around here, certain memories come back each time I walk down the hallways or out on the fields. It is the individual people who are the institution. My family is here to remind me why it was worth the time and emotion spent on School Committee duties.

“When I think of Fred’s leadership, I think calm and firm, steady and consistent, tenacious but gentle and dedicated,” said Sam Allen, who presented the award. “I see in person today what may be the greatest contribution he and Caroline have given to the Moorestown Friends School community: their family. Tonight we honor Fred, whose leadership laid the foundation for the highly regarded, extremely successful Moorestown Friends of today.”

He was also a student at the school, the parent of a student at the school, and is now a grandparent of a student at the school.

His father, Takashi Moriuchi, was a farmer. Fred Moriuchi has given unstintingly of his time as a volunteer in the agricultural, Moorestown, and Friends communities.

He is a Past President of the Burlington County Board of Agriculture, a Moorestown Fire Commissioner and was active for many years with the town’s all-volunteer Fire Department.

“Many have worked to make MFS a success all these years,” Moriuchi said. “I did what had to be done, and this award was not necessary. But it is deeply appreciated.”

The attached image of Fred Moriuchi accepting the Moorestown Friends School’s Alumni Association Service Award was provided Moorestown Friends School.