Ranger College recently named Dr. Orlando Moreno Early/Brownwood campus is new Vice President and Director.
Moreno, who spent more than three decades in college education after retiring from professional baseball as a former New York Yankees second baseman, was selected by the Ranger College Board of Regents as the new VP/Director for the college’s campus in Brown County earlier this month after a lengthy nationwide search. Moreno replaces Stephen Flora, who served as interim director following the death of Dr. Don Bostic in May.
“I couldn’t be more pleased than to welcome Dr. Moreno and his wife, Bonnie, onboard here at Ranger College,” said RC President William J. Campion. “We look forward to seeing him accomplish great things in Brown County, and helping Ranger College become a vital part of the community there. I do not believe we could have found a person more qualified or more capable person than Dr. Moreno to lead our campus in Early/Brownwood.”
Moreno, who retired as a professor at the College of Central Florida in 2006, took over in Early/Brownwood effective September 1.
“It is an exciting time for both me and my wife,” said Dr. Moreno. “We’re looking forward to this. Everyone we have met so far has been super friendly and supportive.”For Moreno, being named the vice president and director of Ranger College’s Early/Brownwood campus is a milestone in a career that has led him from Pre-Fidel Castro era Cuba to stints in the U.S. military and professional baseball to becoming a college educator.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Moreno starred in high school as an athlete prior to the revolution in which Castro’s communist-backed army overthrew former President Fulgencio Batista. As a high school pitcher, he posted a 17-2 record and was named the national pitcher of the year as a high school junior.
That all ended when Batista was overthrown prior to his senior year in high school. With Castro in power, Moreno fled Cuba and traveled to Brazil where he became a political exile. Following short stays in Caracas, Venezuela and Rio De Janeiro, he managed to board a Brazilian cargo ship headed to New York.
At the age of 17 with little money, a political exile from his home country and no high school diploma, Moreno arrived in the U.S.
Unlike most immigrants, Moreno hoped to return to Cuba. In the early 1960s, tension between the U.S. and Cuba were high, leaving many to believe that a U.S. invasion of the island nation was imminent. Hoping he could play a role in the liberation of his homeland, Moreno said shortly after he arrived in New York, he went to Times Square and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. After completing basic training and a month-long survival training course, he was shipped to El Toro Marine Base near Irvine, California. Upon arrival, it didn’t take long before the base’s commanding officer informed him he was ineligible to be in the Marine Corps as he was not a U.S. citizen or, as a political exile, was he even a legal resident of the U.S.
After being released from the service and returned to New York, Moreno said he turned to the one thing he could do to survive – baseball.
“I knew I could play baseball so I tried out for the Yankees,” he said. “I was sent to play in the New York-Penn League and eventually made it to Richmond in Triple A as a second baseman.”
Shortly after joining Richmond, Yankees’ second baseman Bobby Richardson suffered a hamstring injury and was unable to play. That injury cleared the way for Moreno to make his Major League debut.
Moreno said he spent the better part of the next two seasons moving between Richmond and the Yankees before deciding he wanted to pursue an education, retired from baseball and moved to Florida.
He quickly found out, enrolling in college as a political exile with no high school diploma was no easy thing.
Initially, he attempted to enroll at the University of Florida but was denied for having no high school transcripts. A second college also turned him away as well.
Finally, on his third try, he was allowed to enroll at St. Johns River Community College in Palatka, Florida, after telling them all of his records had been destroyed in Cuba by the Castro regime. He was then allowed to enter the school on academic probation.
He never looked back. After graduating from St. Johns River in 1967, he received one of 16 state wide academic scholarships granted to junior college graduates and enrolled at the University of Florida where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1969, and then attained his Master’s degree a year later. Several years later, he would receive his doctorate from the University of Madrid in Spain.
After receiving his Master’s, Moreno accepted a position as a professor at Central Florida Community College (now the College of Central Florida). He spent the next 34 years teaching at the institution, including a period in which he worked as a dean under Campion, who was serving as the college’s president. During this time, he also launched the Study in Spain program, helping U.S. students learn abroad.
He retired from teaching in 2006 but was intrigued with the opportunity to help Ranger College expand its operation in Early/Brownwood.
“Dr. Campion had been talking to me for a couple of years about coming out of retirement,” said Moreno. “At first, I said no, but he kept after us. He said he thought we could come here and help the college and that was something that appealed to my wife and me.”
Bonnie Moreno, a native of Macon, Georgia, will serve as a Spanish instructor and student advisor with the college, and also be a liaison for RC with Brown County high schools.
Pictured above are Dr. Orlando Moreno and his wife, Bonnie.
