MOORE, WILLIAM ARTHUR
June 26, 1942 - May 8, 2023
The lights went out for Bill Moore on May 8, 2023. A Denver resident for more than fifty years, as were his Denver mother ( Eudorah Morse Moore) and grand- mother ( Anna Reynolds Morse Garrey). Born in Los Angeles on June 26, 1942, to Eudorah and Anson Churchill Moore, his childhood was spent in Pasadena, California until attending the newly formed Colorado Rocky Mountain School ( CRMS) in Carbondale. It was a perfect match, toughening him and pushing him to grow physically and socially. After graduating he briefly attended Pasadena City College and then completed his undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of Colorado Boulder in 1964. Without a clear plan for the future, he joined the Peace Corps and worked with rural north Indian villagers to increase chicken egg- yields. Bill returned home at the height of the Vietnamwar and was about to be drafted when a vision- related issue rendered him unable to serve. Still without a clear plan, he went on a six- week mountain- climbing expedition to Afghanistan and then worked as a cowboy on Bob and Ditty Perry’s Mt. Sopris Hereford Ranch in Carbondale. During that year, he met Lorna Auguste Grindlay of Rochester, Minnesota. Lorna was working a summer faculty at CRMS while enrolled in PHD program in biological anthropology at the University of Michigan. She convinced Bill to pursue his longtime interests in geography by enrolling in a master’s degree program in regional land- use planning there. Bill and Lorna married in July 1971, settled in Denver, raised two wonderful children and remained happily for nearly 52 years.
Bill spent his career working either for the state, local governments or engineering firms doing land- use planning. He had a special talent for resolving conflicts that arose, for example, when a project for laying fiber optic cable throughout the western US resulted encroached upon a rancher’s field or a railroad right of way. Bill always found the way to meet each side’s concerns, create peace, and accomplish the important goals. He was equally adept at resolving problems for his parents, siblings, children, nieces and nephews arising from divorce, work, etc. or those encountered by his wife while navigating her teaching and research career at the downtown and medical campuses of the University of Colorado Denver. With their two children, Bill and Lorna traveled the world, spending time in Peru, Tibet, and Bolivia where Lorna and her colleagues’ research projects sought to identify the physiological and genetic mechanisms by which their multigenerational high- altitude residents were protected from hypoxic- related disorders afflicting newcomers as a means for identifying new therapies.
Bill was happiest in the mountains – at his family’s longtime log cabin on Gold Creek above Ohio City, Colorado, while summiting Colorado’s 150 highest peaks, taking long walks along alpine ridgelines, or skiing into back country huts every year ( including 2023). He practiced yoga for over 25 years, wove beautiful baskets, and was a longtime volunteer for the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
In addition to his wife and two children, Anna Auguste and John Anson, their spouses David Biagioni and Emily ( Gamble) Moore, Bill leaves behind four thriving grandchildren, Madalyn Eudorah and William August Biagioni, and Olin Anson and Juna Grindlay Moore; his three siblings, Anna Reynolds Moore, Anson Churchill Moore, and Reynolds Morse Moore, and their respective children/ Bill’s nieces and nephews -- William and Matteo Valeri and spouses Manuela Zanaboni and Valentina Cirella; Carolyn and Sarah Moore; William, Henry, and Charlotte Ogden Moore; and great niece/ nephew Isabella Eudorah and Julian Anson Moore.
Bill’s life has been one of deep and quiet grace, loving service as his family’s navigator, its rod and its staff, noble builder and keeper of the family flame. He will be profoundly missed by the many left behind who have been enriched by knowing him and benefiting from his many good deeds and kindest and most loving of hearts. A Memorial Service is planned at the First Unitarian Society of Denver in July ( update to come). Memorial contributions may be sent in Bill’s name to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad, or the charity of your choice.