| 16 |
- Nathan Olney MOORE was born
in Chicago, Ill., December 14, 1877, and died at
- Riverside, Calif., December 17, 1949.
He was the third child and older son of Nathan Olney MOORE,
Sr., and Mary HUNTER MOORE. He is survived by his
wife; his only son Neil Olney MOORE, of Riverside; two
granddaughters, Marsha Allyn and Karyl Leanne MOORE, of
Riverside; two sisters, the Misses Julia M., and Mary H. MOORE,
of Nashville, Tenn.; a niece, Miss Miriam G. MOORE, Nashville;
distant relatives, and many friends.
- Olney, as he was always known, received
his early education in the public schools of
- Chicago and Highland Park, Ill. When
he was eleven, he dropped out of grammar school to learn the
printers trade from his father; but he continued his schooling
under the home tutoring of his mother until he was able to enter
the Highland Park High School. In 1897 he entered the preparatory
department of Milton College. He sometimes said he kicked his
way through college because he earned the entire expenses of
the six years in the job printing office of Will K. DAVIS,
"kicking off" jobs on the footpower press. His success
in the printing office is summed up in the remark of W. K. DAVIS:
"MOORE can turn off more work in a given length of
time than any other man I know." His career as a student
is witnessed to by the lifetime friends of his school days who
are here today.
- Olney was graduated with the class
of 1903, and on June 26, 1903, he was married
- to Mary WEST, only daughter
of Dr. C. H. WEST of Farina, Ill. Their first year of
life together was spent at Scandinavia, a town in northern Wisconsin,
where he was principal of the grammar school. The next year they
moved to Plainfield, N.J., where he was manager of the Recorder
Press. In 1910 Dr. West retired from his dental practice in Farina,
and the WEST and MOORE families moved to Riverside
to live together the rest of their days. He joined the Riverside
Seventh Day Baptist Church by letter on November 26, 1910; and
for the past quarter century he has faithfully served as an ordained
deacon.
- In the next four years, the most important
events in Olney's life were a year he spent in
- Africa and a year spent back in Milton
in business with the Burdick Cabinet Corporation. The trip to
Africa, in company with W. D. WILCOX, to investigate mission
work in South Africa, was sponsored by the Seventh Day Missionary
Society. The experiences of that trip and the pictures he took
have since formed the basis of many a lecture, mission talk,
or program in Church, school or neighborhood.
- In 1915 Olney joined the faculty of
the Riverside Polytechnic High School, where he
- was head of the printing department
of the high school and junior college until his automatic retirement
seven years ago. His mother used to recall that in his youth
he often said there were two things he would never do for a living:
be a teacher or a printer. Yet when life called him to both these
professions, he did them with the love and devotion of an artist.
Since his retirement he has filled his life with activities directed
to the comfort and welfare of his family, friends, and neighbors
at Riverside and Desert Hot Springs.
- Olney was reared by Sabbath-keeping
parents, and he was always a good boy; but
- he made no profession of conversion
until during his first year at Milton. He was baptized by Pastor
Lester Randolph. To the last moment Olney was devoted to the
Lord Jesus, to the Church and its objectives, and to the happiness
and service of those about him. The photographic hobby he developed
in his last years is really an allegory of the pattern of his
whole life: his artistry and intellectual acumen are illustrated
by the kind of pictures he took, but the quality of his soul
is symbolized by the use he made of the pictures - showing them
to shut-ins and patients in rest homes and nursing homes. His
wit and humor flashed like sunshine through all he said and wrote.
Poems from his pen have delighted and inspired many in differing
places and circumstances, from his students and his fellow patients
at the Community Hospital to friends and neighbors who were either
bereaved or rejoicing.
- The influence of his life is fully
recorded only in the books of heaven. For instance: only
- a few days ago at a birthday party
for an elderly invalid in Tennessee, of whom he had never heard,
the thing that pleased her most was the reading of a poem he
once wrote as a tribute to his neighbor, Mrs. PULLEN.
All who had any contact with him sensed and respected his intellectual
greatness, his nobility, and his goodness. Those in every degree
of nearness to him proportionately knew the depth of his tenderness
and love. It will be as we go on living that we fully realize
our loss; but the influence of his Christian gentlemanliness
will inspire us to live better lives. Miss Mary H. MOORE
[Vol. 148, No. 3, p. 49]
-
- Courtesy of Jon Saunders
|
