William T. Moore (Texas politician)
Encyclopedia
William Tyler Moore, Sr., known as W. T. 'Bill' Moore (April 9, 1918 - May 27, 1999), was an attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

man in Bryan
Bryan, Texas
Bryan is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 76,201. It is the county seat of Brazos County and is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley . It shares its border with the city of College Station, which lies to its south...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, who was a conservative Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 member of the Texas State Senate from District 5
Texas Senate, District 5
District 5 of the Texas Senate is a senatorial district that serves Brazos, Burleson, Freestone, Grimes, Houston, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Trinity, Walker and Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas...

 from 1967 until 1981.Moore originally represented District 14
Texas Senate, District 14
District 14 of the Texas Senate is a senatorial district that currently serves a portion of Travis county in the U.S. state of Texas. The current Senator from District 14 is Kirk Watson.-2006:-2002:-2000:-1996:-1994:...

 from 1949 to 1953 and then revised District 11
Texas Senate, District 11
District 11 of the Texas Senate is a senatorial district that currently serves portions of Brazoria, Galveston and Harris counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The current Senator from District 11 is Mike Jackson.-2004:-2002:-1998:...

 from 1953 to 1967. In 1957, Moore was the Senate President Pro Tempore in the 55th legislative session.

After thirty-two years in the Senate, Moore was unseated in the 1980 party primary by former Bryan City Judge Kent Caperton
Kent Caperton
Kent Allen Caperton is an attorney and political consultant in Austin, Texas, who served from 1981 to 1991 as a Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from District 5, encompassing twenty-one counties from The Woodlands, to Crockett, and Caperton's then city of residence, Bryan, Texas.-Early...

, who was born the year that Moore entered the upper chamber of the state legislature. Caperton received 52.6 percent of the ballots cast.

Though he was dubbed by the media as the "Bull of the Brazos," a reference to the intrastate Brazos River
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...

 to the west of Bryan, Moore is also remembered as the lawmaker who pushed most forcefully for the physical expansion of the campus and the admission of women to his alma mater, Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is a coeducational public research university located in College Station, Texas . It is the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System. The sixth-largest university in the United States, A&M's enrollment for Fall 2011 was over 50,000 for the first time in school...

 in College Station
College Station, Texas
College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in East Central Texas in the heart of the Brazos Valley. The city is located within the most populated region of Texas, near three of the 10 largest cities in the United States - Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio...

.

Background

Moore was born in Wheelock
Wheelock, Texas
Wheelock is an unincorporated community in Robertson County, Texas, United States. It is located 15 miles northeast of Bryan and 11 miles southeast of Franklin. Wheelock is located on Farm to Market Road 46 and Farm to Market Road 391...

 in Robertson County, Texas, and reared in Edge in Brazos County
Brazos County, Texas
Brazos County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas in the Central Texas region. In 2010, its population was 194,851. The county seat is Bryan and it is part of the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area. Brazos is named for the Brazos River, along with Brazoria...

. His first job was as a salesman at the former Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...

 in downtown Bryan. He graduated in 1940 from TAMU with a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 degree in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 and taught at his alma mater until 1943, when he joined the United States Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...

, the forerunner of the Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

. He was sent into active duty in both theaters of the war and discharged as a sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

 in 1946. That same year he was elected to a single term from District 26 in the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

 from Brazos County. As a legislator he enrolled at the University of Texas Law School in Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, from which he received his degree in 1949 and was already in the first of his eight full terms in the state Senate.

In addition to his law practice, Moore and J. C. Culpepper developed the East Manor Mall and the Sherwood Health Care Facility in Bryan. He also led the legislative fight to have St. Joseph Hospital in Bryan declared a regional health provider.

Powerful legislator

Moore was sometimes called "the most powerful man in state government" for his ability to get the state Senate to follow his lead. Robert "Bob" Cherry, a former assistant chancellor at Texas A&M, told the Bryan-College Station Eagle that Moore "never forgot a friend."Though considered conservative politically, Moore said that he was willing to listen to liberals: "I figured it was somebody's own business if he wanted to be a liberal. I never fell out with anybody on how they voted. In the 1950s, the Senate was one big fraternity...." One Senate liberal with whom Moore frequently quarreled was A.R. "Babe" Schwartz from Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

, who once visited Moore's Senate Affairs Committee and called Moore "obnoxious." Moore replied by calling Schwartz "repulsive."Moore said that he had passed many bills favored by his constituents but had blocked "a lot of bad legislation too."

Working across party lines, Moore was friendly with Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 U.S. Representative Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...

, who had been an economics professor at TAMU. He also worked well with Governor
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...

 Bill Clements
Bill Clements
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...

, who in 1980 asked his friend Phil Adams, a Bryan businessman, to work in what turned out to have been Moore's last campaign. Despite their partisan difference, Clements said, "I don't care. He's the most important man there, and I want him back."In 1993, Moore was a large donor to the election of Republican state treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....

 to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 for the seat vacated by the Democrat Lloyd M. Bentsen.

The race against Caperton was the first challenge that Moore had faced in years. Caperton, the 31-year-old opponent, TAMU graduate, and formerly from Caldwell
Caldwell, Texas
Caldwell is a city in Burleson County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,449 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Burleson County. It is part of the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area....

 in Burleson County, courted younger voters in the district who remained steadfast to the Democratic Party. A number of former Democratic primary voters had by 1980 turned Republican and were no longer available to vote to re-nominate Moore. Former Brazos County Judge W. T. "Tom" McDonald recalled that Moore was "devastated" when he was unseated by Caperton: "The district had changed, and he didn't realize it and was blindsided."

Promoting Texas A&M

Bob Cherry called Moore "the father of the modern Texas A&M University," noting that Moore could skillfully pass or kill bills in the interest of TAMU. On March 3, 1953, Moore first introduced a resolution calling for the admission of women to TAMU. The TAMU historian Henry C. Dethloff
Henry C. Dethloff
Henry Clay Dethloff is a professor emeritus of history at Texas A&M University in College Station who has written more than two dozen books on topics ranging from the space program to agriculture, American business, and Texas A&M itself, the institution with which he was primarily affiliated...

 in A Centennial History of Texas A&M University, 1876-1976, noted that Moore believed the institution "had stagnated since World War II and had experienced a decline in enrollment partially because of its refusal to become coeducational." Though the Texas Senate adopted Moore's resolution by voice vote, older alumni voiced objections in telephone calls and letters. Senators then reversed themselves on a 28-1 vote, with Moore being the dissenter. Dethloff continued, "Moore predicted that A&M would be coeducational within ten years," exactly on the timetable.

According to Cherry, Moore in 1963 informed newly inaugurated Governor John B. Connally, Jr., that he would not vote to confirm any appointee to the TAMU Board of Regents unless the nominee favored coeducational status. Connally's first nominee, a West Texan, opposed admitting women, and Connally was soon compelled to withdraw the nomination. The two subsequent nominations, Gardiner Symonds of Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

 and Albert P. Beutel of Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson, Texas
Lake Jackson is a city in Brazoria County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of a 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city population was 27,614....

, supported coeducational status and were confirmed. On April 27, 1963, the regents agreed to admit the first women on a limited basis.

In May 1976, Texas Aggie magazine said that Moore had "done more for Texas A&M University in recent years than any other individual He authored or co-authored every bill that affected Texas A&M and its growth."

Death and legacy

Moore died in Bryan at the age of eighty-one. He was survived by his wife, Macille Moore of Bryan; a son and daughter-in-law, W. Tyler Moore, Jr., an attorney in Bryan, and Mary M. Moore, a Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant
Certified Public Accountant is the statutory title of qualified accountants in the United States who have passed the Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination and have met additional state education and experience requirements for certification as a CPA...

 who tried unsuccessfully to capture her father-in-law's former Senate seat. Services were Moore were held on May 30, 1999, at First Presbyterian Church in Bryan.

Tom McDonald said that he always knew where his friend Moore stood: "He wasn't like one of those spin- doctor types we have now. When he was saying something, you knew it was coming from Bill Moore, not from some speechwriter or pollster or someone like that." Tyler Moore said that his father had "a genuinely kind heart beneath that gruff exterior."

Steve Ogden
Steve Ogden
Steve Ogden is a Republican member of the Texas Senate representing the 5th District. Ogden was elected to the Texas Senate in January 1997, and chairs the Texas Senate Finance Committee...

, a Bryan Republican, defeated Democrat Mary Moore in the special election held in 1997 and then the regular general election of 1998 for her father-in-law's former seat. Ogden, who still serves in the chamber, called Moore "one of the giants of Texas politics who built many of the things we take for granted today. Texas A&M would be substantially different and not as great a university if it weren't for him. Everything that deals with state government within two hundred miles of Bryan-College he set the foundation for. He left a legacy, and I am sorry to hear of his passing."
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