Sun Valley’s first year-round doctor dies

Dr. John Richards Moritz, the surgeon who helped give birth to modern medicine in Sun Valley and whose name still sits above the front door of Moritz Community Hospital, died in Scottsdale, Ariz., Saturday.

Moritz was born May 31, 1905, in Blue Hill, Neb. Much of his 93-year life was spent enhancing available medical services in Sun Valley.

He was the resort’s first year-round doctor and while its medical director, the hospital grew from a make-shift, eight-room enclave on the third floor of the Sun Valley Lodge into the current facility it is today.

The doctor, called "calm and dignified" and "beloved" in written historical accounts of the Sun Valley area, took a train to the resort in 1939, summoned by an old medical school teacher who was working as chief surgeon for the Union Pacific Railroad company.

Moritz arrived with his wife, Mary Ellen Moritz, whom he had married in Baltimore, Md., in 1934, their daughter, Derry Ann, and two sons, Alan and Danny. In the fall of 1940 the clan moved into a cottage across from the lodge.

During World War II, the doctor served as a lieutenant commander on the U.S.S. New Jersey in the Pacific, while the Sun Valley hospital was converted to a convalescent facility for the military.

After the war, the Sun Valley area was booming, Moritz said in a 1986 interview with Ginger Piotter, then the regional history director of the Community Library in Ketchum.

"The number of people that came to Sun Valley for skiing and to live increased...And with that the demands on the medial facility increased," he said.

A lover of sports--golf, skiing, tennis, basketball--Moritz established himself as a father of sports medicine.

While Moritz was practicing, skiing for recreation was an adventurous but dangerous endeavor. The doctor saw seven out of every 1,000 skiers, he estimated.

Going down to Ketchum was also a little hairy, Moritz said. In fact, during his era, the town of Ketchum was off limits to some of the Sun Valley employees.

"Gambling was not, ah, illegal at that time," Moritz explained.

In 1961, the modern and advanced hospital that serves the area today was built. Originally called the Sun Valley Community Hospital, it was renamed for Moritz when he retired in 1973.

"It was just the Sun Valley Hospital for many years," recalled Moritz. "And when I retired, the hospital board--unbeknownst to me--at a meeting elected to name it the Moritz Community Hospital."

His wife Mary Ellen died in 1984 and, like her husband, has her own place in Sun Valley lore. She was instrumental in founding the Community Library, as well as the store that helped finance it, the Gold Mine thrift shop in Ketchum.

Following Mary Ellen’s death, the doctor fell in love with her best friend, Jeanne Rodger Lane. They married in 1985 and shared a full life of travel and new and continued friendships.

Though his heath was good, Dr. John, as he was affectionately called, became increasingly weak and following a brief illness died peacefully on April 25, 1998, in Scottsdale.