Arthur Moroyoqui taught at Sunnyside High.

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Arthur Moroyoqui taught students more than arithmetic and the most effective way to swing a golf club.

The semi-retired Sunnyside Unified School District teacher and coach educated his kids about life.

"He was always telling stories and trying to give advice, anything from school to career to girls and friends. He was a mentor in all aspects of life," said Isaac Albrecht, 22.

Friends, family members and former students will remember the teacher during a 5 p.m. memorial service Thursday at Son Life Chapel, 2955 W. Ironwood Hills Drive. Moroyoqui, 59, died of a heart attack March 17, three days after he received the "Power of Teaching" award from the League of United Latin American Citizens.

"At a time in my life when I was badly in need of a father figure, Coach Moroyoqui was there for me," said Paul Cicala, a former news and sports reporter at KOLD-TV and KVOA-TV in Tucson who now works at a station in Palm Springs, Calif. "Coach was the perfect role model and could identify with his students because he himself faced the same adversity, pressures and negative influences that youngsters from the SUSD deal with every day."

During his more than 30 years in education in Southern Arizona, Moroyoqui, a father of three, taught special education, English as a second language and math, and coached girls and boys in basketball, volleyball and golf. The Purple Heart recipient used stories about his experiences in the Vietnam War, the challenges of raising an autistic daughter and his Christian values to talk to students about the importance of education, setting goals and creating their own successes. Moroyoqui was the first in his family to attend college, said his daughter, Julie, 29.

Cicala was 11 when he met the teacher.

"Coach Moroyoqui is the single biggest reason I've been able to overcome difficult odds in life, go to college, stay out of trouble and become successful. And, he's played an instrumental role in doing the same for scores of other students," Cicala said. "Coach Moroyoqui steered me in the right direction, teaching me the value of an education, hard work and dedication. If not for Coach Moroyoqui, I would have surely been caught up in a life of drugs, gangs and other negative influences that many of my friends on the South Side ended up getting caught up with."

Moroyoqui took on a fatherly role for many students, said his wife of nearly 23 years, Darita.

"A lot of kids wished he was their dad," she said. "Even when kids are in high school, they still need nurturing — a different kind of nurturing, but they still need it, and he was there for them.

"He would be the one transporting them to the games and transporting them home after the games, and their parents never even showed up to watch," his wife said. "I thought, 'How sad to play this game — play your heart out — and your parents aren't even there.' A lot of students thought so highly of him because he gave a lot. He made sure they got enough to eat. If they didn't have enough money for snacks or food, he'd give them money to make sure they were fed."

Moroyoqui bought Cicala his first pair of basketball shoes when he was in seventh grade. In high school, he got him some new school clothes.

The coach bought golf clubs for Emanuel Valenzuela and paid to have some of the boy's clubs reshafted when he was a high school golfer even though he wasn't on Moroyoqui's team. The coach taught Valenzuela, now 23, to play golf when he was in middle school. Later, when Moroyoqui was coaching at Sunnyside High, he'd still meet with Valenzuela, a Desert View student, for golf lessons. With his coach's assistance, Valenzuela qualified for the state high school tourney his senior year.

Moroyoqui helped Valenzuela off the green, too.

"I grew up without a dad," Valenzuela said. "My mom's a widow. I grew up with two brothers. They were my role models, but Moroyoqui, I went to him to talk about personal stuff. He was there for me all the time."

Sunnyside Superintendent Raul Bejarano knew Moroyo-qui for more than 25 years.

"He established a lot of great relationships with kids because he was a listener. He didn't gloat over his victories, but he was proud of what he did," Bejarano said.

Although Moroyoqui retired last summer, he couldn't leave his students, Julie Moroyoqui said, so he'd been substitute teaching.

"For the last four years of his career he was the in-house-suspension teacher," she said. "He kind of got all the misfits from Sunnyside, but some kids would purposely get in trouble so they could sit with him for the day and talk to him.

"I feel so fortunate for the time I had with him, but what about all these kids who needed more time with him? It is heartbreaking."

Even former students said they expected to have more time with him. Valenzuela was devastated when he learned of the death of his mentor and coach.

"There was a lot of stuff I still needed to do with him. He was like my father, my friend, a brother. I consider him all of the above. I honestly thought of him like a dad," he said. "He was the world to many people."