Meeting Marshall: The History of Hyzdu

Many students, teachers, and administrators may know J. Marshall Hyzdu, but does the Moeller community know Marshall?   

J. Marshall Hyzdu’s senior picture, taken from the 1996 Moeller yearbook

The Holy Family Chapel

Did anyone know his first name is actually James?

Moeller’s current president, James Marshall Hyzdu, is a 1996 graduate of Archbishop Moeller High School. He said he enjoyed his time at Moeller, and liked learning trigonometry from Bill Braun and acting from Bob Hotze. Hyzdu said his favorite place on Moeller’s campus is the Holy Family Chapel. This doesn’t come as a surprise, considering he cited Kairos as a monumental milestone in his young life. Kairos was one of Hyzdu’s favorite memories throughout his time at Moeller.   

Hyzdu was also a senior captain of the football team, and he has many memories from playing football at Moeller. His most memorable moment was getting kicked out of the first day of football practice his senior year. Apparently, his haircut was not up to code, and he was later forced to get it cut.  In the end, Hyzdu said it made him realize that teachers and coaches cared about him by holding him accountable for his actions. He admitted to not being perfect and earning a few detentions during his time at Moeller. He seemed to like to grow out his facial hair which got him into some disciplinary trouble.

He is a strong supporter of the Moeller House System as it takes the brotherhood he had at Moeller and puts it on steroids. The Brotherhood was as present when he attended Moeller, but it’s stronger today. He stated that the House System is one of the most important parts of Moeller. “You don’t realize how special it is until you leave,” Hyzdu assured The Moeller Crusader.  

After graduating from Moeller, Hyzdu went on to play college football at Dartmouth College, where he totaled exactly 100 tackles in his career and majored in both History and Psychology. 

After college, he started working on Wall Street as an investment banker. A few years later, he decided to leave Wall Street and attend business school at the University of Michigan Ross Business School, where he received a Master's Degree in Business Administration. He also has twelve years of brand management experience and most recently, he worked at Bridgestone where he was the Vice President of Commercial Marketing. 

Hyzdu has lived and spent time in cities across the globe. He lived in Hanover, New Hampshire during his college years.  Also, during college, he spent six months teaching math and business in a secondary school in Kenya, in addition to a transfer quarter in Santa Barba. Hyzdu has also lived and worked in cities such as New York, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Lexington, and Nashville.

Though he’s spent time throughout the States, the most surreal day of his life was on September 11, 2001. During the 9/11 attacks, Hyzdu was working in New York City. On the 10th of September he pulled an all-nighter at his Wall Street office and headed home to shower and come back to work again the next day. When he arrived back to the office via taxi, which he still has the receipt for, it was 7:30 am. Just after 9:00 am his boss came and said it’s time to go home. On the way home there was not a single car on the street, and he was forced to walk home with thousands of other confused and scared pedestrians. Once he and all his roommates made it home and caught their bearings, they headed down to the World Trade Center with hopes of giving blood. However, they were turned away as they were told there were no survivors in need of blood; those that were in the towers that day either passed away or escaped. That day continues to affect him to this day, as it was one of the most eye-opening days in his life. 

J. Marshall Hyzdu hard at work in his office on the second floor

Marshall Hyzdu met his wife through mutual friends at a bar in Chicago. They now have three kids together, and his favorite hobby is throwing baseball with his boys. Because of the joy and excitement his kids bring to the table, his favorite two days on the calendar are Thanksgiving and Christmas.

He believes the best way to start the day is with a workout, which is also when he claimed, “Back in the day I benched over 300.” Now, his favorite sport to watch is still football, but he prefers participating in yoga these days. Similarly, he hopes to take his current physical activities to the next level and master the art of the nunchuks.

In addition, he has other experiences with outlandish sports such as sky diving and scuba diving. Other than the anticipation of going up in the plane prior to jumped, Hyzdu said it’s over-hyped. In Belize, he went scuba diving with bull sharks in the world famous Blue Hole.

The culmination of these colorful experiences has Hyzdu telling The Moeller Crusader that he wishes he could win the TV show Survivor.  As he said, “It can’t be that hard. There’s not that many people on the island and it’s only thirty-nine days.” He thinks he could win at his current age now, but he thinks he could have blown away the competition in his prime.

Though he has a variety of life experiences, Hyzdu is a man of the people. His favorite TV show is none other than The Office, and he feels as he relates most to Jim. Watch out teachers and administrations, Hyzdu might be a secret prankster.