Arch Alfred Moore Jr. (April 16, 1923 – January 7, 2015) was an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as the 28th and 30th governor of West Virginia. He held office from 1969 to 1977 and again from 1985 to 1989, making him the longest-serving governor in the state's history with 12 years in office. Moore began his political career as a state legislator in 1952 and later became a prominent figure in West Virginia politics. He was the father of U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito and the grandfather of U.S. Representative Riley Moore.

Moore's tenure was marked by significant infrastructure development and economic initiatives, but his political career ended in controversy. Amid allegations of corruption, he lost his 1988 reelection bid to Democrat Gaston Caperton. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to five felony charges, leading to a sentence of five years and ten months in federal prison, of which he served over three years. His conviction resulted in disbarment, the forfeiture of his state pension, and a $750,000 settlement paid to the state in 1995.

Early life

Moore was born in Moundsville, West Virginia, in the state's industrial northern panhandle, the son of Genevieve (née Jones) and Archie Alfred Moore. He was born into a political family. His grandfather, Forest Taylor Moore (1859–1950), was a ten-term delegate and minority leader in the West Virginia House of Delegates and his uncle, Everett Franklin Moore (1885–1965), was also a politician. Moore excelled at basketball while attending Moundsville High School. Upon graduation, he worked in a factory and on an oil pipeline.

He briefly attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, before he was drafted for World War II service. He was in the Army Specialized Training Program training to be an engineer, but military manpower requirements changed and he was sent to the infantry. Assigned to the 334th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the 84th Infantry Division, he received a disfiguring wound in the jaw from enemy machine gun fire in Germany, November 1944. Moore was left for dead for two days in a German farmer's beet field Following his wounding, he was transferred to Liege, Belgium, where he underwent facial reconstruction surgery. Because the bullet that had wounded him passed through his tongue, he was not able to speak for about a year after his wounding. Public speaking, a skill he would later exercise while holding public office, was part of his physical therapy.

He then entered West Virginia University graduating in 1948 and then from its law school in 1951. While at WVU, he was involved with student government and founded "Mountaineer Week," a celebration of West Virginia culture in response to his perception that the growing number of out-of-state students at the school were changing its character. The event has become a permanent part of the school's calendar. He was also a member of the Beta Psi chapter of Beta Theta Pi at West Virginia University and was a recipient of the fraternity's Oxford Cup.

After graduating from law school, Moore returned to Moundsville to practice law with his uncle, Everett Moore.

Congressional career, 1957–1969

Moore was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1952. In 1954, Moore made his first run for the US Congress, challenging incumbent Democratic Congressman Bob Mollohan, but lost. In 1956, Moore was elected to the seat following Mollohan having vacated it to run for Governor of West Virginia, a race Mollohan eventually lost to Republican Cecil Underwood. In 1962, his district was merged with the 3rd District of longtime Democratic incumbent Cleveland M. Bailey; Moore won by just 762 votes. Moore was re-elected in 1964 and 1966, before seeking the governor's office in 1968. He served a total of six terms in Congress, from 1957 through 1969.

His terms in the House were marked by strong support for public works projects and for civil rights. Moore voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. During his time in Congress, Moore had a mostly conservative voting record. Moore became the ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Nationality in 1960.

Governor of West Virginia, 1969–1977

Moore was elected to his first term as governor in 1968, defeating Cecil H. Underwood in the Republican primary and Democrat James Marshall Sprouse in the general election. Just two days before the general election, on November 3, 1968, Moore was in a helicopter crash in Lincoln County. He and West Virginia Supreme Court candidate Dennis Knapp were on their way to the town of Hamlin to campaign when their pilot crash-landed the helicopter on the Hamlin High School football field in an attempt to avoid power lines. Moore sustained a ruptured leg muscle and two broken ribs in the crash, while Knapp suffered a broken collar bone. After winning the election, Moore told reporters he thought "the Lord voted for me" via the crash.

The state's Constitution, which had formerly had a one-term term limit and provided for a weak governor system, was amended in 1968 to strengthen the powers of the governor and in 1970 to provide for a two-term limit. Moore became the first person re-elected governor in 1972, defeating Jay Rockefeller.

A notable event of Moore's first term was the 1969 strike of the state's highway workers. From March 3–11, over 2,600 of these workers struck in an attempt to get the state to recognize their union. Moore summarily fired those who had walked off the job, later citing this act as a matter of state safety. 530 of the highway workers who went on strike were able to reclaim their jobs after the strike was over, but more than 2,000 of them were permanently dismissed. Moore's stance during this strike was markedly different from actions on labor that he took later in his Governorship. He would go on to advocate for insurance benefits of hospital workers and pay increases for teachers and other school staff. Furthermore, he pressured the West Virginia legislature to increase workers compensation benefits by 75% and helped to settle a national strike of coal miners.

Moore's first two terms as governor are best remembered for improvements in the state's highway system and for the Buffalo Creek Flood disaster. During Moore's first two terms as governor, West Virginia built over of interstate highways through mountainous terrain and the New River Gorge Bridge, once the world's longest steel arch bridge. This building was made possible by The Roads Development Amendment (1968), a $350 million bond amendment that gave the State of West Virginia the ability to match Federal highway funding to the state, as well as the Better Roads Amendment (1964), a $200 million bond issue.

For these crimes, Moore was fined $3.2 million, though he paid only $750,000, after reaching a settlement. He was sentenced to five years and ten months in prison.

After his guilty plea, Moore tried repeatedly to withdraw it. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rebuffed his attempts to withdraw his plea in April 1991, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused his arguments in October 1995. For the remainder of his life, Moore continued to maintain his innocence. He later claimed that he made the plea based on bad advice. In an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting he said: "I followed advice that I got, that advice was not the right advice."

Moore died in Charleston on January 7, 2015, at the age of 91, one day after his daughter, Shelley Moore Capito, was sworn in to the United States Senate. When asked about his legacy, he said he was proud of his three terms as governor. "You'll run into Arch Moore stories for the rest of your life, and nine and a half out of ten will be positive," he told West Virginia Public Broadcasting in 2007. "I'm still working on the other half."

Moore's political papers are housed at the West Virginia and Regional History Center at West Virginia University. This collection contains documents from his time as a Congressman and governor.

References

Further reading

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  • Biography of Arch A. Moore Jr.
  • Inaugural address of Arch A. Moore Jr. (1969)
  • Inaugural address of Arch A. Moore Jr. (1973)
  • Inaugural address of Arch A. Moore Jr. (1985)

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