In Memoriam: Tom Moore, Jr.
April 3, 2020–It is with heavy hearts that we today confirm the passing of our longtime Board Secretary and friend, Tom Moore, Jr.
Tom, 86, passed away peacefully at his home on March 24th. He was a loyal friend, supporter and board member throughout Operation USA’s 40 years. This morning, our CEO and President, Richard Walden, shared these memories of him:
Tom was like a big brother—advising me when I was a brash 30-year-old CA Commissioner of Hospitals in 1977. Two years later Tom and his close pal Dr. Paul O’Rourke joined our first Operation California board. Tom was a union man through and through—he especially loved the Longshoremen’s Union in the Bay Area–and was respected for his encyclopedic knowledge of benefit programs and community-based health care. He was our original link to Kaiser in the early 80s. I loved him and I really loved his anger at injustice!!
Our thoughts are with all Tom’s family and friends at this time as we honor Tom and celebrate his life.
Read his obituary below.
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Thomas Garland Moore, Jr.
1933-2020
Thomas G. Moore, Jr. died peacefully at home on March 24, 2020 in Richmond, California. He was 86.
Tom’s life was dedicated to bringing health care to as many people as possible. He held senior policy and management positions in federal and state governments, including Director of California Department of Social Welfare, Director of the Office of Legislation for the U.S. Public Health Service, and Deputy Director of California Department of Health Services for the Prepaid Health Plan program in MediCal.
As a health policy and program consultant, Tom contributed to the development of community based health delivery systems, including On Lok Senior Health Services in San Francisco, a national model for aging in place with health and supportive services, and worked for two decades alongside organized labor to defend and expand affordable access to high quality health care for working families.
Tom loved the Bay Area, always seeking to engage anyone in enthusiastic talk of fly-fishing, politics, opera, coffee making, and the latest astonishing facts in Harper’s Index. His restless curiosity, blunt wit, humanism, and wide-ranging interests in literature, politics, history, and music will not be forgotten by his loving children, Thomas, Katherine and Martine, his long-time partner, Sally, his sister and brother, Michela and Barron, his former wife, Avery, and other family and friends whose love and friendship he cherished over the decades.
A life well-lived.