Deceased November 6, 2008

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In Memory

H. Bigelow Moore passed away peacefully early Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008, at Carleton-Willard Village in Bedford, Mass., where he has resided in the skilled nursing wing for the past year. He will be missed for his great courage, steadfastness and compassion. Born in Longmeadow, Mass., in 1926 and raised in Wellesley, Big graduated from W.H.S. and took a year at Phillips Academy Andover before joining the U.S. Navy in 1944. Trained in electronics at the Anacostia Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., he served aboard an LCI in the Pacific during WWII and graduated from Amherst College in 1950. He and Barb were married a year later, and Big began a long career in sales and marketing that took them to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Philadelphia before they settled in Lexington to raise their family. An active supporter of town government, Big was a town meeting member for 26 years, including time on the appropriations committee and as a T.M.M.A. officer. By far his favorite job, despite abuse and weather, was that of Lexington’s first parking control officer, which he held for about 10 “retirement” years until 2000. Always happy in and on the water, Big swam at Amherst, enjoyed sailing and canoeing in New Hampshire, and for years taught swimming at various Y.M.C.A.s. He was scout master for Boy Scout Explorer troops in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and was an active member of Lexington’s Hancock Church and of P.T.A.s wherever his children were enrolled. He leaves his wife, Barbara, and children, Richard and wife Susi Chivvis, Rebecca (Galvin) and husband Patrick, Steven and Roger; also grandchildren Ben, Jesse and Emma Galvin, and Alex and Nicole Moore. His brothers are Donald J. Moore of North Hampton, N.H., and Tubac, AZ, and David W. Moore, M.D. of Framingham.

—Mrs. Barbara Moore

A longtime friend and roommate of Big Moore’s adds the following thoughts:
“I remember how soft spoken he was. I remember his wry sense of humor. He was always interested in what I was doing. I admired his entrepreneurial spirit when he set up a snack and sandwich business junior and senior years. He contracted with a local woman in town to make the sandwiches and snacks and then peddled them in the evening in the fraternity houses and dorms, calling out: ‘Tasty goodies!’ He had a thriving business selling to hungry students in the evening after the dining hall was closed. I remember when he told me that he was going to ‘pull the head’ off the engine of his jalopy to fix something—something he had never done before and he wanted my advice. I told him that I had never done anything like that and I wouldn’t know where or how to start. The next thing I knew he had the head off, the problem fixed and the head back on. The car ran perfectly after that.”

—Pete Button ’50