INTERNATIONAL AVIATION LEADER CLIFTON MOORE DIES AT 80; "MR. AIRPORT" LED LOS ANGELES AIRPORTS DEPARTMENT 25 YEARS
(Lancaster, California -- April 3, 2002) Clifton Albert Moore, nicknamed "Mr. Airport" for his leadership in civil aviation both in Southern California and around the world, and who served for 25 years as executive director of Los Angeles City's vast four-airport system, died yesterday. He was 80 and living in retirement in Lancaster, California.
A member of numerous air travel professional organizations, recipient of numerous service awards, and co-author of a definitive book on airport management, Moore may be best remembered for the construction of the present-day Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) -- first bringing a two-runway airport surrounded by beanfields into the "Jet Age" during the early 1960s and then directing contractors around the clock in a comprehensive remodeling of the airport with the addition of a new international terminal and a second level roadway connecting the terminals in time to welcome the world for the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympics.
"Clif was a teacher. He led by example, and a lot of us are the better for it," recalls Lawrence Nagin, former executive vice-president and general counsel for both United Airlines and US Airways, who joined the Los Angeles Department of Airports fresh out of law school in 1973. "And he was ahead of his time, on the subject of diversity. Gender or color didn't matter to Clif when he hired people -- it was whether they could do the job. He believed in giving people chances."
Lydia H. Kennard, current executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, whose architect father performed many construction projects under Moore, said, "As 'Mr. Airport' in Southern California from the Sixties to the Nineties, Clif Moore recognized better than anyone the importance of an airport system to the City and the region. As demand for air passenger transportation increased dramatically over four decades, he worked tirelessly to ensure Los Angeles became the premier international air gateway on the West Coast while preparing the City's airports in Palmdale, Ontario and Van Nuys to help meet the region's demand for air service."
Moore set a course of service early in his life. The son of a working-class family, Moore was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts on January 15, 1922, to George, an electrician for the city of Boston whose family came from Ireland via Newfoundland, and Lylie, a native of Newquay, Cornwall. Better known as "Clif," he inherited the Irish's love of singing, and from his mother, the determination of the Cornish people.
At age 10, Clif lost his father and his mother married Arthur Pederson, who became father to Clif during his adolescent years. Graduating high school at 17 during the Great Depression in 1939, he was offered a scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology because of his mathematical and engineering abilities. But the brilliant teenager declined because his family needed his income from work. Instead, in 1940, he took a seaman's entrance exam for the U.S. Navy. He was one of two accepted out of 200 examinees in the tight-budgeted pre-war years.
Navy training included a swimming test. This is probably one of the few times that Moore failed. He never could swim except under water. The certifying Chief Petty Officer passed him anyway, warning him to never tell who the Chief was, as "Never in my entire career have I been unable to teach a man to swim until you came along."
Following in his father's footsteps, he trained as an electrician. Assigned to the USS Warden, Moore was among a handful of crewmembers aboard the destroyer at its anchorage in Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Raked by gunfire and dodging Japanese bombs, Moore and his shipmates raised steam and guided the ship out of the harbor, the first of the fleet to reach the ocean's safety.
Four years of harrowing sea duty followed -- the North Atlantic, Santa Cruz and Marcus Islands, Bougainville, the Marshalls, the Philippines and Leyte Gulf. When Moore was awarded his Chief Electrician's stripes at age 20, he was the youngest petty officer in U.S. Navy history.
Years later, as head of the Los Angeles Department of Airports, Moore became close friends with a Japanese pilot who had fought against him in the Pacific and was then an executive with the Tokyo Airport, and again, a German airport executive who was on submarine duty at the same time Moore was searching the Atlantic to destroy subs threatening his convoy.
Following military discharge, Moore settled in Los Angeles, taking an electrician's job with the City of Los Angeles in 1946. One of his first assignments was to re-install the Lindbergh Beacon, named after famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, on top of City Hall, where it had directed pilots to the airport from 1928 to 1941, when it was removed because of World War II. Perhaps this presaged Moore's future career in aviation.
A self-taught man, a wide and voracious reader, his skills and talents led to promotions. His connection with the airport began in 1959 when he paid a $3 fee, won a competitive exam, and was hired as a building superintendent at LAX. He soon assumed additional duties as administrator for the construction of what would become known as LAX, helping to transform a two-runway regional airport into the third busiest airport in the world.
Named deputy general manager of the Department of Airports in 1966, Moore advanced to executive director in 1968, in charge of not only the day-to-day operations of LAX but those of the three other airports in the department's system, Van Nuys, Ontario International and Palmdale Regional. He retired from his post in 1993.
During his tenure, Moore was a member of -- and even helped form -- some of the world's most prestigious airport organizations. He served two terms as president of the International Civil Airports Association and president of the Airport Operators Council International in 1976-77, the predecessor of Airports Council International, the Geneva, Switzerland-headquartered organization representing the world's airports. He also served as director of the California Association of Airport Executives, which honored him as "Airport Manager of the Year" for 1981-82, and served on the State of California Commission on Aviation and Airports from 1987 to 1990. In 1985 he was named the first chief executive officer/secretary of the Southern California Regional Airport Authority. He also served on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Task Force on Airport and Airspace Congestion, and was former chairman of the Airport Associations Coordinating Council, a policy-making body for international airport affairs.
On the domestic side, Moore served on numerous Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) task forces. In January 1975, he was awarded the FAA's Award for Extraordinary Service, the highest honor bestowed to men and women outside the federal agency, for his pioneering work in managing and mitigating airport noise between Los Angeles' airport facilities and their neighboring communities. He also received a special commendation from the FAA in 1985 for his contributions to international air transport.
Other awards include the William J. Cutbirth Memorial Award from the Hotel Sales & Marketing Association/Greater Los Angeles Chapter for outstanding contributions to the promotion of travel and tourism in the Los Angeles area in 1984. In 1986, he received the first annual USO General James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle Award for service to aviation and the encouragement of air travel and the Anti-Defamation League's Public Service Award. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce presented him the Stanley T. Olafson Award in 1992, the chamber's highest honor for contributions to world trade.
Moore's memberships included the boards of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Foreign Trade Association of Southern California. He was a member of the National Aeronautics Association, the American Public Works Association, the International Business Roundtable at UCLA's John Anderson Graduate School of Management, the Southern California Aviation Advisory Board at USC and the Royal Commonwealth Society of Great Britain. He also served on Culver City's Board of Education from 1961 to 1967, twice as president.
Despite a round-the-clock schedule and frequent flights to all corners of the world as an ambassador for Los Angeles City, Moore found time to co-author, with Norman J. Ashford and Martin Stanton, a textbook on airport management, "Airport Operations" (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1983).
Moore is survived by his war-time bride, Betty of Lancaster; a son, Steven of Fountain Valley; two daughters, Kerry of Oakhurst and Dale of Santa Monica; and six grandchildren..
Speaking at Moore's retirement ceremony in 1993, former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley told the crowd, "In every position he has held within the city of Los Angeles, Clif Moore has left his indelible mark for excellence and innovation."
