Book review by Steve Telenius-Lowe, G4JVG RadCom
(Radio Society of Great Britain, January
1998)
I had the pleasure of meeting Marshall Moran briefly in 1985. Known throughout
the amateur radio world as "Father Moran", 9NIMM, he was on one
of his occasional whirlwind world tours—in the UK whilst en route
to the USA from his home in the Himalayas. In his 80th year, Father Moran
had the energy of a man half his age and a mind as sharp as a razor, with
an unending stream of anecdotes about life in Nepal.
Many of those anecdotes—and a lot more beside—can
be found in Moran of Kathmandu. It is not an amateur radio book; it is
a book about a radio amateur, and a very remarkable one at that. It starts
with Marshall's childhood in Chicago, recounts his calling to join the
Jesuits (Society of Jesus), his lengthy seminary studies, and his eventual
qualification as a priest. Marshall felt called to work in India, and set
out 1929 to establish a mission school in Patna.
He came to know Mahatma Gandhi well, and drove
Gandhi around in his jeep in an attempt to restore peace during Hindu-Muslim
riots. But from the moment he first saw the Himalayas, they—and in
particular the mysterious kingdom of Nepal—attracted Marshall. Twenty
years after arriving in India and with the school now running succesfully,
he asked to be transferred to Nepal.
In the early 1950s Nepal was a closed society in
an almost impossibly remote mountain kingdom. There were no flights into
the country, and Marshall's journey across treacherous mountain passes
took several days by rail, bus and even horse-drawn carriage.
Marshall Moran established St. Xavier's school
and remained a resident in Nepal for the rest of his life. He became a
close acquaintance and confident of the Nepalese kings, and friendly with
John (later Lord) Hunt and Edmund Hillary, the first to climb Everest.
Amateur radio played a big part in Marshall Moran's
life. He "discovered" amateur radio at a young age whilst still
in the USA, but never took out a licence. Then missionary work in India
and Nepal meant that, whilst amateur radio remained a latent interest,
he was unable to pursue the hobby (although he was a daily listener to
the BBC World Service shortwave news broadcasts). It was only in 1960,
at the age of 54, that he felt able to devote some time to amateur radio.
He was one of a group of three individuals who obtained the first-ever
amateur radio licence issued in Nepal.
So 9NIMM was born and went on to become one of
the most famous amateur radio callsigns in the World.
Amateur radio figures large in the last five chapters
of Moran of Kathmandu, and gets an extremely good press. There are several
examples of amateur radio being used for humanitarian purposes and one
occasion where a Nepal boy's life was saved thanks to 9NIMM. The author,
whilst presumably not a radio amateur (no callsign is given), has taken
the trouble to do his homework most thoroughly. The book may be of limited
interest to most radio amateurs, but for those who enjoy biographies it
certainly is a good read. It is well written, and for the mainstream reader
of biographies it gives an extremely favourable opinion of amateur radio
to those who may never even have heard of it.
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