William T. Moore (Texas politician)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

William Tyler Moore, Sr.(April 9, 1918 – May 27, 1999)Robert C. Borden, "Bull of the Brazos dies: Moore was champion of Texas A&M," ''
Bryan-College Station Eagle ''The Eagle'', officially known as ''The Bryan-College Station Eagle'', is a daily newspaper based in Bryan, Texas, United States. Centered in Brazos County, the paper covers an eight-county area around Bryan-College Station that includes Texas ...
'', May 28, 1999, pp. 1-3
was an attorney and businessman in Bryan,
Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, who was a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Democratic member of the
Texas State Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per con ...
from
District 5 District 5, 5 District or 5th District may refer to: Europe * District 5 (Zürich) * District 5, Düsseldorf * V District, Turku * District 5, an electoral district of Malta * District 5, a police district of Malta * Palma-Palmilla, also known ...
from 1967 until 1981. Moore originally represented
District 14 A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
from 1949 to 1953 and then revised
District 11 District 11 can refer to: *District 11 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam *District 11 (Zürich), Switzerland * District 11, an electoral district of Malta * Colorado Springs School District 11, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States *District 11 ( ...
from 1953 to 1967. In 1957, Moore was the
Senate President Pro Tempore A president pro tempore or speaker pro tempore is a constitutionally recognized officer of a legislative body who presides over the chamber in the absence of the normal presiding officer. The phrase '' pro tempore'' is Latin "for the time being ...
in the 55th legislative session. After thirty-two years in the Senate, Moore was unseated in the 1980 party primary by former Bryan City Judge Kent Caperton, who was born the year that Moore entered the upper chamber of the state legislature. Caperton received 52.6 percent of the ballots cast. Though he was dubbed by the media as the "Bull of the Brazos," a reference to the intrastate Brazos River to the west of Bryan, Moore is also remembered as the lawmaker who pushed most forcefully for the physical expansion of the campus and the admission of women to his alma mater,
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
in College Station.


Background

Moore was born in Wheelock in Robertson County, Texas, and reared in
Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...
in Brazos County. His first job was as a salesman at the former
Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...
in downtown Bryan. He graduated in 1940 from TAMU with a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree in
economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
and taught at his alma mater until 1943, when he joined the
United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
, the forerunner of the
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
. He was sent into active duty in both theaters of the war and discharged as a sergeant in 1946. That same year he was elected to a single term from District 26 in the
Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abo ...
from Brazos County. As a legislator he enrolled at the
University of Texas Law School The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the law school of the University of Texas at Austin. Texas Law is consistently ranked as one of the top law schools in the United States and is highly selective—registering the 8th lowest ac ...
in Austin, from which he received his degree in 1949 and was already in the first of his eight full terms in the state Senate. In addition to his law practice, Moore and J. C. Culpepper developed the Manor East Mall and the Sherwood Health Care Facility in Bryan. He also led the legislative fight to have St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan declared a regional health provider.


Powerful legislator

Moore was sometimes called "the most powerful man in state government" for his ability to get the state Senate to follow his lead. Robert "Bob" Cherry, a former assistant chancellor at Texas A&M, told the ''
Bryan-College Station Eagle ''The Eagle'', officially known as ''The Bryan-College Station Eagle'', is a daily newspaper based in Bryan, Texas, United States. Centered in Brazos County, the paper covers an eight-county area around Bryan-College Station that includes Texas ...
'' that Moore "never forgot a friend." Though considered conservative politically, Moore said that he was willing to listen to liberals: "I figured it was somebody's own business if he wanted to be a liberal. I never fell out with anybody on how they voted. In the 1950s, the Senate was one big fraternity...." One Senate liberal with whom Moore frequently quarreled was A.R. "Babe" Schwartz from
Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...
, who once visited Moore's Senate Affairs Committee and called Moore "obnoxious." Moore replied by calling Schwartz "repulsive." Moore said that he had passed many bills favored by his constituents but had blocked "a lot of bad legislation too." Working across party lines, Moore was friendly with
Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...
Phil Gramm, who had been an economics professor at TAMU. He also worked well with
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Bill Clements William Perry Clements Jr. (April 13, 1917 – May 29, 2011) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician who served two non-consecutive terms as the governor of Texas between 1979 and 1991. His terms bookended the sole t ...
, who in 1980 asked his friend Phil Adams, a Bryan businessman, to work in what turned out to have been Moore's last campaign. Despite their partisan difference, Clements said, "I don't care. He's the most important man there, and I want him back." In 1993, Moore was a large donor to the election of Republican state treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison to 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 ...
for the seat vacated by the Democrat Lloyd M. Bentsen. The race against Caperton was the first challenge that Moore had faced in years. Caperton, the 31-year-old opponent, TAMU graduate, and formerly from Caldwell in Burleson County, courted younger voters in the district who remained steadfast to the Democratic Party. A number of former Democratic primary voters had by 1980 turned Republican and were no longer available to vote to re-nominate Moore. Former Brazos County Judge W. T. "Tom" McDonald recalled that Moore was "devastated" when he was unseated by Caperton: "The district had changed, and he didn't realize it and was blindsided."


Promoting Texas A&M

Bob Cherry called Moore "the father of the modern Texas A&M University," noting that Moore could skillfully pass or kill bills in the interest of TAMU. On March 3, 1953, Moore first introduced a resolution calling for the admission of women to TAMU. The TAMU historian Henry C. Dethloff in ''A Centennial History of Texas A&M University, 1876-1976'', noted that Moore believed the institution "had stagnated since World War II and had experienced a decline in enrollment partially because of its refusal to become coeducational." Though the Texas Senate adopted Moore's resolution by voice vote, older alumni voiced objections in telephone calls and letters. Senators then reversed themselves on a 28–1 vote, with Moore being the dissenter. Dethloff continued, "Moore predicted that A&M would be coeducational within ten years," exactly on the timetable. According to Cherry, Moore in 1963 informed newly inaugurated Governor John B. Connally, Jr., that he would not vote to confirm any appointee to the TAMU Board of Regents unless the nominee favored coeducational status. Connally's first nominee, a West Texan, opposed admitting women, and Connally was soon compelled to withdraw the nomination. The two subsequent nominations, Gardiner Symonds of
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
and Albert P. Beutel of Lake Jackson, supported coeducational status and were confirmed. On April 27, 1963, the regents agreed to admit the first women on a limited basis. In May 1976, ''Texas Aggie'' magazine said that Moore had "done more for Texas A&M University in recent years than any other individual He authored or co-authored every bill that affected Texas A&M and its growth."


Death and legacy

Moore died in Bryan at the age of eighty-one. He was survived by his wife, Macille Moore of Bryan; a son and daughter-in-law, W. Tyler Moore, Jr., an attorney in Bryan, and Mary M. Moore, a Certified Public Accountant who tried unsuccessfully to capture her father-in-law's former Senate seat. Services were Moore were held on May 30, 1999, at First
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
Church in Bryan. Tom McDonald said that he always knew where his friend Moore stood: "He wasn't like one of those spin- doctor types we have now. When he was saying something, you knew it was coming from Bill Moore, not from some speechwriter or pollster or someone like that." Tyler Moore said that his father had "a genuinely kind heart beneath that gruff exterior." Steve Ogden, a Bryan Republican, defeated Democrat Mary Moore in the
special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
held in 1997 and then the regular general election of 1998 for her father-in-law's former seat. Ogden called Moore "one of the giants of Texas politics who built many of the things we take for granted today. Texas A&M would be substantially different and not as great a university if it weren't for him. e set the foundationfor everything that deals with state government within two hundred miles of Bryan-College Station. He left a legacy, and I am sorry to hear of his passing."


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, William T. (Texas politician) 1918 births 1999 deaths People from Robertson County, Texas People from Bryan, Texas Texas A&M University alumni University of Texas School of Law alumni American Presbyterians Democratic Party Texas state senators Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Texas lawyers Businesspeople from Texas United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American politicians People from Brazos County, Texas 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers