Jack Moore, 97 of Gainesville, FL passed away on Sunday February 26, 2017 in Gainesville. He was born February 28, 1919 in St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville, FL. In 1934 he moved to the Moore family farm in North Columbia County, and graduated from Columbia High School in Lake City in 1937. In the fall of 1937 he left home on his own to work his way through the University of Florida in Gainesville. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture with honors in 1942.
In the fall of 1942 he enlisted in the United States Navy, and went through midshipmen’s school at Columbia University. In 1943 he married Edith Schenck of Lake City, the valedictorian of their high school graduating class, after five years of courtship. In September 1943 he left the United States as an ensign on the USS Pierce, an attack transport, and spent the next three years from Hawaii to Japan in the amphibious forces of the U.S. Navy, participating in five major landings, including Iwo Jima.
In 1947 he was asked by Sanford W. Goin to come to Gainesville as an associate in his firm to serve as Project Architect during the construction of the Florida Gymnasium, the first post war project constructed at the University of Florida. In 1950 he became a partner in the firm of Goin and Moore, and remained partner in the firm until his retirement in 1986.
He has been a member of the First Baptist Church since 1941, serving as a Sunday School Teacher for twenty years, and as a deacon since 1952. Jack was one of six persons who organized the Kiwanis Club of the University City, and maintained perfect attendance for 51 years following its founding in 1955. Mr. Moore was made a Master Mason in 1950, and has been a member of Gainesville Lodge No. 41 F&AM since that time.
On October 24, 1997, Edith Schenck Moore passed away after 54 years of marriage, as the result of a heart attack. In 1998 Jack married longtime friend Ina Taylor Hartman, who passed away on March 29, 2009. He was also preceded in death by his brother Bascomb Guy Moore, Jr., sisters Mamie Parsons and Eloise Stephens, and a half brother, John Moore.
Family members surviving include daughter Joyce Kai and her husband Michael; granddaughter Eleanor Kwong and her husband Wesley; granddaughter Rachel Walker and her husband David; great grandchildren Genevieve, Nathaniel, Gabriel and Xavier Kwong; half-sister Linda Douberly; step children Michael and Sharon Hartman, Frank and Patricia Hartman, William and Peggy Hartman.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday March 4, 2017 at First Baptist Church 14105 NW 39th Avenue Gainesville, FL 32606. Interment will be later the same day at Forest Meadows East in Gainesville. For those who wish, memorial contributions may be made to First Baptist Church, or to Gainesville Community Ministries, 238 SW 4th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601.
