Arnold Power Moore

Mr. Arnold Power Moore, 92, owner and operator of The Arnold Moore Funeral Service, died on Wednesday evening, April 28, at his residence in Bartlesville.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, in the First Baptist Church of Bartlesville. Rev. Andrew S. Odom, Senior Minister of First Presbyterian Church, and Pastor Joe D. Fowler, Senior Minister of First Baptist Church, will be the officiants. Committal prayers and interment will be directed in the Memorial Park Cemetery by The Arnold Moore Funeral Service. Full military rites by the James H. Teel American Legion Post #105 and Masonic Rites by the Bartlesville Masonic Lodge #284 A. F. & A. M. will honor Mr. Moore at the graveside.
A gathering for the friends and family of Mr. Moore will be held following the services at the graveside at the First Presbyterian Church, 505 S. E. Dewey Ave., Bartlesville, OK 74003.
A memorial has been established and those who wish may forward their gifts to the Bluestem Medical Foundation in care of Jane Phillips Medical Center, 3500 E. Frank Phillips Blvd., Bartlesville, OK 74006.
A native of Bartlesville, Arnold Power Moore was born on May 29, 1917. He was the son of the late David William and Josephine (Phillips) Moore. Arnold's father had a background in business and managed the Kansas Torpedo Company prior to operating his own business manufacturing nitroglycerin. Later, David William Moore owned his own stamp company in Bartlesville. The Moore family has had a rich and prominent heritage in Bartlesville.
When Arnold was nine years of age, he had a newspaper route, and often while delivering papers he would see a deceased animal. Having a strong compassion, he was motivated to bury the animals. He called himself "the cat and dog undertaker". Arnold's father built him a small funeral coach mounted on a red Sherwood wagon, to which he would hitch his German Shepherd and pull it around as he delivered his newspapers. Also, Orville DeLapp, Arnold's close friend and companion, accompanied him on the route and if they found an animal which had met tragedy, they would load it into the coach and take it home and have a funeral and burial for it. The neighborhood children often attended the funeral services and his mother never failed to be in attendance.
During grade school, besides his six newspaper routes, he also worked for the Kerr Drugstore and the Pioneer Drugstore as a fountain jerk and janitor. The paper routes for "The Examiner", as it was known at that time, paid him fifteen cents for the papers he delivered which he shared with the six other young men.
In 1931 when Arnold was in the seventh grade, he met Ruth Aileen Wheeler. Ruth knew immediately that she had met her future husband. He was graduated with the Senior Class of 1936 from the old Bartlesville High School. Mr. Moore attended the Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago, Illinois and served his apprenticeship in the Cook County Morgue. He was graduated in 1938 and was the twenty-third person in the state to receive a funeral director's license. He and Ruth Aileen Wheeler were married on December 24, 1938 in Bartlesville. Mr. Moore worked for John McCallister of the McCallister Funeral Home. The desire to own his own funeral home led him to share with Ruth his dream. Ambition and desire drove Ruth and Arnold to succeed and they opened the Moore's Funeral Home at the corner of 5th and Dewey. During World War II, Arnold was enlisted in the United States Army and while he was in the military, Ruth managed the business in his absence. Following his return from his military service, the Moore's moved the business to its present location at the corner of Adams and Johnstone and it was renamed The Arnold Moore Funeral Service. Mrs. Moore worked closely beside Arnold for many years until failing health forced her retirement and they moved to their farm home in the Ochelata community. Ruth preceded him in death on April 20, 1991.
Following Ruth's death, Arnold returned to live in Bartlesville to their former family residence and continued his ownership and operation of The Arnold Moore Funeral Service, being a humanitarian and setting an example for citizens throughout Oklahoma and Washington County by his business practices. Arnold Moore is an extremely well known Funeral Director in many states. In addition to the Bartlesville funeral home, Arnold was also the owner and operator of the Arnold Moore - Barnsdall Funeral Home in Barnsdall, Okla. and the Arnold Moore - Dewey Funeral Service in Dewey, Okla. He was also co-owner of the Fitzgerald-Arnold Moore Ivy Chapel and the Fitzgerald-Southwood Colonial Chapel Funeral Homes in Tulsa; and the Mobley-Dodson Funeral Service in Sand Springs, Okla.
Arnold was active and supported many community and fraternal organizations during his lifetime. He had been president of the student body while he was in high school; served as state Master Counselor of the Order of DeMolay; a 32nd Degree Mason, having a perpetual membership in the Ramona Masonic Lodge #326 A. F. & A. M. and the Bartlesville Masonic Lodge #284 A. F. & A. M.; Scottish Rite, Valley of Tulsa; York Rite; Wasono Shrine Club and the Akdar Temple. He was also a longtime member of First Presbyterian Church of Bartlesville of which he had served as an elder.
Surviving are his son and daughter-in-law, John David Moore and Diane of Ochelata; two granddaughters, Dierbourn Mutch and Desiree Michelle Miller and her husband, Jason; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his father, David William Moore; his mother, Mrs. Josephine (Phillips) Moore; three brothers, Dr. John W. Moore; David Llewellyn Moore and William Phillips Moore; his wife, Mrs. Ruth A. Moore and his daughter, Mrs. Mary Josephine (Moore) Mutch.