In this Nov. 7, 2006, photo, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaks to supporters as her father, former governor and congressman Arch Moore, watches during an election night reception in Charleston.
WHEELING, W.Va. — To some, Arch Moore will always be known as the West Virginia governor who spent almost three years in prison on federal corruption charges, but those who came to know him on a personal level over a lifetime of living in Marshall County remember him mainly as a good neighbor, a faithful Christian and a friend.
Almost without fail, they relate the same thing: Once you met Arch, he never forgot you.
Moore died Wednesday in Charleston at the age of 91, the day after his daughter, Shelley Moore Capito, was sworn in as West Virginia’s first-ever female U.S. senator. Moore grew up in Moundsville, moved to Glen Dale in 1954 and only recently relocated to Charleston for health reasons.
Dave Knuth, executive director of the Marshall County Chamber of Commerce and former mayor of Glen Dale, grew up on the same street where Moore lived. As a boy on Jefferson Street, Knuth recalls hanging campaign signs on telephone poles when Moore was running for Congress.
Later in life, the two served together on the board for the Strand Theatre in Moundsville. The theater held a special place in Moore’s heart, Knuth said, because he worked there as an usher as a teenager and his mother often played piano there.
“After not being around him for years, I can recall one time we were pumping gas together and he said, ‘Dave, how’ve you been?’ That really surprised me. He was quite a person,” Knuth said.
Longtime Glen Dale businessman Sidney Grisell said one couldn’t help but take note of the love Arch Moore shared with his wife, the late Shelley Riley Moore, who died in September. He remembered a conversation with Moore at a Sunday church service – which the couple rarely missed, he said – during a period when the former first lady’s health was in decline.
“He was very upset because he said he lost a little bit of Shelley every day,” Grisell said. “She was foremost in his thoughts and care.”
Grisell’s wife, Bonnie, said no matter how old they got, Moore always referred to Shelley as his “bride.”
“I think he was just a wonderful, wonderful man. He was always concerned about his fellow citizens, and he kept his state, his town and his country foremost in his thoughts,” Sidney Grisell said. “It’s a great loss, but I know he’ll be with Shelley, and that’s great.”
State Sen. Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, also a Glen Dale resident, asked all West Virginians to join him in keeping the Moore family “in our thoughts and prayers for comfort during this difficult time.”
Retired Glen Dale water superintendent Joe Blair said Moore was a man who may have moved on to bigger things as West Virginia’s governor, but he never truly left Glen Dale behind. Moore stepped in when officials almost pulled the plug on construction of Glen Dale’s municipal swimming pool over some trees that city workers had removed against a state agency’s wishes, Blair said, and he always managed to find some funds if the city needed a new ambulance.
“He was always there for the city of Glen Dale when we got in a bind. He did take care of us,” Blair said.
Moore always went out of his way to treat people with respect, remembers Blair, who also was struck by his uncanny ability to recall names.
“He was a great man,” Blair said. “I know he was a politician, I know all that. But he was also a great man.”
While speaking with reporters on Tuesday just before her Senate swearing-in ceremony, Shelley Moore Capito expressed her wish that her father could have been there to see the big event. Her comments shed light on Moore’s frail health, just a day before his passing.
“He is (here) in spirit, but he’s not able to travel,” Capito said. “This would be a big day for him and us.”
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