Ronald Victor Moorse

Born in New York City May 1, 1928, to the late George H. Moorse and Mary (Schaefer) Moorse, he was raised in Bellmore on Long Island. He developed a love of language and poetry early in life, thanks to his parents and to his elder sister, Frances Edith, who loved to play teacher and needed a pupil. Ron’s father died when he was seven, just before his brother George was born. Mary remarried, to Thomas Hackett, and the family grew with the addition of his younger sister, Barbara.

After high school, Ron worked in the dairy and chemical industries in New York City and explored and mapped caves from Upstate New York to the Ozarks to Mexico. Between caving adventures, he would return to work in New York, along the way meeting and falling in love with Lydia E. Hughes. Drafted into the Army in 1950, he returned again to marry Lydia before departing for the Korea War, where he served in the 40th Infantry Division.

Ron earned a degree in chemical engineering from New York University and joined Union Carbide Corp., which posted him and Lydia first to Marietta, Ohio, and later to Niagara Falls, New York, where they settled in the town of Grand Island and raised four children: Jeffrey, Kathleen, Alan, and Carol. Ron read and sang to the children when they were small, and he kept singing around the house throughout his life.

Upon retirement in 1991, Ron and Lydia moved to New Bern, where he became interested in birding, gardening, and photography and joined the New Bern Computer Users Group. He also read poetry to children at the Creekside Elementary School for a number of years, an activity he dearly loved.

He is survived by Lydia, his beloved wife of 71 years and 22 days. (Grandpa Hughes said it’d never last!) Also surviving are his sister Barbara Burton (Zan), his children Kathleen Meyer (Albert), Carol Russell (Robert), and Alan Moorse (Lori Doyle), daughter-in-law Constance Moorse, and grandchildren Diane Morrisey (Jaye), Jennifer Meyer, Katherine Russell, Michael Moorse (Christina), and Patrick Moorse (Anna), as well as three great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, siblings Frances Edith Russo and George Moorse, and son Jeffrey.

The family would like to thank neighbors “around the pond” on Jordan Drive and in Duchess Court for their friendship and support, particularly during the past few years. Special thanks to Dianne Land and Jeremy Cole, who helped Ron remain at home with Lydia.

A memorial gathering will be held at the Cotten Funeral Home on Wednesday, April 20, at 2 p.m.