Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210425
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY WALKER SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
ONE LAST ROUND
HERBERT H. Moore Jr., has always been a fighter.The Kentucky native took up boxing at age 17. Over the next few years, Moore - known variously as "Pinky," "Red," or "Tiger" - earned a string of titles, including four college crowns at Transylvania College and the Southern Golden Gloves middleweight championship.
Moore continued to box after joining the Army, which posted him to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
In 1941, Army life in Hawaii was leisurely, even dull, and Moore's ring exploits provided an exciting diversion for sportswriters and fight fans.
The top bout on the card scheduled for Dec. 12, 1941, pitted Moore, of the 3rd Engineer Combat Battalion, against Rocco Amusso of the 24th Division Artillery. A sportswriter predicted victory for Moore in the third.
"Moore is a killer and seems to take a delight in handing out a terrific body pasting," he wrote.
Just five days before Moore's scheduled bout, Japanese bombers struck Hawaii, and Moore's personal fights were all but forgotten as America plunged into world conflict.
Moore managed to remain in the thick of the action. Two and a half years later, he turned up on Utah Beach at H-Hour plus 3, building emergency landing strips for the fighter planes of the Normandy Invasion.
Today, Moore, 75, is engaged in one final fight: a drive to build an endowment fund for his beloved YMCA.
Moore is a few pounds over his old fighting weight of 160. His once-red hair is snow white. Yet, he retains the square build of a boxer and bristly crew cut of an ex-football coach.
"I've always been interested in the Y," he said. "This Y does more for this community than any other organization anywhere."
Moore began coming to the Y after he moved to Roanoke, around 1950, and was soon invited to join its board of directors. He was a prime mover behind the construction of the current facility, on Church Avenue, in 1958.
In 1988, he spearheaded a drive to create an endowment fund. "If I hadn't gone through the early stages when money was tight, I wouldn't have thought of this. I said, `We ought to have an endowment program,' and I've been working on it ever since."
The fund received a smattering of donations, mostly from wealthy long-time contributors, but failed to draw support from the community at large.
"A lot of people have the idea that `it's an Endowment Fund, unless I can give a large amount it really doesn't matter,' " said Cal Johnson, executive director of the YMCA of Roanoke Valley.
Last year, the YMCA's board of directors decided to change the direction of the endowment fund. The program was renamed the Heritage Club, and a fund-raising letter was sent to the general YMCA membership.
"The Heritage Club consists of anybody who gives," Johnson said. There is no minimum, and any type of donation is welcome - cash, real estate, bequests, insurance. Contributors receive an invitation to an annual dinner and other perks.
The fund now contains about $50,000 in cash, plus life insurance policies worth $800,000. The goal is $10 million. "It's an ongoing thing, it might take a number of years, we don't know," Moore said.
The fund will help underwrite the YMCA's youth and family programs. Every year, more than 2,000 children participate in summer day camps, before- and after-school programs, swimming lessons, sports events, and substance-abuse education.
No one is refused due to lack of money; those who can't pay receive financial assistance. "We've found this year the need is greater than we've ever seen it," Johnson said. "It's a reflection of economic conditions."
The endowment will primarily be used for children's scholarships and financial aid, helping ensure that youth programs "will never have to suffer because of economic times," Johnson said.
Moore deserves the lion's share of credit for establishing the endowment program, Johnson said. "His whole motivation and enthusiasm is unbelievable."
Eugene Hawthorne, president of Progressive Products, said he contributed to the Heritage Club out of desire to support the YMCA and out of his regard for Moore.
"Herb's been a good friend for many years," Hawthorne said. "He's been a tireless worker for the Y. He's taken that as his pet project."
Moore is dedicated to the YMCA because "it reaches out and touches every youth in the valley," said Rand Garrett, Moore's co-chairman on the endowment committee. "He's just like that . . ."
Moore has personally touched the lives of quite a few youths.
In the early 1960s he launched the football program at North Cross School, making up schedules, purchasing uniforms, and handling public relations as well as coaching. In addition, he coached sandlot football for 15 years and helped start the Salem Rebels baseball team.
He also found time to run an insurance business, Herbert H. Moore Jr. Insurance, and raise two sons with his wife, Antoinette. Alan Moore lives in Roanoke; Herbert Moore III lives in Aspen, Colo.
Moore retired from the insurance business in 1980, but remained as active as ever in the leadership of the YMCA.
And he still boxes - after a fashion. Two or three times a week, he catches a ride from his South Roanoke home to the YMCA, where he works out on the heavy and speed bags.
Although he's still physically active, his eyesight is failing and his memory isn't what it used to be. "I can't remember what I had for supper," he laments.
But he does remember the old days at the YMCA and friends who are gone.
"From the beginning, I watched it go," he said. "Most all of the people I was here with in the beginning are dead now. I can't know how much longer I have. I'd like to see the Y endowed before I die."