Rev. Wallace D. Moore captivated audiences with his unassuming manner, whether he was recalling his childhood in the Depression-era South, preaching in Presbyterian churches or telling stories in ordinary conversation.
“I think he had a gentleness about him and a great ability to communicate,” said a longtime friend and colleague, Peter Mulvey. “You couldn’t help but love talking with him.”
Over the course of four decades, Rev. Moore served as pastor for several churches across the Midwest.
“We just made friends wherever we went,” said his wife, Evalyn.
Rev. Moore, 77, who for 22 years served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Wilmette, died Thursday, June 8, in McGaw Care Center in Evanston of prostate cancer, his wife said.
Rev. Moore and his wife in 1990 moved into Westminster Place, an Evanston retirement community, where he also headed the chaplain program for Presbyterian Homes, the company that owns the facility. In four years in that role, he counseled and ministered to residents and mentored 20 interns from a local seminary on how to work with older people.
Later, as director of development, he was the driving force behind Presbyterian’s Neighborhood Homes Program, which established two buildings of affordable senior housing in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.
“I think his enthusiasm for helping the elderly in need was contagious,” said Mulvey, the president and chief executive of Presbyterian Homes.
Mulvey, who met him in 1981, called Rev. Moore a “multidimensional person” who enjoyed travel, was learned in history and theology and even wrote a memoir.
“His qualities just seemed endless,” Mulvey said. “These were sort of wrapped up in a Southern gentleman.”
Rev. Moore was born in the small town of Waycross, Ga., where his father worked at a local lumberyard. The family lived near Okefenokee Swamp.
As a boy, Rev. Moore loved to build things. Once he and a friend built a boat out of old boards, but instead of using caulk to seal the cracks, the boys used wagon grease. A short time into the craft’s maiden voyage, it disintegrated and he was left flailing in neck-deep water.
Rev. Moore also loved to read.
“He wasn’t into sports, but he did find the library,” his wife said. “I’m sure the library [in Waycross] wasn’t very large; I think he read every book they had.”
With the country still in the Depression, Rev. Moore’s father in the late 1930s moved the family to New Orleans, where he had gone searching for work.
Rev. Moore went to Tulane University and graduated in 1951, a year after he and his wife married.
The couple moved to Chicago soon after, where Rev. Moore attended McCormick Theological Seminary.
He took his first job in 1953 as pastor at a church in Edwardsburg, Mich. He also served at churches in Plymouth, Ind., and Midland, Mich. In 1968, the family moved to Wilmette, where Rev. Moore became senior pastor at First Presbyterian.
In addition to his wife, survivors include a younger brother, Clyde; two daughters, Jane Lester and Sarah Elmiger; two sons, Mark and Jonathan; and six grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in First Presbyterian Church of Wilmette, 600 9th St., Wilmette.
———-
alwang@tribune.com
