Robert Moore

Lt. Col. Robert Everett Moore

Tenure:

1966 - 1981

Education:

(1935) A.B., Stanford University

(1964) M.A., San Francisco State College*

Notes:

Creative Writing Program, Originator and Coordinator

Department Chair, 1969 - 1970

^{*Sources disagree on whether Moore completed his master's degree at San Francisco State College or George Washington University.}

1986
Source: The Gallery: A 25th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1987. p82.
1935 Stanford University graduate
Source: Quad Yearbook, Class of 1935. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University, 1935. p93. Digitally reprinted with permission, courtesy of Stanford Digital Repository and Online Archive of California.
1970
Source: Gallery: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Administration, Faculty, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College, 1970. p28. [Image cropped.]
1974
Source: The Gallery, 1974: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1974. p73.

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Background and Bio

In 1931, Robert Everett Moore began attending Stanford University as an ROTC student, where, as a member of Sequoia house,¹ Moore developed a penchant for reader’s theater in plays such as Alexander Afinogenyev’s Fear. On February 28, 1934, just before the spring Military Ball, Lieutenant-Colonel D. C. Cubbison, professor of military science and tactics, promoted cadet Robert E. Moore to Field Artillery First Lieutenant. Now married, Moore earned his 1935 baccalaureate in Philosophy and moved with his wife to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he resumed his earlier career as haberdasher and salesman for his father’s business. In January of 1942, in the aftermath of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, 1st Lieutenant Robert E. Moore was called to active duty.²

By 1966, Moore had completed post-graduate studies, and the following year he accepted a position in Grossmont Junior College’s English Department, where Moore rediscovered his passion for writing, publishing a poem in the February 1966 issue of English Journal. Meanwhile, several of his other colleagues had been propositioned by textbook publishers to write college-level English textbooks. Prompted by former Chair Bob Danielson and guided by then Chair George Kirazian, Moore struck out on his own to write a textbook with the unorthodox title of The Bright Blue Plymouth Station Wagon: An English Text for People Who Hate English (copyrighted to Grossmont College). With publishers Boyd and Fraser's release of Bright Blue Plymouth Station Wagon at the end of June, 1969, Moore was quickly emboldened to begin work on another, this time about a subject that had become very near and dear to his heart and his professional repertoire.

In his first semester, Moore taught basic skills courses in English and Essentials of Literature. For a few months in the Fall 1969 semester, however, Moore reduced his teaching load to just two sections of English Essentials to take the helm as interim Chair of the English Department, during which time he would hire part-time instructor Verena C. Anderson, who would be responsible for the creation of First Draft, Grossmont College's first literary journal.

With his return to a regular teaching schedule in fall of 1970, Moore would once again teach two sections of Creative Writing that would start a lifelong love affair with the craft of creative writing and lead Moore to start Grossmont College’s very first official Creative Writing Program. In consequence, Moore began compiling his lessons, exercises, and guidelines for beginning creative writers into a new textbook, which was published in 1974 by Boyd and Fraser, So You Want To Be a Writer. Though he would occasionally foray into other literature courses, such as Bible as Literature or one-off course offerings with intriguing titles like his Fall 1977 course, "Special Studies in Literature: Mindblowers," Moore would predominantly teach introductory Creative Writing classes until his final semester, in fall 1980.

By spring of 1981, however, the 67-year-old Robert E. Moore called it quits and retired altogether from teaching. However, having taught the subject of creative writing for fifteen years, Moore would now finally have the time to compose the works that had been brewing in him for half his life. In 1994, he completed a manuscript of his World War II memoir, Upstarts: Memories of the 915th Field Artillery Battalion and the 359th Regimental Combat Team of the 90th Division in World War Two. Ten years later, he would publish his novel, The Imperial Maud, a Regency period romance/mystery. The Imperial Maud was to be Robert E. Moore’s swan song. At the end of April 2009, Moore's wife died, and a few months later, in June, Lt. Col. Robert E. Moore, himself, passed away.

¹_{In January of 1934, Moore received a tongue-in-cheek diploma of award for Meritorious Courage, the full title of which was the “Degree of Chevrolet of the Academy of Moustache Raisers and the Shining Moon of the Order of Sissy-Kissers, First Class.” Signed by more than fifty members of the Sequoia Eating Club, the award praised Moore for his bravery in shaving off the left half of his mustache and for breaking etiquette by bringing his girlfriend to the Roble formal dance. That girlfriend who would scandalize Moore’s peers was, in fact, his wife.}_{Bob had met and proposed to Marianne Eleanor Clough Tyler (better known as Mary Ann Tyler) shortly after beginning studies at Stanford, and at the start of his third year, on September 29, 1933, Bob and Mary Ann married in San Francisco.}

²_{After the U.S. joined the war, Moore held a reserve commission at Camp Barkeley in Abelene, Texas until August of 1943. It was here that Moore first became acquainted with Navajo code talker Philip Yazzie, who would later settle in Santa Fe and befriend his father, E.P. Moore. At Camp Barkeley, Moore and his 90th Division colleagues embarked a train to the west coast for a mock battle in the California-Arizona deserts. On the return journey to the east coast, and six months later, in March, 1944, Lieutenant Robert E. Moore and his 90th Division set sail for England to prepare for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Afterward, Moore was promoted to a Major and received the Bronze Star, as well as the European theater of operations ribbon with five battle stars. At the close of World War II, on October 25, 1945, Major Robert E. Moore returned to settle into a civilian life with his family in Abilene, Texas.}

_{However, five years later, in September of 1950, Lt. Col. Robert E. Moore became Commanding Office of the 102nd Quartermaster Group assigned to the New England 43rd Division of National Guardsmen. The 43rd Division was ordered into active Federal Service and sailed to Europe as part of NATO forces to defend Germany against a potential Soviet attack on Europe. Less than four years later, in June of 1954, the 43rd Division was released, and Moore once again returned to Texas.}

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Shmuel Ben-Gad, Reference Librarian at Gelman Library of George Washington University, and to Jennifer King, Interim Collections Coordinator and Manuscripts Librarian, Special Collections Research Center of George Washington University, for their assistance with Bob Moore’s master’s thesis.
A considerable debt of gratitude is also owed to Grossmont College retiree Tom Scanlan, responsible for the GCCCD Grapevine Retiree Newsletter and now for coordinating the Grossmont College Retirees Facebook group. Tom met with me for a truly enjoyable hour of storytelling, some friendly banter about archival researching, a welcome amount of nostalgia, and many helpful details about Bob Moore and other retirees of the Grossmont College English Department. My biographical research into Robert E. Moore was at a complete standstill until Tom’s assisted me with a record of Bob’s most recent phone number—proof that, in archival and historical research, a single fact discovered can be a capillary of data that leads to an invaluable motherlode of information. Thank you, Tom.

Publications

“Apostrophe to the Ocean—And Heave It In!” English Journal 55.2 (February 1966): 198-200.
The Bright Blue Plymouth Station Wagon: An English Text for People Who Hate English. El Cajon, CA: (Robert E. Moore) Grossmont College, 1 Jul 1969.
The Imperial Maud. New York: iUniverse, 2004.
"Pops Martin." Memoir. Cowles Mountain Journal vol. 7 (1997): p52-53.
So You Want To Be a Writer. San Francisco: Boyd & Fraser Pub. Co., 1974.
Upstarts: Memories of the 915th Field Artillery Battalion and the 359th Regimental Combat Team of the 90th Division in World War Two. La Mesa, CA: Robert E. Moore, 1994.
Upstarts: Memories of the 915th Field Artillery Battalion and the 359th Regimental Combat Team of the 90th Division in World War Two. 2nd Edition. La Mesa, CA: Robert E. Moore, 1997.

Sources

"Armony Board Appointed by Gov. Seligman." The Roswell Daily Record (Roswell, NM) 22 April 1931: p8.
Bernheim, Phil. "Dramatists Please In Soviet Play Reading." Stanford Daily (Stanford, CA) 1 February 1935: p1.
"Bids on Home Guard Uniforms Put Up to Board." Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM) 5 August 1941: p1.
"Capital Briefs." The Gallup Independent (Gallup, NM) 4 August 1941: p1.
"COM Z—Lt Col Robert E. Moore, C.O. of the 102d QM Gp at Metzis ." European Stars And Stripes Newspaper Archive 2 October 1954: p7.
"Gov. Dempsey Appoints Members of Board." Clovis News-Journal (Clovis, NM) 26 January 1943: p1.
"Like Manuevers, Except It’s Real Thing, Ex-Barkley Man [Moore] Says of Action." Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX) 16 July 1944: p8.
"Moore, Robert E." The Gallery, 1970: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1970. p28.
_____. The Gallery, 1974: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1974. p73.
_____. The Gallery: A 25th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1987. p82.
“90th Major Docks In New York Harbor.” Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX) 24 October 1945: p22.
Mrs. Robert E. Moore has recently received information…." Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX) 20 February 1945: p15.
“90th Major Docks In New York Harbor.” Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX) 3 October 1945: p14.
"Pacific Vets Return to States." Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, TX) 19 January 1946: p3.
Quad Yearbook. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, 1934, 1935.
"Regular Army Nominees." Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, TX) 29 June 1946: p12.
Scanlan, Tom. "The Imperial Maud, Robert E. Moore." Review. GCCCD Grapevine Vol. 14, No. 3 (November 2004): p8.
"Sequoia Man [Robert Moore] Sacrifices Self, Shaves Mustache." Stanford Daily 9 January 1934: p1.
"State Armory Board Revised This Week." The Deming Headlight (Deming, NM) 1 August 1941: p1.

Hiring Lineage

George Kirazian, Chair (1966-1967):

Fidelia Dickinson (hired summer 1966, quit by Sep. 1966)
George M. Peranteau 1966-1968* (terminated)
Harold Loumeau 1966-1968* (terminated)
Robert E. Moore 1966-1981 (Chair 1969-1970)
C. Frank Vittor 1966-1982 (Chair 1970-1972)
Vesta Penrod Gibbs 1966-1983
Judith C. Barkley 1966-1999
Glenn A. Lane, II 1967-1991
Stanford T. Carlson 1967-1991
Frederick J. Stollenwerk 1967-1999 (Chair 1972-1974)

Last Updated: 12/15/2018

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