- Family
- Classical Music
- College Sports
- (Mathematics at the University of Florida, the first 65 years)
biographical sketch of ‘Theral Moore’ included in this book - Arkansas. It is my native state.
Family
 |
 |
| Theral standing at the blackboard ready to discuss Calculus II. | Theral with his 2 sons and 2 grandsons in 2010. |
 |
 |
| Theral and his 2 sons in 1981. His sons were 15 and 17 at the time. | Theral with his wife Nancy taken maybe in 2000. She is often seen with him on campus. Nancy has been a Florida Gator since 1948 when the family moved here from Hastings, Nebraska for her father to join the mathematics faculty. Nancy was 11 years old. |
Classical Music, notably that of Mozart
If I could only hear the music of one composer for the rest of my life, I would choose the music of Mozart and after that I would choose the music of Brahms.
Actually, I would choose the symphonies of Brahms and Mozart’s concertos, serenades, divertementos, sonatas, quintets, masses, and operas.
Since Mozart’s music is the most delightful music the world has known, I try to listen to some Mozart music each day. I’m sure that anyone who would listen to this music 45 minutes each day would have an abundance of brightness in his or her life, no matter what problems may arise. I am convinced that the huge collection of compositions given to this world by Mozart is the greatest collection of artistic works left by any one person.
Sports especially College Sports
I find it very easy to cheer for three Southeastern Conference teams. I root for Florida because I have been associated with this university as an educator since 1955. I cheer for Arkansas as it is my native state, and because I earned the BA there in 1949 and the masters degree in 1951. I also find myself rooting for Missouri since I earned the PhD at the University of Missouri in 1955.
Biographical Sketch of Theral O. Moore
I quote from Prof Ehrlich’s book:
The second of the Blumenthal students, Dr. Theral Orvis Moore has been on the staff here since 1955 and is thus the only faculty member remaining from the Kokomoor Chairmanship who is still on the faculty. Moore was born in Emerson, Arkansas, and even has a grandmother who was born in President Clinton’s home town of Hope, Arkansas. Moore first went to college in Magnolia, Arkansas, then received the B.A. from the University of Arkansas in 1949. He taught for a year in the high school [Moore’s teaching assignment consisted of one eighth grade arithmetic class, two business mathematics classes, two geometry classes, one second year algebra class, and one period supervising a study hall] at Warren, Arkansas [and thus had a keen interest in Sledd’s memoirs of teaching at Arkadelphia], then returned to the University of Arkansas and took the masters degree in 1951. Moore did further graduate work in mathematics at the University of Missouri, receiving the Ph.D. in 1955. Theral has recalled for me that he had followed but never overlapped with David Ellis, first as a graduate student at Missouri, then as a young faculty member at Florida. Indeed, Dr. Kokomoor even assigned Moore to the same desk and chair which Ellis had used while he was on the staff here prior to Moore’s arrival; accordingly, the desk chair was quite commodious. Moore recalls that the department hired three people that year, including Alton Butson who left for Miami University after four or so years. Moore talked with me about his recollections of looking for his first job in the mid-1950’s. Money was apparently tight around the whole country, not just in Florida. At the University of Oklahoma, Moore was told that tenure track offers were not made without an interview, but that no funds were available for an interview. If he would come as a temporary assistant professor, then after one year, when he would obviously be available for an interview, he would be given a tenure track appointment. In connection with his application at the University of Alabama, Theral was surprised one day to receive a telephone call from a staff member of the University of Missouri Business School, an Alabama alumni, who explained that he had been contacted by the Chairman of the Alabama Mathematics Department and asked to interview Moore in connection with a possible tenure-track job at Alabama. At Florida, Moore suspects that because Ellis had preceded him at Missouri, then at Florida, that the Florida Department assessed Moore by questioning Ellis. Theral received only a telegram from Dr. Kokomoor promising a tenure track Assistant Professorship subject to funding approval. Not quite sure what to make of the definitiveness of such an offer, Dr. Moore consulted Professor W. Roy Utz, another one of the old guard at Missouri when I was there, and the Missouri faculty assured Theral that this was a genuine offer, so Moore came to the department in 1955 as we indicated above. We have earlier commented that Simpson and Kokomoor had the formal title of Head Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy. When Theral was considering joining the department, he went to the Library at the University of Missouri to consult the Florida catalogue. There he found, for example, that John T. Moore was listed with the title of Associate Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy. As reported in Chapter 5, Moore went back to his records to find out about what the teaching loads had been like here in the 1950’s. He found that during his first semester, he had been teaching 17 hours, including the graduate topology course [recall Dr. Kokomoor speaking of topology above in the University of Florida Oral History transcript [2]], a section of calculus, a section of basic mathematics (unified trigonometry, analytic geometry and calculus), and two sections of business mathematics. During this time period, Dr. Moore was asked to teach topology a good deal of the time, and this resulted in his writing a well known textbook Elementary General Topology, Prentice-Hall, 1964.
Arkansas
Arkansas is my home state, My Moore ancestor who arrived first in the state of Arkansas was my great great grandfather, Judge Moses Moore who was born about 1770 in North Carolina. Moses Moore had children born in Georgia, Kentucky, and Illinois Territory, and also lived in Missouri before finally settling in Clark County of Arkansas Territory around 1820. He served as a Justice of the Peace for many years and was also the first County Judge for Clark County, serving in that capacity from 1830 to 1833, and again from January to September of 1836. Moses is known to have been still living on 4 December 1844 when he signed a document as a Justice of the Peace, He is believed to have died in Clark County around 1845 although no record of his death has been found. He lived on Moores Creek which was named after him.
Top of the Page