John Moore of Arlington, Texas, Betty Manahan’s son and brother of Janet Moore and Vicky Mishcon, all of Andover, died on February 4 after a courageous two year battle with brain cancer, never flagging in his efforts to keep on movin’. Not one to shirk an adventure, John participated in two experimental treatments and kept his sense of humor through some arduous times in the hospital and at many happy family gatherings after the diagnosis. His family remains incredibly grateful to the doctors, nurses, and staff at Baylor, Scott & White Health in Dallas for their dedication not just to John’s well-being but to cancer research worldwide.

Johnny, son of John Van Loon Moore and Elizabeth Moore Manahan, was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1949, where he was joined by Janet in 1950 and Vicky in 1953. The family settled in State College, Pennsylvania in 1955, where they lived for 11 idyllic years. He spent much of his time outdoors, camping with the Boy Scouts and with his father, and running around the neighborhood, playing baseball and touch football, endless games of badminton and croquet, and exploring the woods and new house construction sites.

He joined the Civil Air Patrol as a teenager, where he participated in crash rescues and learned about engines and flight. He had inherited his mother’s “fixit” gene and his father’s sense of adventure and progressed from Erector sets to radios and rockets, with occasional mischief thrown in.

In 1966, the family moved to Germany for two years. John graduated from General HH Arnold High School in Wiesbaden and then attended the University of Maryland in Munich for a year before transferring to the main campus back in College Park, Maryland. He enjoyed family trips to the Austrian and German Alps, a week traveling around England, followed by a week on a canal boat, where he became the pilot and lock master, and a road trip to Spain with his buddy, Dave.

Back in “the States” he met Texan Barbara Reeves, a German professor at Penn State, and they married in 1971. John graduated from Maryland in 1972 and Sara Elizabeth was born in 1974. He applied his “fixit” skills to their Oak Hall house, but the siren call of Texas was too strong, and they moved to Austin in 1974.
John began his MBA program at the University of Texas, while Barbara worked in state government, and then Douglas John was born. The family was complete with the addition of dogs and cats, a variety of whom passed through the houses, from Austin to Colorado, Massachusetts, and Dallas. Barb finished her PhD, and they published their own computer trade journals, Data Base Publications, for many years. In Austin, they began a very active affiliation with Rotary International and sponsored four students for home stays.

When the kids were grown, John and Barb took jobs with Abacus in Denver in 2000, and shortly after arriving headed west into the mountains. Their log cabin home, situated in Golden at 9,000 feet in the Front Range, looked out to the Continental Divide. While they ran a direct marketing business, In the Wildlands, John worked on the property, clearing to the perimeter for fire safety and chinking the cabin walls. And he camped and hiked with his friends and relations: “Oh, just another 20 minutes or so…”

Sara had married James, and thus began the succession of rescued Great Danes, a calm breed but altogether too clever for the cabin’s pantry door locks. Doug and Katie married and settled nearby in Loveland. And then a job at Harvard Business Review cropped up, and eastward flew Barb and John in 2011.

Although John enjoyed the challenges and perks of working at “The Review,” Texas lured them back in 2016 with an executive officer’s job at Comerica Bank in Dallas. It was a homecoming in a way: the weather was familiar, and the kids were much closer, and the house and yard projects had a familiar ring – frogs in the pool, anyone? Six grandchildren lived within driving distance, and when they all visited Grandpa and Baba, the house fairly rocked with exuberance.

But it wasn’t for long enough; in 2017 John was diagnosed with glioblastoma. He should have been a husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and grandpa for much longer, but he’ll live in our hearts and memories forever. If you want a glimpse into those wonderful memories, just ask Vicky or Janet about the fun-filled week at a dude ranch in Montana or the island adventure in Maine two years ago with the whole family!