Inducted in 2013
Attorney
Dean of Admissions, Fordham Law School
Father of a Prep Graduate

Induction Video

William “Bill” Moore Jr. attended the Prep in an era dubbed A Golden Age of Prep Teachers in When September Comes, the official history of Fordham Prep. The administration, faculty, and staff in those days included some of the most enduring names in school memory — Shea, Hanish, McDonough, Kirchner, Melican and Carielli — fellow Hall of Honor inductees every one. Yet another fellow inductee can be numbered among Bill's friends and classmates: George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss of baseball fame. And as for friend and fellow '36er, Vincent Boller, his son, Rev. Kenneth Boller, SJ, would go on to serve as president of Fordham Prep from 2004 to 2013.
 
Bill was born on September 18, 1918, the son of William Moore Sr., an accounting clerk, and Anna Buckley Moore who had arrived from Ireland in 1906. According to family lore, one of Anna’s sisters, Katie Buckley, was the first female head cook to work at the White House, where she served on the staffs of Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
 
During his Hughes Hall days, Bill and his parents and his brother and sisters — George, Mary, and Regina — lived in the Inwood section of Manhattan. Their extended family was tight-knit, and many of them lived in the neighborhood, a true blessing in Bill’s senior year, when his mother died suddenly: there were aunts, uncles and cousins on hand to help care for his younger siblings.

Bill would be described by his Prep classmates as “the cheery-smiled funmaker” with “a beaming countenance that always bespeaks a light and happy heart.” Even for those who would meet Moore later in life, these descriptions would still ring true.
 
William played football and baseball during his time at the Prep. After graduation, he continued at Fordham University and then joined the US Army, landing with American troops at Normandy during the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 as a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers. As recalled by his daughter Sheila, Bill rarely spoke of D-Day and had no interest in reading or seeing films about it. He would only say, “It was so awful.”
 
Returning home after the war, Bill attended law school at New York University, taking most of his classes at night. After graduation in 1953, he was engaged in corporate law in New York and Washington. He and his wife, Justine, a Manhattanville alumna, raised five children: Eileen, Sheila, William III, Patty and Michael, Prep Class of 1976.
 
In 1971, William Mulligan, a dean at Fordham law and later a federal appellate judge, hired Moore as dean of admissions at Fordham Law School, a position he would hold for 30 years. It is not an overstatement to say that Bill became a legend to thousands of law students.

Compassion, empathy, humanity, and decency: words used by colleagues, friends and students to describe Moore over the years. Dean Moore was at the forefront of efforts to admit more minorities and women to Fordham Law, and to find seats for other perspective students whose applications would have otherwise been overlooked. It was said that Bill could find good in any applicant, and was often heard to say, “Give the kid a break” — a break that often led to the eventual development of a very fine lawyer.

Bill's friend and Fordham Law colleague, John D. Feerick, would remark:

When applicants, students and others would inquire about what made Fordham Law School distinctive, he would say, ever so briefly and humbly, "It is a very nice place." Well, it is a very nice place because of Bill Moore. He set the tone. He was always willing to take a chance on a student who seemed, on paper to be below the school's standards. He had a remarkable ability to see the best in everyone. His legacy at Fordham Law School was bringing to every situation his special combination of intelligence, compassion, empathy, and remarkable understanding of people.

He was always a gentleman — and a gentle man. He had a generosity of spirit about him that we have never seen the likes of. His legacy can be seen in the lives and careers of more than seventy percent of our School's 14,000 alumni — partners in law firms, general counsels of corporations, federal and state judges, teachers, business leaders, governmental officials at all levels, legal aid lawyers, military lawyers, and on and on.

Moore was awarded the Fordham University Bene Merenti Award in 1990. In 2001, he was the recipient of the University’s initial Gov. Malcolm Wilson Distinguished Alumnus Award — named for yet another fellow Hall of Honor member. He received the Dean’s Medal of Recognition that same year.

As Bill's son Mike said at the time of his father's death:

“It is impossible to enumerate or speak of all the friends because he made so many. His measure of people was what was in their heart, not who they were.”

In the words of Shel Prentice, one of Bill’s former students:

There’s part art and part science to being a good admissions officer. The science part is all the numbers and putting together a class that responds to the various demands placed on the school in terms of the overall composition of the class. The art part is selecting the individual students, especially those who don’t quite fit the profile but are worthy of admission. Dean Moore had both skills. He knew the needs of Fordham Law but he also took a personal interest in the actual applicants who would join Fordham Law. Dean Moore was a humble and good man. He did his best to help others and was a keen judge of character. Dean Moore was a prince of a man and richly deserving of the honor being bestowed on him by his beloved Fordham Prep.

Bill was a huge sports fan — the Giants were a special favorite team. While a student at the Prep, he had been known to sneak away if there was a particularly good game at the Polo Grounds. Beyond his love of sports, Bill loved good company, good conversation, a good story and a good laugh.  An avid reader, Moore enjoyed reading The New York Times every day on The Rattler, which is what he called the Manhattan-bound Metro-North train.  Among his favorite films was The Quiet Man, which he watched every year on St. Patrick's Day to celebrate his heritage. He had a family tie to the classic, as well — his cousin, Maurice Walsh, had written the 1933 Saturday Evening Post story on which this film was based.

William J. Moore Jr. died in November 2001. His wife Justine had passed a decade before. They were the grandparents of 11.

My father loved all of you very much. He rarely showed emotion, but the ease of his smile and twinkle in his big blue eyes always reflected his true feelings. He cared little for material possessions, yet he possessed much. He was able to give unconditionally, whether that was a kind word, helpful advice, or a favor…My father did not know what a Palm Pilot was, he did not own a cell phone, and probably never logged onto the Internet. Yet in this connected age, he made more connections with people than anyone I know. He connected with the goodness of people.

— Michael A. Moore, in tribute to his father