' REMEMBERING A SPECIAL MAN.-- BOB MOORE'

I SHARE WITH YOU AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY GAZETTE NEWSPAPERS' MARIAN MCMAHON, WHO VISITED WITH ME AT MY HOME SHORTLY AFTER MY HUSBAND BOB'S DEATH. (Thank you, Marian, for this very human article about the man I have loved for so many years)
--Rose Moore
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"Remembering a special man – Bob Moore"

by Marian McMahon, Lake County Editor

Published Lake County Tribune, May 12, 2017

When Bob Moore passed away April 18, Rose Moore, longtime columnist for The Lake County Tribune and Gazette Newspapers, lost her soulmate and the love of her life.

Through the years, in her columns, Rose shared bits of her life with Bob, so her readers caught glimpses of the man who brought her so much happiness.
The first time I met Bob was about a dozen years ago in the Gazette Newspapers offices on Hubbard Road in Madison Township. It was a Wednesday night, deadline night, and anything that could have gone wrong did.
Besides writing her columns for the paper, Rose came in on Wednesday evenings to help proof the paper. That night she insisted on staying to lend us moral support although it was getting late, and she called Bob to let him know.
About midnight, give or take, a smiling Bob showed up with a large casserole he had made, and their Doberman, Jack, came along. Nothing had ever tasted better, and Bob endeared himself to me and my coworkers that night.
Through the years Rose and I became fast friends and Bob, happily, was part of the package whenever we got together for lunch.
I recently paid a visit to Rose to talk about Bob so I could try to write something which adequately honored his kind spirit.

After Bob's death, Rose had heard from many people, including longtime readers, and they all wished to hear about Bob and their marriage, so she shared some special and everyday times in their lives with me.
"We met in 1959, just going into the holidays, and I was a reporter for The Telegraph," she said.
An editor's apartment was a favorite meeting place for the coworkers, and one day they decided to get together to go tobogganing when the snow fell.
Her friend Vivian Moore called her the day they were meeting and said her brother Bob (whom Rose had not even heard about) was giving her a ride in from "the country" (as Concord Township was at that time) because of the heavy snowfall.
"He came in for about three minutes, introduced himself, and for him and me it was like an instant click," Rose recalled.
The next night when she returned to the office late after a very long council meeting she was covering, some coworkers told her Bob had stopped by looking for her - and the courtship began.
Their dates were simple, Rose said - long walks, drives, or talking over coffee in a little restaurant.
When Bob first said he was going to marry her, about four or five months after they met, Rose told him not to presume and refused to give him an answer.
But then, "I went home and said to Mom, 'I'm going to marry that guy. He's something special," Rose said.
Her mother advised her to see how he treated his parents, siblings, young children and animals. He passed all the tests, no problem.
Bob and Rose married in the fall of 1960 and would have celebrated 57 years of marriage this year. "I never once wanted to kick him out," Rose laughed.

In one of Rose's columns she wrote:
"I CONFESS, I cry a bit myself at weddings; other people's weddings. They represent the beginning of a significant journey, and when I listen to the vows, I silently repeat my own and wish the couple as good a life together as Bob and I have known these many years of marriage."

People show their true character in various ways and Bob was no exception. Despite it being the 1960s, he had no problem with his wife continuing to work. In fact, he respected her work as a reporter, telling her to "Give them hell" whenever she voiced a strong opinion on a subject.
Back in those days, Rose said, the man held the checkbook and paid the bills, so the wife would turn her paychecks over to him, and then have to ask for money.
However, Rose had been used to handling her own finances and did not like the idea of having to ask Bob for money when she wanted to buy him a present. So, she prepared a candlelight dinner one night then told Bob they needed to talk.
She explained that she was good with money and did not want to have to come to him when she wanted to buy him something.
"He looked at me real funny and he grinned and reached into his back pocket and he said, 'Here's the checkbook. I hate it. I hate writing them, I hate figuring them..."

Rose spoke of how they started their business, R.L. Moore Homes Inc., saying it took years of time, effort and money to build it up, which they did on their own. But, since the business was operated out of the home, their three boys learned that mom and dad had to work for their money—it didn't grow on trees.
"He was just the best father, and he was so funny," Rose said. "His sense of humor—I think that was what drew so many people to him."
In a holiday column one year, Rose wrote:
"ALL YEAR, every year, my Santa blended into everyday society under the comfortable name of Bob. I first met him when both of us were young, and he has aged along with me. But in his heart and in my eyes, he's ageless; he has kept his Santa smile and spirit, and his eyes still sparkle with a boyish mischief."
And Bob indeed played Santa at Christmas, going up on the roof to make sleigh tracks and footprints in the snow so his boys could see Santa really did come.

Every couple needs to work things out as far as who will do what around the house. Bob and Rose were no different, but they probably managed it better than many.
Rose loved the tractor and being outside so she agreed to be the family's "lawn boy."
They both liked to grow things but he had his vegetable patch and she had her flower gardens.
"You can't eat flowers," Bob would tell Rose.
However, when she had a health issue which prevented her from gardening one year, Bob went out and bought a load of flowers, had Rose direct him on where to plant them, and then looked after them for her all season.

Bob was known for smiling all the time, but he could get riled up, Rose admitted. A thing that would make Bob angry, since his name was on the company, was if someone working for him did not do a job right. Then they would be chewed out, to put it mildly, she said.
However, the people who worked for him did respect him because he was fair, and they knew they could count on Bob to pay them promptly when the work was done.

For Bob, family came first, followed by the business, and giving back to the community—his most important gift being the Old Stone School House in Concord, after he led the restoration project.

I could write so much more about Bob, but I think Rose summed him up the best with a simple statement: "He made the most of every single day, never lost his smile."

ARCHIVAL PHOTO attached, with cutline:
"Bob and Rose Moore had many happy years together."