John Moore

John Richard Moore, Sr., 97 passed away in June 2019, surrounded by his family. John, a longtime resident of Des Plaines and Chicago, Illinois was a native of Birmingham, Alabama. He was the son of James Lumpkin Moore of Athens, Georgia and Viola Beatrice Laurell of Marseilles, Illinois. John graduated from West End High School and enrolled at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, taking advantage of their work study program. John completed 3 years of college before serving in the US Army Air Forces from 1942 through 1946. After his discharge, he returned to Tennessee, first studying at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, before returning to Maryville, graduating in 1947. It was during his last year at Maryville that he met his future wife, Constance G. Hawkins, also a student. They wed in 1949 at Emory University in Georgia where she worked as a librarian. John also studied for a master’s degree at the University of Tennessee Knoxville during this time.

John taught science at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, William and Mary College (now Old Dominion University) in Norfolk, Virginia, and Cumberland College (now University of the Cumberlands) in Williamsburg, Kentucky. In 1957 John moved to Des Plaines, Illinois, where he worked as a telecommunication engineer for companies including ITT Kellogg and Western Electric, building on the training he had received from the Army at Yale and Princeton during the war. When many of his contemporaries were beginning to look forward to retirement, John earned a Master of Library Science degree from Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois and worked as a librarian into his 70’s, retiring as the head of the Science and Technology Department for the Chicago Public Library. During this time, John received the Claude Pepper Award for achievement after the age of 50.

John belonged to many groups over his lifetime: genealogical groups all over the eastern U.S., as well as the Swedish Cultural Society in America, the Swedish American Museum, the Des Plaines Valley Geological Society, the Chicago Academy of Sciences, the Special Libraries Association, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, the Chicago Map Society, and the Western Society of Engineers; he held offices within many of these organizations.

John hiked in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and enjoyed the trails and lakes in the Forest Preserves around Chicago, where he taught his children how to identify trees and other plants. He was a serious advocate for conservation and the environment. He enjoyed geology and collected rocks and minerals. He was a gardener most of his life and after retirement volunteered at the Chicago Botanic Garden. He enjoyed traveling in the U.S. to visit family, friends and visited many states while conducting genealogical research. John also traveled to many countries with his wife before she passed away. He enjoyed cartography in his later years. John was a prodigious reader of all subjects. He particularly enjoyed biographies of former U.S. Presidents and other influential people, but no subject was off limits. John was a prolific letter writer well into his 90’s. His letters were greatly appreciated, and often read out loud, by many generations of family and friends. John was an enthusiastic follower of college and professional sports teams from all over the US. He walked everywhere, and even in later life ran errands on foot in his neighborhood. John enjoyed chatting with everyone, no matter who they were. A friend once said that “John knows everyone in America.” He enjoyed good health and an enthusiasm for life well into his 90’s and was noted by everyone for his excellent memory and kindness. John may hold the record for spending a long life in the US and yet never owning a pair of blue jeans. Most people saw him dressed in slacks, a dress shirt, frequently a tie, and polished black shoes.

John will be missed by his family and everyone he knew. His survivors include his children: John Moore, Jr of Chicago, Linda (Don) Schmidt of Leo, Indiana, and Deborah Moore, also of Chicago; his grandchildren, Birgit Swanson, Dirk Schmidt and Austin Schmidt; and many of his extended family members. He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife, and his younger sister, as well as most of his contemporaries, beloved relatives and friends alike.

He will be buried in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, next to his beloved wife.

The care of Mr. Moore has been entrusted to Wells Funeral Homes and an online memorial register is available at “Obituaries” at www.wellsfuneralhome.com