Arch Alfred Moore Jr. (April 16, 1923 – January 7, 2015) was an American lawyer and Republican politician from
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
. He began his political career as a state legislator in 1952. He was elected the
28th and 30th governor of West Virginia, serving from 1969 until 1977 and again from 1985 until 1989, he is the longest-serving West Virginia Governor in state history with 12 years of service. He is the father of
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito
Shelley Wellons Moore Capito ( ; born November 26, 1953) is an American politician and retired educator serving as the junior United States senator from West Virginia since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Capito served as the U.S. rep ...
.
Amid allegations of corruption, Moore ran for reelection in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
, but was defeated by Democrat
Gaston Caperton
William Gaston Caperton III (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician who served as the 31st Governor of West Virginia from 1989 to 1997. He was president of the College Board, which administers the nationally recognized SAT and AP te ...
. He was eventually prosecuted for and pleaded guilty to five felony charges. In 1990, he was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison, serving over three years before his release. As a result of his conviction, Moore was
disbarred and forfeited his state pension. In 1995, he paid a settlement of $750,000 to the state.
Early life
Moore was born in
Moundsville, West Virginia
Moundsville is a city in Marshall County, West Virginia, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia metropolitan area. The population was 8,122 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County. T ...
, in the state's industrial northern panhandle, the son of Genevieve (née Jones) and Archie Alfred Moore. He was born into a political family. His grandfather, Forest Taylor Moore (1859-1950), was a ten-term delegate and minority leader in the West Virginia House of Delegates and his uncle, Everett Franklin Moore (1885-1965), was also a politician.
Moore excelled at basketball while attending Moundsville High School. Upon graduation, he worked in a factory and on an oil pipeline.
He briefly attended
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...
in
Easton, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...
, before he was drafted for
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
service. He was in the
Army Specialized Training Program
The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) was a military training program instituted by the United States Army during World War II to meet wartime demands both for junior officers and soldiers with technical skills. Conducted at 227 American u ...
training to be an engineer, but military manpower requirements changed and he was sent to the
infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...
. Assigned to the 334th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the
84th Infantry Division, he received a disfiguring wound in the jaw from enemy machine gun fire in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, November 1944. Moore was left for dead for two days in a German farmer's beet field
after 33 of the 36 members of his platoon died in battle.
Following his wounding, he was transferred to Liege, Belgium, where he underwent facial reconstruction surgery. Because the bullet that had wounded him passed through his tongue, he was not able to speak for about a year after his wounding.
Public speaking, a skill he would later exercise while holding public office, was part of his physical therapy.
He would give "lectures" to troops on their way to the front lines.
Sergeant Moore was decorated with the
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...
,
Bronze Star
The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious achievement, or meritorious service in a combat zone.
Wh ...
,
Combat Infantryman's Badge
The Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) is a United States Army military decoration. The badge is awarded to infantrymen and Special Forces soldiers in the rank of colonel and below, who fought in active ground combat while assigned as members of e ...
and
European Theater of Operations Ribbon with three battle stars.
He then entered
West Virginia University
West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...
graduating in 1948 and then from its law school in 1951. While at WVU, he was involved with student government and founded "Mountaineer Week," a celebration of West Virginia culture in response to his perception that the growing number of out-of-state students at the school were changing its character. The event has become a permanent part of the school's calendar. He was also a member of the Beta Psi chapter of
Beta Theta Pi at West Virginia University and was a recipient of the fraternity's Oxford Cup.
After graduating from law school, Moore returned to Moundsville to practice law with his uncle, Everett Moore.
Congressional career, 1957–1969
Moore was elected to the
West Virginia House of Delegates
The West Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the West Virginia Legislature. Only three states—Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia—refer to their lower house as the House of Delegates.
Organization
Regular sessions begin with ...
in 1952. In 1954, Moore made his first run for the US Congress, challenging incumbent Democratic Congressman
Bob Mollohan, but lost. In 1956, Moore was elected to the seat following Mollohan having vacated it to run for Governor of West Virginia, a race Mollohan eventually lost to Republican
Cecil Underwood
Cecil Harland Underwood (November 5, 1922 – November 24, 2008) was an American Republican Party politician from West Virginia, known for the length of his career.
He was the 25th and 32nd Governor of West Virginia from 1957 to 1961, and from ...
. In 1962, his district was merged with the 3rd District of longtime Democratic incumbent
Cleveland M. Bailey; Moore won by just 762 votes. Moore was subsequently re-elected in 1966, before seeking the governor's office in 1968. He served a total of six terms in Congress from 1952 through 1969.
His terms in the House were marked by strong support for public works projects and for civil rights. Moore voted in favor of the
Civil Rights Acts of 1957,
1960
It is also known as the "Year of Africa" because of major events—particularly the independence of seventeen African nations—that focused global attention on the continent and intensified feelings of Pan-Africanism.
Events
January
* Jan ...
,
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
, and
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
, as well as the
24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moore became the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Nationality in 1960.
Governor of West Virginia, 1969–1977
Moore was elected to his first term as governor in
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* Janu ...
, defeating
Cecil H. Underwood in the Republican primary and Democrat
James Marshall Sprouse in the general election. Just two days before the general election, on November 3, 1968, Moore was in a helicopter crash in
Lincoln County. He and West Virginia Supreme Court candidate Dennis Knapp were on their way to the town of
Hamlin Hamlin may refer to:
Places
* Hamlin, Iowa, a city
* Hamlin, Kansas, a city
* Hamlin, Kentucky, a town
* Hamlin, Maine, a town
* Hamlin, Michigan, a former community
* Hamlin, New York, a town
** Hamlin (CDP), New York, a census-designated pl ...
to campaign when their pilot crash landed the helicopter on the Hamlin High School football field in an attempt to avoid power lines. Moore sustained a ruptured leg muscle and two broken ribs in the crash, while Knapp suffered a broken collar bone. After winning the election, Moore told reporters he thought "the Lord voted for me" via the crash.
The state's Constitution, which had formerly had a one-term
term limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...
and provided for a weak governor system, was amended in 1968 to strengthen the powers of the governor and in 1970 to provide for a two-term limit. Moore became the first person re-elected governor in
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
, defeating
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...
.
A notable event of Moore's first term was the 1969 strike of the state's highway workers. From March 3–11, over 2,600 of these workers struck in an attempt to get the state to recognize their union. Moore summarily fired those who had walked off the job, later citing this act as a matter of state safety.
530 of the highway workers who went on strike were able to reclaim their jobs after the strike was over, but more than 2,000 of them were permanently dismissed. Moore's stance during this strike was markedly different from actions on labor that he took later in his Governorship. He would go on to advocate for insurance benefits of hospital workers and pay increases for teachers and other school staff. Furthermore, he pressured the West Virginia legislature to increase workers compensation benefits by 75% and helped to settle a national strike of coal miners.
Moore's first two terms as governor are best remembered for improvements in the state's highway system and for the
Buffalo Creek Flood disaster. During Moore's first two terms as governor, West Virginia built over of
interstate highways through mountainous terrain and the
New River Gorge Bridge
The New River Gorge Bridge is a steel arch bridge long over the New River Gorge near Fayetteville, West Virginia, in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. With an arch long, the New River Gorge Bridge was the world's longest sin ...
, once the world's longest steel arch bridge. This building was made possible by The Roads Development Amendment (1968), a $350 million bond amendment that gave the State of West Virginia the ability to match Federal highway funding to the state, as well as the Better Roads Amendment (1964), a $200 million bond issue.
By the end of Moore's tenure as governor, all of
I-79
Interstate 79 (I-79) is an Interstate Highway in the eastern United States, designated from I-77 in Charleston, West Virginia, north to Pennsylvania Route 5 (PA 5) and PA 290 in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a primary thoroughfare ...
,
I-64
Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchang ...
,
I-68
Interstate 68 (I-68) is a Interstate Highway in the US states of West Virginia and Maryland, connecting I-79 in Morgantown, West Virginia, to I-70 in Hancock, Maryland. I-68 is also Corridor E of the Appalachian Development Highway Syst ...
, and the
West Virginia Turnpike (I-77) were completed.
Moore was actively involved in the
National Governors Association
The National Governors Association (NGA) is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association's members are the governors of the 55 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come to the association from across the politica ...
during his tenure as Governor of West Virginia. He was chair of this organization from 1971 to 1972.
Corruption charges and trial
In 1975 Moore and his 1972 campaign manager were accused by federal prosecutors of extorting $25,000 from the president of a holding company seeking a state charter for a new bank. Both were acquitted in 1976.
Buffalo Creek settlement
In the last week of his second term in 1977, Moore accepted a $1 million payment from
Pittston Coal Company
Pittston is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The city gained prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an active anthracite coal ...
to settle accounts from the Buffalo Creek Disaster. The state had initially sued for $100 million, half of which was slated to cover cleanup and restoration expenses. The reduced settlement accepted by Moore did not come close to covering the $9.5 million cleanup costs expended by the federal government; in 1988, these costs were reimbursed by the State of West Virginia. The government had been warned as early as the late 1960s of the instability of the
Buffalo Creek gob dams, yet the state failed to take measures to prevent the accident from occurring.
Moore is also remembered for several other incidents stemming from the
Buffalo Creek Disaster. After the flood, the governor attempted to use disaster relief funds to build a limited access superhighway through the hollow to connect
Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States:
* Logan County, Arkansas
* Logan County, Colorado
* Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895)
* Logan County, Illinois
* Logan County, Kansas
* Logan County, ...
with
Raleigh County. Several hundred properties were purchased via eminent domain by the state for the right-of-way and a two lane road was reconstructed back up the hollow. The highway, however, failed to materialize. Subsequently, in many cases, the state refused to sell the former owners back their land.
Moore had also made a promise to residents of Buffalo Creek Hollow to construct a community center as part of the rebuilding effort. However, in the end, the center promised by Moore and the State of West Virginia was never built.
Arnold & Porter
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP is an American multinational law firm. A white-shoe firm, Arnold & Porter is among the largest law firms in the world, by both revenue and by its number of lawyers.
History
Arnold & Porter was founded in 1946 ...
, a Washington, D.C. law firm, handled a lawsuit filed by approximately 600 survivors, which resulted in a settlement of $13.5 million, or roughly $13,000.00 per person after legal fees. Arnold & Porter took a portion of the legal fees paid to them and had the community center constructed in the hollow at their expense.
In a 2007 interview with
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) is the public television and radio state network serving the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is owned by the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Authority, an agency of the state government that holds the li ...
, Moore claimed that he had nothing to do with the state's lawsuit against the Pittston Coal Company. Rather, it was the state's Attorney General,
Chauncey H. Browning Jr. who handled the suit under the direction of laws passed by the state legislature. In Moore's words, he was blamed by unfair newspaper reports for the inequitable settlement because his signature appeared on its final documents. Moore claims that the lawyers from the Pittston Coal Company insisted that he sign these documents, though he had nothing to do with their contents.
U.S. Senate race, 1978
In 1976 Moore was
legally barred from seeking a third term and declined to challenge
Robert C. Byrd for a seat in the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
. Instead, he began a two-year campaign for the state's other Senate seat, which was expected to be vacated by the aging
Jennings Randolph
Jennings Randolph (March 8, 1902May 8, 1998) was an American politician from West Virginia. A Democrat, he was most notable for his service in the United States House of Representatives from 1933 to 1947 and the United States Senate from 1958 to ...
in 1978. To the surprise of almost all observers, the obviously declining Randolph stood for re-election. His campaign was entirely financed by then-governor Rockefeller, as Randolph's six-year term as Senator and a theoretical second Rockefeller term as governor would both expire in 1984, permitting Rockefeller to run for an open seat. Moore was outspent by 5 to 1 in this election, and lost by 4,717 votes.
Third term as Governor of West Virginia, 1985–1989
In
1980 Moore sought his third term as governor. Rockefeller outspent him by a figure of 20 to 1, and Moore again lost in a close contest.
In
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
Moore once again ran for governor when Rockefeller made a successful bid for Senate. He defeated State House Speaker
Clyde See
Clyde McNeill See Jr. (October 20, 1941 – April 6, 2017) was a West Virginia politician and lawyer. See served as Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1979 to 1985 and was the Democratic nominee for Governor of West Virginia ...
to become the only West Virginia governor to be elected to three terms in office. He again turned his attention to highways, and saw the completion in 1988 of the last major section of
interstate highway in the country, which had been left unbuilt during the Rockefeller terms. He was soundly defeated for reelection in
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...
by
Gaston Caperton
William Gaston Caperton III (born February 21, 1940) is an American politician who served as the 31st Governor of West Virginia from 1989 to 1997. He was president of the College Board, which administers the nationally recognized SAT and AP te ...
.
Federal conviction
In 1990, after an extensive federal investigation, Moore pleaded guilty to five
felonies
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
, including mail fraud, tax fraud, extortion, and obstruction of justice.
He agreed to plead guilty after he was told that federal investigators had taped him
conspiring with his former
campaign manager, John Leaberry, to
obstruct the investigation into his activities. Moore pleaded guilty to an indictment that said he accepted illegal payments from lobbyists during his 1984 and 1988 election campaigns, which he failed to report on his Federal income tax returns for 1984 and 1985. Furthermore, he also plead guilty to
extorting
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...
more than $573,000 from Maben Energy Corporation, a coal company based in the town of
Beckley, and obstructed the investigation of this activity. Moore had helped Maben receive a refund of $2 million from the state's Black Lung Fund, an aid program for miners with the disease, in exchange for roughly 25% of this sum.
For these crimes, Moore was fined $3.2 million, though he paid only $750,000, after reaching a settlement. He was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison.
Of this sentence, Moore served two years and eight months in federal prison in Alabama and Kentucky and four months of home confinement at his home in
Glen Dale,
Marshall County.
After his guilty plea, Moore tried repeatedly to withdraw it. The
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:
* District of Maryland ...
rebuffed his attempts to withdraw his plea in April 1991, and the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
refused his arguments in October 1995. For the remainder of his life, Moore continued to maintain his innocence. He later claimed that he made the plea based on bad advice. In an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting he said: "I followed advice that I got, that advice was not the right advice."
As a result of his conviction, Moore was disbarred. In the last decades of his life he tried vehemently to get his law license reinstated. When asked why he wanted to be reinstated, Moore cited his childhood desire to become a lawyer. "It's something I always was and something I always wanted to be," he said in a 2007 interview.
He was unsuccessful.
Personal life
Moore married
Shelley Riley in 1949. The two had met while students at WVU. They have three children. His daughter
Shelley Moore Capito
Shelley Wellons Moore Capito ( ; born November 26, 1953) is an American politician and retired educator serving as the junior United States senator from West Virginia since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Capito served as the U.S. rep ...
is the current junior United States senator from West Virginia. Moore's grandchildren,
Moore Capito and
Riley Moore
Riley Moore (born July 1, 1980) is an American politician who has served as state treasurer of West Virginia since January 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the West Virginia House of Delegates for the 67th district. ...
, are also politicians.
Moore died in Charleston on January 7, 2015, at the age of 91, four days after his daughter, Shelley Moore Capito, was sworn into the United States Senate. When asked about his legacy, he said he was proud of his three terms as governor. "You'll run into Arch Moore stories for the rest of your life, and nine and half out of ten will be positive," he told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in 2007. "I'm still working on the other half."
In 2006 former West Virginia Tax Commissioner Brad Crouser, who served during Governor Moore's third term, published the first biography of Moore, ''Arch: The Life of Governor Arch A. Moore Jr.''
Moore's political papers are housed at the
West Virginia and Regional History Center
The West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC), is the largest archival collection housing documents and manuscripts involving West Virginia and the surrounding central Appalachian region. Because of name changes over the years, it is some ...
at West Virginia University. This collection contains documents from his time as a Congressman and governor.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
Biography of Arch A. Moore Jr.*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Arch A. Jr.
1923 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American politicians
Methodists from West Virginia
United States Army personnel of World War II
American politicians convicted of fraud
Disbarred American lawyers
Republican Party governors of West Virginia
Lafayette College alumni
Republican Party members of the West Virginia House of Delegates
Military personnel from West Virginia
Moore family of West Virginia
People convicted of obstruction of justice
People from Glen Dale, West Virginia
People from Moundsville, West Virginia
Politicians convicted of extortion under color of official right
Politicians convicted of mail and wire fraud
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from West Virginia
United States Army soldiers
West Virginia politicians convicted of crimes
West Virginia University College of Law alumni