D. Stanley Moore

Deane Stanley Moore, beloved educator and world traveler, passed away on January 5, 2026. He was 96 years old. Stan is survived by his daughter, Barbara Kirsten Moore Bryant; his son, Douglas Hugh Andrew Moore; and his grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Janice S. Moore (Jan), his parents, and his brothers, David L. Moore and Carl F. Moore. His family extends deep gratitude to Sheri Steinberg, whose devoted friendship and care enriched Stan's final years.

Stan was born in Minneapolis on April 9, 1929, to Lowry Stevens and Margaret Louise (Deane) Moore. He earned his Bachelor's degree from Beloit College in 1951. He served in the United States Army from 1951 to 1954, where he learned Russian at the language school in Monterey CA and was subsequently posted to Germany, where he listened to and translated Soviet short-wave radio traffic from across the border. After his discharge, he earned a Master of Arts in Russian Area Studies from the University of Minnesota in 1956. He took courses from, and was heavily influenced by, Professor Mulford Sibley, a pacifist and conscientious objector.

Stan's teaching career began at Spring Valley High School in Minnesota; after a year he moved to Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois, where he taught Western Civilization, English, Humanities, and Russian from 1957 to 1988. He was a founding facilitator for Rich Township's alternative program, the Active Learning Process School (ALPS). Stan married Janice Myrtle Swanson on August 20, 1960, beginning a partnership that would take them across continents and into countless classrooms. Together, they inspired students not just in Park Forest, where Jan taught mathematics at Rich East and Rich South High Schools for 17 years, but in communities around the globe. Stan taught in Moscow and Leningrad in 1971. With Jan, he taught at the American School in Aberdeen, Scotland from 1977 to 1979, at Southwest China Teachers University in Chongqing (1988-1989) and at Yunnan Education College in Kunming, China (1990-1991). He was an Adjunct Professor at Prairie State College starting in 1991. Jan and Stan served as Peace Corps volunteers in the Czech Republic from 1993 to 1995. They taught abroad most recently in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (2002). They moved to Montgomery Place in Hyde Park in 2016, where Stan hosted study groups on Melville, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Camus, and, on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian Perspectives on War and Peace.

They had a knack for narrowly avoiding revolutions: they camped as a family in Czechoslovakia just prior to the 1968 Soviet invasion; they lived in France during the uneasy time between the Paris riots and de Gaulle's resignation in 1969; they were teaching in Southern China during the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989; and they were traveling home from China on the Trans-Siberian Railway around the time of the implosions of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in 1991.

Stan's impact on generations of students earned him recognition as a John Hay Fellow at Yale University (1961-1962), a Danforth Foundation Fellow at Reed College (1966), and a Fulbright Fellow in India (1986). Stan earned a Diplome d'études francaises from the University of Montpellier, France in 1969.

In 2000, Stan and his wife Jan were inducted into the Park Forest Historical Society Hall of Fame, honored as "two teachers to students around the world" who "spread Park Forest's story into the four corners of the world."

Stan's legacy lives on in the thousands of students whose lives he touched across five continents, in the colleagues he inspired, and in the bridges of understanding he built between cultures. He believed deeply in the power of education to transform lives and create a more connected world.

A memorial service will be held at Montgomery Place, 5550 South Shore Rd, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 21st, 2026.