Thomas Moore Jr.

1933 - 2020

BORN

1933

DIED

2020

Thomas Moore Obituary

Thomas Garland Moore, Jr.

1933-2020

Thomas G. Moore, Jr. died peacefully at home on March 24, 2020 in Richmond, California. He was 86.

Tom dedicated his life to bringing health care to as many people as possible and other progressive causes. He held senior policy and management positions in state and federal governments, including Director of California Department of Social Welfare, Director of the Office of Legislation for the U.S. Public Health Service, and Deputy Director of California Department of Health Services for the Prepaid Health Plan program in MediCal.

As a health policy and program consultant, Tom contributed to the development of community based health delivery systems, including On Lok Senior Health Services in San Francisco, a national model for aging in place with health and supportive services, and worked for two decades alongside organized labor to defend and expand affordable access to high quality health care for working families.

Tom loved the Bay Area, always seeking to engage anyone in enthusiastic talk of fly-fishing, politics, opera, coffee making, and the latest astonishing facts in Harper's Index. His restless curiosity, blunt wit, humanism, and wide-ranging interests in literature, history, public policy, and music will not be forgotten by his loving children, Thomas, Katherine and Martine, his long-time partner, Sally, his sister and brother, Michela and Barron, his former wife, Avery, and other family and friends whose love and friendship he cherished over the decades.

A life well-lived.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by San Francisco Chronicle from Apr. 10 to Apr. 12, 2020.

Memories and Condolences
for Thomas Moore

2 Entries

Phil Isenberg

May 14, 2020

A smart, interesting guy. Stuck by his convictions through thick and thin. We need more people like Tom

Michael Rodrian

April 11, 2020

I met Tom when he came to the California Department of Health Services in the 1970's. He was instrumental in reorganizing and reorienting the then Pre-paid Health Care Division, shepherding it into an organization with a redirected sharp focus on the health of the Program's clients. He was instrumental in broadening my understanding of health care delivery and financing, and how important it was to have good health metrics to measure the results of the care we were paying to have delivered. He was sharp, witty, and extremely well schooled in the strengths and especially the weaknesses of our overall health care delivery system, things he had learned from his father's experiences as well as his own in the US Public Health Service and other work he undertook with developing Health Maintenance Organizations. He continued working on governmental efforts to improve disease prevention and health care access to all for as long as I knew him. He had a strong focus on data, and believed it to be paramount in developing policies followed by action, and became a mentor to me. I had an Uncle, Tom Ludwig, a Univ. of CA Berkeley graduate who worked for the federal government organizing health care delivery for coal miners and other workers in Tennessee during World War II. Tom Ludwig continued his efforts post-war in medically under-served areas in the US and Canada while working with several Universities. Talking one day with Tom Moore about HMO development, under-served areas and populations one day Tom and I were both shocked to discover that Tom Ludwig and Tom Moore Sr. were long-time best friends. Those two gentlemen were responsible for developing a number of HMO's and organized clinic and hospital systems in under-served areas in the US and in Canada.
Tom and I continued to keep in touch and work together on issues for most of my career, focusing on how to accurately and effectively develop, collect and use health data to protect, preserve and enhance the health of Californians. He was a tireless advocate who could and would back up his recommendations with solid facts and well reasoned arguments, and he was always helpful and easy to talk with. I will miss him.

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