LaTorra Fund

The Ross A. LaTorra Fund was set up in honor of Ross LaTorra, '80 who was killed during an AT-38 training mission at Holloman AFB, NM.

The Fund was established in 1993 by Vern Francis, head rugby coach, in response to a letter from Matt Hodes, who played with Ross in Alaska, 1983-85, and who inquired about setting up a fund in La Torra's name to support the Academy (men's) Rugby club. Former members of the club held numerous fund raising events to collect money for the corpus of the fund. There was initially a board of directors associated with the Fund (Lead by Col Dick Battock, Chair of the Combined Services Committee, and alumni member Sean Edris), but after initial activity and Coach Francis moving away, it fell dormant. There was a charter written, but the whereabouts is unknown.

The Fund generates earnings each year that can be used by the team via a request by the OIC to the AOG (Click here for details of the Association of Graduates LaTorra Fund )

When the fund raising arm of the Association of Graduates was moved to a separate organization (the AFA Endowment, later called the AFA Foundation) there was an effort to convince the family to move the fund to the Foundation, as it would then consolidate the funds available to the men's team into one location. Doing so, however, would eliminate the name from the fund, an action neither the family nor the teams wished to have happen. At the wishes of both the family and the AFA Alumni Rugby Board, the matter was dropped. The fund remains at the AOG.