Born into the blue-collar immigrant community of southwest Detroit in 1928, Tom Mooradian graduated from Southwestern High School in 1947 with high academic honors and offers of athletic scholarships. He joined a repatriation group and went to Soviet Armenia, graduated from the Institute of Physical Culture and Sports with a bachelor’s degree, coached junior basketball teams, and became a legendary basketball player for Soviet Armenia.

After spending 13 years trying to return to his homeland, he was granted an exit visa by the Soviet government, attended and graduated from Wayne State University with a major in journalism, and worked for Detroit suburban newspapers until his retirement in 2003.

Tom has received numerous Michigan Press Association writing awards for articles and columns; special tributes from the State Senate, State House of Representatives and Certificates of Recognition from the Wayne County Commission, Cities of Wayne, Westland, Inkster, Belleville, Romulus, and Van Buren, Sumpter and Canton Townships for his excellence in journalism.

The Repatriate was awarded first place in the Memoir category at the Hollywood Book Festival (2017); and second place in both the Reader’s Views Literary Awards (2017), and the San Francisco Book Festival (2017). In addition, it received high rankings in the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards (2017), Kindle Book Awards (2017), and the Indie Book Awards, (2018).