Waddy William Moore III

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Service Schedule
Memoiral Service
First United Methodist Church
Prince Street
Conway, AR  72032
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
1pm
I served in the Air Force.
Waddy William Moore IIII am a Veteran.

of Conway, AR

January 29, 1928 - June 15, 2019

Waddy William Moore III, of Conway passed away on the morning of June 15, 2019 at the age of ninety-one years and six months. He was the only son of Waddy William Moore, Jr. and Floretta Elizabeth Williams Moore, both deceased. He is survived by Gay, his wife of almost sixty-six years, their two daughters, Bonnie Moore McNeely (Dennis) of Roswell, GA and Elizabeth Moore Peatross (Kenneth) of Little Rock, AR, and five grandchildren, William Charles McNeely, Elizabeth McNeely, Lucy Moore, Rachel Peatross and Shea Peatross.

Waddy graduated from Helena High School in 1946 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps (Air Force) serving from 1946 to 1949. He was discharged as a Staff Sargent and that year enrolled in the University of Arkansas where he earned a Bachelor of Science in education in 1953 and a Master of Arts in history in 1955. He earned a doctorate in American history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963. He taught at Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN, the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Louisiana State College in Lafayette before becoming a professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas and director of the Ozark Heritage Institute. He published two books about Arkansas history and served as president of the Faulkner County Historical Society and the Arkansas Historical Society. He was a charter member of the American Oral History Association and served as president in 1977. In 1999, he was honored as Distinguished Professor Emeritus by UCA.

He retired from UCA in 1993 and devoted his days to the golf course until felled by a stroke in 1996. He never stopped telling stories and jokes. He was a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, UCA Bears, UNC Tarheels, the Braves and the Cubs, and-for four years-a Hendrix Lady Warriors soccer fan. A crossword enthusiast, Big Band music lover, fan of the original King Kong and devoted member of the Conway Poker Club, he enjoyed a truly wonderful life.

He was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Conway for fifty-four years, and his memorial service will be held in the church's Chapel on June 19 at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the Faulkner County Historical Society, Habitat for Humanity or First United Methodist Church, Conway, AR.

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4 Condolence(s)
Mary-Catherine Flanagin Mann
Conway, AR
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Wednesday, July 3, 2019

Sending my thoughts and prayers to you all!

Doris Hutchins
Conway, AR, AR
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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Sending love and sympathy to the Moore family. Waddy attended discussion groups in our home and always reflected the historical background of many a topic so that we might get the bigger picture. What a unique gift!

Susan E. Johnson
Scranton, AR
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Monday, June 17, 2019

I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Moore in the mid '70's as a student transcribing his taped interviews in the UCA History Department. What an interesting fellow he was! I credit him and Maurice Webb for my love of things historical. My thoughts and prayers go with his family.

Randy O. Bowling
Greenbrier, AR
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Sunday, June 16, 2019

Dear Mrs. Moore & Bonnie:

Sherril & I are so very sorry to hear of Dr. Moore's passing. I wish I would have known he was a "flyboy" (USAAF) from WW 2. Oh the historical tidbits we could have shared for hours on end, had I known that tidbit.

I had the high honor to be assigned by Mr. Dean Duncan (USA--Signal Corps WW 2) to interview Dr. Moore while I was an Echo Staff member (Fall 1975 as I recall) when UCA had been designated as one of the first "Official Bicentennial Universitie(s)".

It was the easiest newspaper interview I EVER did & seemed to be a short one of about 30 to 45 minutes. At completion, I looked at my watch & it was approximately 3 hours later.

We often enjoyed short visits in the hall in Old Main; but, with this interview, he had me so interested I lost all track of time. Thank goodness, it was Friday afternoon, as it took me all day Saturday to type out the article, my first byline, on my old Underwood FIVE manual typewriter; which was almost smoking as he had given me so much information & such interesting information, all I had to do was transcribe the interview.

Dr. Moore was truly a great man, a man of integrity, a true "Master Teacher", & I came to regret very quickly that I hadn't taken him for at least one history class.

He had a natural born talent for delivery of dry historical facts (normally dull to even we who are history buffs) such that one was mezmorized just listening to him & you wanted to hear "the rest of the story" as he was speaking/lecturing on a subject.

Academia & UCA have truly lost a great historical asset, whose shoes will never come close to being filled with the passing of Dr. Waddy W. Moore, III.

Sadly, it is time to extend to Dr. Moore the final salute given all USAAF Pilots, in all theaters, by their ground crews, and before taxiing to the runway on another mission, the last friendly words that a pilot heard, as the Crew Chief closed the canopy, "Fair Weather Sir!!" (Hand Salute).

/s/ Randy O. Bowling
CHS, Class of '73
ECHO Staff, 1970's
Torreyson Library 1975, 1976

R.O.B./