Roy Moore

Roy Moore left Las Cruces, New Mexico, the town he loved, for the third and final time January 5, 2021, having arrived in September 1942 with a three-semester Sears Scholarship in Agriculture and $65 borrowed from one of his mother's ranch hands. He caught a ride with an egg wholesaler, joining other Roosevelt County friends and neighbors at New Mexico A&M College in Las Cruces. Roy was born April 12, 1921 on his mother Lucy Ada Mooney's 1907 Roosevelt County Homestead, the youngest of six children, all deceased, and was the last of his dozen-member Elida Class of 1940. College ROTC qualified Roy to enter WWII as an officer. High aptitude enabled him to become an aviator in the Army Air Corps. As a bombardier/navigator, he earned the Distinguished Flying Medal on the first of his 29 combat missions in a not-yet perfected B-29. He left West Palm Beach Florida as Normandy was being invaded, always convinced he was blessed to be fighting from the air. While at New Mexico A&M Roy met his future wife Edith Joan Scarlett. They married in Albuquerque May 1, 1943. After he received his Second Lieutenant's Commission, she was able to accompany him to San Marcos, Texas and Hays, Kansas before returning to Las Cruces. Following his war service, Roy returned to Las Cruces and joined Edith and nine-month-old daughter Mary in September 1945. He finished college in May 1949 on the GI Bill while also building houses, "mostly for college professors, because they were the ones with some money then". When he graduated, jobs were scarce and he had three young children, so he left Las Cruces for the third time to teach Agriculture to returning servicemen in Elida 1949-1950. His family returned again in time for Mary to start school in September 1950, with Roy teaching Ag classes New Mexico A&M and building houses until his final child was born in 1954. Then he began building full time. Roy was a Charter Member of the Las Cruces Homebuilders Association and helped form a third Savings and Loan company in Las Cruces to alleviate lending shortages for money. His final project, spanning 45 years, involved development of a previously homesteaded section of land on Las Cruces' East Mesa. He completed his final project in 2020. Always an innovator, he received national recognition for designing and building innovative passive/hybrid solar homes. Roy loved nothing more than watching Las Cruces grow from a town of 9,000 with few paved streets in 1942 to a bustling metropolitan area of more than 200,000 in 2021, and he loved being part of that growth. For him, Las Cruces had always been a place where all things were possible. He was pre-deceased by wife Edith Joan Scarlett in 2000 and son Carl Roy Moore in 2018. He is survived by Mary Moore Redford of Las Cruces, Marjorie A. Dittmar (John) of Henderson, Texas, James R. Moore (Tina) of Las Cruces, five grandchildren, six adopted grands, nieces, nephews, many great grands.