James I. MOORE

HAMPTON - James Irwin Moore, 86, widower of Olive J. Moore, passed away Wednesday, May 23, 2012. Born in Wisconsin, he has been a resident of the Peninsula since 1971.
Having enlisted in the Navy's V-5 program in April, 1943, Jim earned his wings and commission as a naval aviator at age 20 in October, 1945, after two and one-half years of flight training. In September, 1946, he married Olive Madeline Joos in North Miami, Fla. Olive was then a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, outranking Jim who was then an Ensign.
From mid-1946 to April, 1950, he flew F6F's and TBM-AEW planes from several carriers, including a world cruise on the USS Tarawa, CV-40. In May, 1950, he ceased his flying career and became personnel officer of the USS Sicily (a 'jeep' carrier). A few months later (1950-51) this ship completed two deployments to the Korean War zone. Then followed a series of increasingly responsible assignments as a Navy line officer. These included duty as an amphibious command ship's navigator during a 1956-57 deployment to the Mediterranean. During 1961 and 1962 he completed a B.S. in Naval Science at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.
During 1963 and 1964 he had command of two Pacific Fleet destroyers, the USS COGSWELL and USS ROGERS and then served as executive officer of the guided missile cruiser USS GALVESTON (1965-66) supporting the first U.S. Marine landing in Vietnam. His final assignment was in the Navy's current operations section in the Pentagon from which he retired at the end of January, 1969, as a commander, after 25 years of active duty.
For the next 2.5 years he was a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, where he received his M.A. in Public Administration and PhD in Political Science. In 1971 he began his teaching career at Christopher Newport College (now University) where he taught a variety of government-related courses for 12 years.
In early 1983 he became 'bitten by the computer bug' from reading John Naisbitt's book Mega Trends. He then took early retirement from CNC in order to learn computer programming at the University of Texas in Austin. He then returned to CNC (CNU), and began teaching courses in Basic, Pascal and COBOL. From 1992 to 2004, on a part-time basis, Jim taught introductory courses in computer applications, including Lotus 1-2-3, dBase III, Word Perfect, Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint.
His son, James Irving Moore, preceded him in death. His wife Olive died in 2001.
He is survived by a daughter, Susan Moore Shaw, and her husband John Shaw, of Battle Ground, Wash.; a son, Paul Montgomery Moore, and his wife Elizabeth French Moore, of Gaithersburg, Md.; granddaughter, Bonnie Shaw Swenson, and her husband Peder Swenson, of Woodland, Wash.; granddaughter, Carolyn Shaw Tanner, and her husband Paul Tanner, and their son Andrew Tanner, of Jersey City, N.J., granddaughter, Jacinda Dulcie Moore, of Babylon, N.Y., and granddaughter, Carissa Gabrielle Moore, of Reisterstown, Md.
Beginning in 1988 he devoted much of his time to the creation of the CNU LifeLong Learning Society and served as its voluntary coordinator for seven years. Membership in the LLS has grown steadily to about 500 members, offering about 40 short courses each semester. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the CNU LifeLong Learning Society.
A memorial service will be conducted at 2 p.m. Monday, June 4, 2012, at Grace United Methodist Church in Newport News by the Rev. Helen Casey-Rutland. Inurnment with full military honors will be in Arlington National Cemetery, at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012.
Arrangements are by Berceuse Funeral and Cremation Traditions in Hampton, 757-825-8070. View and post condolences on our online guestbook at dailypress.com/guestbooks.