Penn Profile: Manford Moore

Penn College Bulletin - June 1966

William Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa

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Penn Profile

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Penn Profile for June is an alumnus of Penn College who is also a faculty member here. But after more than fifty years in the classroom, he plans to retire at the end of this school year. Manford

Moore, Professor of Industrial Arts, earned his B.A. Degree with honors from Penn College in 1936, and later returned to begin the Industrial Arts Department there. For a man who said after one year of teaching, "This is not for me!", Prof. Moore is a revered instructor who renounced that vow. His retirement from active teaching comes as the culmination of a long but steady climb up the ladder of success.

The first, lower rungs of that ladder were in rural schools, followed by rungs in elementary, junior high, and high schools. His years at William Penn College topped the ladder. By dint of perseverance, patience, and plain hard work, Prof. Moore has attained a status of professor-ship, honored among his co-workers and beloved by his students. Of the latter, through the long years there must have been more than 2,000 pupils under his tutelage.

If we burn back the years, 1913 would find Manford Moore at the age of sixteen in his first year of teaching in Logan County, Nebraska, where he stayed one year only, as he decided that was the way he wanted to earn his bread. The following summer, however, he did attend summer school with courses from the University of Nebraska.

He began teaching again in 1916 in a rural school in Marion County, Iowa, until the Army took him in May, 1918. He served during World War I to the end of the War, and returned to Iowa in July, 1919.

There followed a career through the years of teaching at Haydock (Bucknell) Consolidated school, Marysville elementary school, Lovilia Junior High, and Jerome High School. He taught and was Superintendent of Schools at Bouton, Coburg, Dallas, Rose Hill, Gibson, and Barnes City. Early in his career he took summer and extension courses from Iowa State Teachers College of Cedar Falls, at Corydon, Bloomfield, Albia, and Chariton. In 1929 he attended William Penn College during the summer. In the summer of 1933 he went to Simpson College for Manual Training, which was not offered at Penn. In 1934 and 1935 he continued Summer School study at Penn and by correspondence from the University of Iowa.

He obtained his B.A. Degree at Penn College, August 18, 1936. This degree was conferred with honors, and was the first such degree issued by Penn with honors for work done entirely by extension and correspondence and summer work. In 1940 he secured his Master of Science degree at Iowa State College at Ames.

He obtained his Superintendent's Certificate issued by the State of Iowa on September 17, 1937, based on his B.A. degree and work done at the University of Iowa and University of Chicago.

In 1958 President S. A. Watson, Penn College, asked Prof. Moore to start an Industrial Arts Department there. He joined the faculty that Fall and started a woodworking and metal shop in Penn Hall. Those early beginnings have grown from about ten students in one or two rooms to a modern Industrial Arts Building with a total of 56 Industrial Arts major students this year.

Mr. Moore was married in 1926 to Maggie Agan, who is also a Penn alumna and who teaches in the Home Economics Department there. They have two children, Leroy, a minister at Farmington, Iowa; and Mrs. Gay Nichols, of Knoxville, Iowa. The Moores are active in the Methodist Church. He is affiliated with the Masons and Eastern Star, and is a member of the American Legion and World War I Veterans.

Prof. Moore has several hobbies akin to his vocation, as he enjoys both woodworking and leatherwork. He recently bought a gem cutting machine and said he will "begin polishing diamonds as soon as I find some." He says that his plans for retirement are "indefinite, except that I definitely plan to retire." The Moores live at 1006 Gurney, Oskaloosa.

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Addendum: Manford Moore, born October 14, 1896, died on August 12, 1967, approximately one year after his retirement, at the age of 70.

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The editor sincerely appreciates the contribution of the above article to The Jerome Journal by the Rev. Leroy Moore, Manford's son, of Indianola, Iowa.