CHARLESTON – Former Governor Arch A. Moore Jr. passed away Jan. 7 in Charleston surrounded by his family. He was 91.
Moore was W.Va.’s first and only three term governor. An Associated Press release said Moore possessed personal charisma, strong oratory gifts and an uncanny ability to recall names – attributes that helped him score important political victories and establish himself as the most successful Republican of his era in a Democrat-dominated state.
Locally, Moore helped find and secure funding for many local projects and endeavors. Tucker County Commission President Lowell Moore said the former governor was well-known for his help in Tucker County.
“Former Governor Arch Moore was a well-respected Governor and politician and West Virginian,” Lowell Moore said. “Some of his goals in serving West Virginia were to bring in industry, improve our highways and school systems, raise school and state employee salaries and provide health care coverage for our school and state employees. Like many others, he made some wrong decisions, but he lived and served to make our state a better place to live. He will be missed. I offer my condolences to his family.”
Parsons resident, former Parsons Mayor and former Tucker County Board of Education member Jerry DiBacco recalls help Tucker County residents received from the former Governor.
“Gov. Arch Moore, Dewey Wilfong and I went around Parsons following the 1985 flood. He came through with the money to help after everyone abandoned us with the destruction on Pennsylvania Avenue. He went statewide and visited everywhere in the state following the flood. He said Parsons had the worst devastation of any town in the state.”
“Moore said he was going to help us get back on our feet again,” DiBacco said. “He tried every way possible to get us funding. I was mayor of Parsons following the flood of 1985.”
DiBacco said Moore was instrumental in helping get higher salaries for teachers in the state, and helped Tucker County locate funds to build the Arch A. Moore Career Center, now named the Tucker County Career Center.
Roxanne Tuesing, Director of the Tucker County Senior Center, said Moore was instrumental in helping the Senior Center be built.
“He knew how badly we needed a Senior Center building and he had an architect who worked for the state. The architect told us we did not need anything that big in Tucker County, but Arch helped us secure funding through the Small Cities Block Grant Program to get the building we now have, which was built as we wanted it to be.”
“Arch Moore never forgot our state,” Tuesing said. “It didn’t matter how many years had passed since you had seen him, he always picked up right up where you had left off.”
Tuesing said she wanted to thank Arch Moore for all he did for Tucker County, from helping get the vocational school, down to the Senior Center.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. issued a statement regarding Moore.
“Gayle and I are truly saddened to learn of the passing of Governor Arch A. Moore. We send our deepest condolences to our friends Shelley, Lucy and Arch III as well as their families as they go through this difficult time. Arch was a true political force in West Virginia. Gayle and I join all West Virginians in keeping the Moore family in our thoughts and prayers during these painful days of mourning and memory.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Moore’s daughter said her father loved the state of West Virginia as if it were a member of the family.
“Serving West Virginians was at the core of his very being and he cherished every moment of it.”
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued a statement late Wednesday in which he called Moore “a towering figure in West Virginia who during his three terms worked with both Democrats and Republicans to accomplish many things to help move our state forward.”
. “I enjoyed working with him during my legislative career and appreciated his ability to negotiate and find common ground. Joanne and I extend our sympathies to Senator Shelley Moore Capito and the entire Moore family.”
The Associated Press release said the Glen Dale native was born into a family with GOP ties. A grandfather had been a mayor of Moundsville, while an uncle had been minority leader in the House of Delegates. Moore attended Marshall County schools before entering the Army during World War II. He rose to the rank of sergeant, and was awarded the Bronze Star as well as a Purple Heart after being shot and severely wounded in the European theater.
After the war, Moore attended college and became a lawyer in 1951. He entered politics the following year, winning a seat in the House of Delegates.
Moore then set his sights on Congress. After losing a 1954 bid, the Marshall County Republican narrowly won the state’s 1st District seat. He remained in the House of Representatives for six terms, surviving redistricting and winning re-election by ever-increasing margins despite the Democrats’ voter dominance.
“In my party, nothing is a cake walk,” Moore was quoted as saying in John Morgan’s 1980 biographical study of West Virginia governors. “The problem is always one of numbers. I always swim upstream. It’s the only position I’ve known in my political life.”
But he also possessed personal charisma, strong oratory gifts and an uncanny ability to recall names. In 1968, Moore defeated once and future Gov. Cecil Underwood for the GOP gubernatorial nomination after a bitter primary battle. Following a similarly combative race, he bested Democratic nominee Jim Sprouse by fewer than 13,000 votes.
Moore’s first term as governor coincided with two developments that greatly changed the office’s role in West Virginia: the Modern Budget Amendment, which authorized the governor to estimate revenues and propose spending; and another constitutional change allowing an incumbent to seek a consecutive term.
The latter helped Moore become the state’s first governor since the late 1800s to succeed himself, winning re-election over now-retired U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller. Capito, who served seven terms in the U.S. House, was elected to Rockefeller’s seat in November.
Though barred by a Supreme Court ruling from seeking another consecutive term in 1976, he landed a third term in 1984 after an unsuccessful run against then-Governor Rockefeller in 1980. He also had a losing run for the U.S. Senate in 1978.
As the only West Virginia governor to serve three full, four-year terms, Moore encountered a national coal strike; a massive road-building effort; frequent disputes with public workers; multiple teacher pay raises; a 1986 prison riot; and repeated clashes with the Democratic-majority Legislature over state finances.
But his tenure was also marked by the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. The collapse of a coal waste dam triggered a flood that killed 125 people, injured 1,100 and wiped out entire communities in Logan County. Days before leaving office in his second term, Moore settled the state’s $100 million lawsuit against dam owner Pittston Coal Co. for $1 million.
Moore’s wife, Shelley Riley Moore, died in September at the age of 88. In addition to Capito, Arch Moore is survived by daughter Lucy Moore Durbin and son Arch A. Moore III.
The funeral arrangements for Gov. Arch Moore will take place in both Charleston and his hometown of Moundsville Jan. 16-17, according to a news release from U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito.
A family receiving line is scheduled from 9:30-11 a.m. Friday at the West Virginia Culture Center, which was created upon his urging while in office.
A memorial service will take place from 11 a.m. to noon Friday in the Norman L. Fagan State Theater, inside the West Virginia Culture Center, and it will be open to the media.
A visitation is scheduled from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday at Grisell’s Funeral Home in Moundsville, and a funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at Simpson United Methodist Church in Moundsville.