Robert Earl Moore

Robert “Bob” Moore was born in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1932 to Earl Ira and Sarah Moore. Bob was the second of four sons. He followed Charles Moore (surviving), and had two younger brothers Richard Moore (deceased) and Delbert Moore (surviving).

Bob grew up in a Depression era household. Everything was tight. There were lots of outdoor adventures with the Moore brothers, playing football, baseball, picking berries, hunting and fishing. They lived in a woodsy area of north-central PA where everyone had a rifle and a shotgun and it was motivating to hunt for free meat as provisions during this time of scarcity. It was very cold in the winter and extremely hot in the summer.

The Moore brothers were four men not to be trifled with. They were tall and strapping. If you were ever in a bar fight you definitely wanted those four brothers on your side.

Their father had been the town sheriff in the 1930s. Bob came from hardy stock. In the wintertime, the coal trains would come through and the townsmen knew the train engineer, who would slow the train way down and the men from the town would climb up and throw coal down. It was the children’s job - including Bob and his brothers - to gather the coal. That is what kept them warm in the winter.

In Bob’s last days, he didn’t so much live in the present, but he could recount to Bill every house where his friends and people lived back home. He was fond of his friends and loved any chance to go visit them.

Bob went to Philipsburg High School. He played on their football team. In his senior year, because times were so tough, he went to work in the steel mills. He and his buddy Harvey Corgan worked at the steel mill for one year. They shared a one bedroom apartment that had a single bath. They got so dirty working at the steel mill that they each took their turn in the bath sometimes taking up to 2 and 1/2 hours to scrub all the grime off. After about a year, Bob looked at Harvey and said, “I can’t do this anymore.” So they went down to the military recruiting offices - Bob joined the U.S. Air Force and Harvey joined the U.S. Army.

Bob became a mechanic in the U.S. Air Force. He was responsible for Quality Assurance and maintenance.

Early on he was posted in Japan and Korea in the 1950s in the Korean Conflict.

When he came back from Korea, Bob was stationed in Clovis, New Mexico, where he met his bride-to-be (Ruby Spinks) working as a soda jerk at a local drug store, that served hamburgers and hotdogs. Bob had gone in with his buddies to get a burger. They were married in 1955.

Bob returned to civilian life in 1956 for one year working for Piper Scout planes manufacturing back in Pennsylvania. But he quit that job and re-enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1957, the year that Bill was born in Philipsburg PA?

He continued varied and important postings in the U.S. Air Force through the rest of his military career.

He was posted in Greenland in 1962 to make sure all the planes were ready for the Russians.

In 1963 James Edward Moore, Bob’s second son, was born on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. It was also the year that the Cuban Missile Crisis was full bore, so Bob lived in Florida for 5 months while the country was on a war footing.

In 1970 Bob spent a year in Thailand, doing maintenance on the aircraft flying into Vietnam. During that year he worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

He was posted at Reece Air Force training wing in Lubbock, Texas. He ran a team in Transit Alert servicing many fighter airplanes and getting them on their way. Bill got to sit in the Thunderbird cockpit when he was just in elementary school.

Bob also had a stint in Ipswich England, in the middle of the Cold War, where everyone was on high alert and all the American military families living off base (including the Moores) had to be ready at a moment’s notice. Bob was servicing F4s Phantoms with nuclear warheads on them. Bill was in 5th, 6th and 7th grade during this time.

Another intense posting for Bob was in Iran. He was posted there until before the Iranian Revolution heated up. He served as an adviser to the Shah’s Air Force, training Iranians how to take care of their aircraft. He was about 70 miles from the Iraqi border. Bill and Jim went to High School there and graduated from the Tehran American High School in Iran, Bill in 1975 and Jim in 1979.

In total Bob served 23 years in the U.S. Air Force. He got out of the Air Force in 1975 and was hired on with Boeing. They sent him back to Tehran and the family immediately moved in to the same house they had rented in his military life. The neighbors loved them and favored them as renters because they could fix things - like the swamp coolers.

The ex-pat exodus from Iran began in 1977. So Boeing flew Bob to London for a week. Then flew him to Seattle and put him to work. They lived in a hotel in Seattle for 9 weeks. He was a systems guy on AOG (Aircraft On Ground) services.

They settled in to life in Seattle, bought a house that they would live in for nearly 40 years. He retired after 15 years with Boeing. And in their Golden Years, Bob and Ruby traveled often. They loved their Alaska cruise. They did road trips to many National Parks - making it to Yellowstone a couple of times. They just liked taking road trips, getting into America’s “Boonies”.

Bob liked to go fishing. Bill bought a fishing boat with him. And it was a bonding experience to go fishing and hunting with his father.

Bob will be remembered as a man who kept his word: if Bob said he was going to do something, he did it. He was also not a man to be trifled with. Under the right circumstances, though, he was a loving caring person, who showed generosity to others. He was a gregarious man, who many in his life were very fond of.

He was preceded in death by his brother Richard, and by the love of his life, his wife (Ruby) and by his son James.

He is survived by his two brothers, Charlie and Delbert Moore. He also leaves behind his oldest son William “Bill” (with Vivian), his daughter-in-law Amy Moore; his 5 grand-children, Sheena (with husband Jason), Jessica, Jefferey, Brian, and Christopher.

Bob’s love and legacy will be left in his two surviving Great-grandchildren: Harrison and Ryan.

We will miss this proud patriotic “man’s man” Bob, but we will cherish all the memories he made with us deeply in our hearts, forever.