John E. Moran Sr., 84, was a member and leader of numerous organizations, the chairman emeritus of McLaughlin & Moran Distributors Inc., Cranston, distributors of Anheuser-Busch products, and a former state senator and fundraiser.
He was born in Providence on November 28, 1912, son of Timothy Moran and Jennie (McGovern) Moran. He attended La Salle Academy, where he made two All-State teams in football and baseball in consecutive years.
He graduated from Manhattan College, New York, earning three varsity letters in football and baseball and serving as captain of the Jasper Nine in his senior year. He turned down offers to play with the Baltimore Orioles of the International League.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in education in 1936 and returned to Providence to begin his business career. In 1936, he and his cousin John McLaughlin launched McLaughlin and Moran Distributors Inc.
He was a World War II Navy veteran and served as a gunnery officer in the European and Pacific theaters aboard a Liberty ship, the Nelson B. Keane. He founded and served as a member of the Sherman-LeClerc-Monteiro American Legion Post 86, from which he received several awards for special achievement. From 1956 to 1966, he was a state senator from the Cumberland Hill area.
He chaired a study group in the Blackstone Valley area that participated in the White House Conference on Aid to Education. He chaired the legislative Committee on Pardons and served on the Committee on Finance. From 1951 to 1955, he chaired the Cumberland Board of Canvassers.
In 1960, he was Manhattan College’s nominee for Sports Illustrated’s Silver Anniversary All-American Award and was inducted into Manhattan’s Alumni Society Athletic Hall of Fame. In 1981, the Providence Gridiron Club recognized his athletic achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. He was a director of Meeting Street School and Big Brothers of Rhode Island, which named him Man of the Year in 1980.
He was a member of the Catholic Association of College Alumni, of which he was an honoree in 1978. In 1977, he was general chairman of the Rhode Island chapter of the Leukemia Society of America, a member of its board of directors, and its Man of the Year in 1984.
He chaired the Heart Fund Drive in 1965 and was named Cumberland’s Businessperson of the Year in 1981. He was general chairman of the Cumberland-Lincoln Boys and Girls Club Capital Campaign Drive in 1982. He was a past president of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and of BPOE Lodge 850, Woonsocket. He was a 4th-degree member of the Knights of Columbus Association and a trustee of the John E. Fogarty Foundation, which conferred on him its Distinguished Service Award in 1987.
In 1986, he established the John E. Moran Foundation to provide and raise funds to benefit the programs and clients of the Northern Rhode Island Association of Retarded Citizens.
He died on Sep. 13, 1997, leaving his wife, Rita, two daughters, four sons, and 17 grandchildren.
John Moran was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1986.