Memories of Fred Moore, 1918-2016
by William Etnyre, PhD, LICSW
As we mourn the passing of a former FOW-USA Board Member, we thank the author who was able to shed some light on Fred’s contributions. The following is an essay written about Fred by his friend, Bill.
It’s an honor to write something about Fred Moore of Fort Lauderdale, Florida who was a longtime supporter of FOW, a past president and a very active and influential member of the former United Ostomy Association (UOA) who was active in his local chapter and nationally. This essay will share my memories of Fred and a bit of the early history of UOA’s relationship with its LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) members, with which Fred played such a big part. (In those days, we were remiss in not recognizing Transgender people with ostomies.)
Fred, who died at the venerable age of 98, was a remarkable man—a Renaissance man, I think it is fair to say. Fred was kind and generous to a fault with money, time, energy, enthusiasm which he shared with friends, colleagues, organizations such as the UOA, FOW, American Cancer Society, and his life-long partner, Matty.
Those who knew Fred remember his exuberance, passion, irrepressible spirit, no-nonsense, get it done attitude along with a tremendous sense of humor! He was a joy to be around! He could be feisty too! I first encountered this exuberance and feistiness in 1980 at the Vancouver UOA conference. Following a workshop on male sexuality, which a colleague and I had facilitated, a distinguished man (who turned out to be Fred) approached me and said with vigor something like, “well that was an ok session, but you left out something important…you didn’t say anything about gay people with ostomies!” Fred’s persistence from this point forward ensured that the voices of LGB people with ostomies were heard in the UOA.