Posted on 03/23/2020
Richard Stuart Moore (Oct. 27, 1924 - March 13, 2020)
Anchors Aweigh
SOUTH BEND, IN - Richard Stuart Moore was born on October 27, 1924 in Vancouver, British Columbia to James Isaac and Anne Gibson Moore. His father was an engineer working in the mining industry.
The youngest of three children, Rick's family moved to Chelan, Washington in 1930, then to Seattle in 1935, enjoying many wonderful summers on Camano Island. The family relocated to San Bernardino, California where Rick graduated early from high school, receiving a congressional appointment to the United States Naval Academy at the age of 16.
Rick entered the Naval Academy in 1942, graduating as an Electrical Engineer in 1946. He was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base New London. He served as an electronics communications officer in the Mediterranean on several submarines, most notably the USS Sablefish.
Rick met his wife Patricia in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she was employed by WBEC Radio, and the Berkshire Eagle advertising department. He and Patricia were wed in May, 1950. She passed in 2005 after 55 years of a loving and adventurous marriage. Their progeny includes 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 9 great-grandchildren.
Rick was an exceptional engineer, beginning his professional career working for General Electric in Schenectady, New York in 1953. His career at GE included assignments in advanced battery technology and computer time sharing, the forerunner to contemporary cloud computing.
In 1959, fellow Naval Academy alum, Walter Schirra, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, sought Rick's expertise in the area of communications systems calculations. The NASA commendation and thank you note from all 7 of the astronauts graced every Moore family home since then.
Rick's career with GE kept the family in constant motion: Schenectady (twice), Washington, DC, and San Mateo, California. Along the way the five children were always in tow, Rick and Pat at the helm.
Rick's expertise led to employment around the country. He implemented computer technology for companies including the Beloit (Wisconsin) Corporation in 1966, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston in 1971, the Champion Corporation in Cleveland in 1974 (implementing computer services for financial institutions), and then to South Bend, Indiana in 1976, where he became the President of Tower Federal Savings & Loan.
One of Rick's and Patricia's most impressive feats was engineering all of these moves around the country while maintaining a cohesive and loving family, and continuously adapting to their new homes and environments.
After the last of their children left home in 1979, Rick performed a variety of roles in the financial industry working for a mortgage bank in Boston, then traveling for the Federal Reserve enhancing financial institutions' solvency following the stock market crash of 1987. Rick concluded his professional career as the President of the Chesterton (Indiana) State Bank.
He & Patricia retired to Brooksby Village in Peabody, MA in 2000.
Rick passed on Friday, March 13, 2020.
He was a gentle soul who worked hard and planned well. (And REALLY knew how to load a dishwasher!)
Services will be held at St. Mary, Mother of the Church in Lee, Massachusetts in July.
Published in South Bend Tribune on Mar. 22, 2020