Rev. Robert Moore

February 15, 2001

Rev. Robert S. Moore, 83, ex-seminary dean
Chicago Sun-Times
February 28, 2001

BY BRENDA WARNER ROTZOLL STAFF REPORTER

Farm boy Robert S. Moore earned a degree in chemical engineering, but job offers in 1939 to make sticky things stickier or whiskey cheaper didn't appeal to him.

He had enjoyed his two years as head of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Michigan. So he enrolled at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park, earning his theology degree in 1942 and winning a spunky bride who joined him in a lifetime of fighting for peace and social justice.

Mr. Moore led integration battles in the 1960s, helped found programs for underprivileged children and developmentally handicapped adults, and recruited seminary students, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. John Buchanan, head of Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue.

Mr. Moore, who was born in Lennon, Mich., died Feb. 15 of lymphoma at the University of Chicago Hospitals, two hours after collapsing at home. He was 83.

His first brush with injustice came in February of 1942, when he took the pretty theology student he was dating to a movie. The "buy bonds" propaganda trailer between films showed the blood of a Japanese soldier dripping into the water, then turning into one of the red stripes of the U.S. flag.

He and Viola Lindblad were so sickened that they refused to stand for a recording of "The Star Spangled Banner"--and a policeman there to watch "Dumbo" arrested them, although no law required them to stand.

They spent a night in jail. The next month, they married, the start of 59 years together. He became a Methodist minister, she a Congregational minister who also was certified by the Unitarian Universalist church.

Mr. Moore served Methodist parishes in Wisconsin, Vermont and New York before becoming dean of the Chicago Theological Seminary in 1955, a position he held for 20 years. The same year, he became legally blind.

He traveled the nation recruiting students to the seminary. At North Carolina A&T State University, he persuaded a young football player named Jesse Jackson to come north for his religious education.

Another of his recruits was the Rev. John Buchanan, now senior minister at Fourth Presbyterian. "He combined the best of the Protestant tradition of a scholarly ministry which is also warmly pastoral and personal," Buchanan said. "Students at Chicago Theological Seminary were his sons and daughters. He was also a scholar. He was extraordinarily well read and well versed in what was going on in the world, big issues of human rights and politics."

In the early 1960s, Bret Harte Elementary School was all-white and had empty classrooms, while nearby Murray was all-black and bulging at the seams. Mr. Moore was president of the PTA at Bret Harte and was threatened with violence when he suggested taking in the extra Murray students. Eventually, though, he prevailed.

For 32 years, he served on the board of Ada S. McKinley Community Services, chairing the committee overseeing such programs as Upward Bound, Parents Too Soon, five Head Start programs, and homes for developmentally retarded adults. One of those homes, Moore House, is named for him.

He was minister for eight years at Elsdon Peace United Methodist Church in Chicago. His final ministry was at the Hegewisch United Methodist Church.

Mr. Moore is survived by his wife, the Rev. Viola L. Moore; two sons, Henry and David; two daughters, Kristin Hay and Rachel Moore; a foster son, Silo Rodriguez; and six grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on March 17 at First Unitarian Church of Hyde Park, 57th and Woodlawn.