Obituary: Kenneth Moore
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Kenneth Moore, former Harrisburg resident, died while vacationing in the British Virgin Islands on March 27, 2012. He was 87 years old.
He joined the Oberlin Conservatory of Music faculty in 1955 and taught bassoon (and later, became Professor of Bassoon) there from 1959 until he retired in 1987. He was also a conductor of many small (mostly wind) ensembles and the Oberlin Orchestra and Oberlin Chamber Orchestra at various times during his tenure at Oberlin. He helped promote contemporary music, conducting over 30 first performances by Oberlin (faculty) composers. He conducted the Oberlin Orchestra's recording of several works of George Rochberg, which was named one of the top ten best records of the year by High Fidelity magazine in 1978. A lifelong lover of music, he had recently been working on his own small ensemble arrangements of works by Mozart and other composers.
He and his wife Jean, preceding him in death in 2000, were avid sailors. They owned numerous boats over the years including seven sail and three power boats. They sailed in all the Great Lakes and made the trip from the Bahamas to Lake Erie (and back) via the Intracostal Waterway and Erie canal many times. They also sailed in Nova Scotia and Alaska. In 1982 they participated in a 33-day trans-Atlantic crossing with three other sailors.
He also was a bicycling enthusiast and had recently returned from a short bike trip on a "Rails to Trails" path in eastern Alabama and western Georgia. In 1976, he bicycled across the U. S. from Oregon to Kentucky, following the "bike centennial" route. The following year, he completed the trip, ending in Washington D.C. after a total of 58 days.
He also enjoyed tennis and played regularly.
Born in Harrisburg in 1924, he earned his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Illinois and met Jean there when they were both students. They were married in 1949. The pursuit of his undergraduate degree was interrupted by World War II. During the war, he was a clarinetist in the Army Air Corps band and later played in various Navy bands and ensembles. One was an orchestra that was part of the entourage of the Commander of the Atlantic Fleet. He earned his master's degree in music from the Julliard School in New York City in 1950.
In addition to sailing and biking trips in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean, he traveled extensively. He made numerous trips to Europe, visited China, New Zealand (where he biked), and Central America. In 1962, he and his family bicycled across Europe from Italy to Denmark and then on to England.
In the summer of 2011, he purchased a power boat in Wrangell, Alaska and piloted it to Anacortes, Wash., near Seattle. The boat was then trucked to Marietta on the Ohio River. In the fall of 2011, he sailed the boat down the river hoping to get as far as the Kentucky Lake along the Tennessee River but had to cut the trip short due to cold weather. He intended to resume his journey down the Ohio River on his return from the British Virgin Islands and, directly after that, had planned to tour parts of France by way of canal boat.
He is survived by his son, David (Kathy) of Worthington, Ohio; their daughter Teresa; and son, Geoffrey of Oberlin.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Hazel and Perry Moore; and his sister, Phyllis (Tom) Gregg. He also leaves nephews, Tom and Ken Gregg; and niece, Ann Gregg; and his cousin, Regnald (Mildred) Riegel; and a host of friends in Harrisburg, Oberlin and throughout the United States.
A memorial service is to be announced.
Memorial contributions may be sent to Friends of the Oberlin Public Library http://www.oberlinpl.lib.oh.us/friends.html