Speaking to Bob Short in 2010, Powell Moore said of
his hometown, “I’m proud of the fact that I’m from Milledgeville, Georgia. Some
people say it’s a small town in Middle Georgia. I think it’s a lot more than
that.” Moore and Short would go on conjuring the names of several individuals
of considerable import who had called Milledgeville home over the years.
Powell Allen Moore, who died on August 13, surely
belongs on any shortlist of that city’s—and this state’s—prominent citizens. Although
he never held elective office, Moore served for over five decades in the
penumbras of power—both inside and outside government while living and working
in Washington D.C. His was truly a life of achievement and significance, and his
extensive career is documented in the Powell
A. Moore Papers, which he donated to the Russell Library in 2014. His
complete Reflections on Georgia Politics interview
with Bob Short can be viewed online.
Born on January 5, 1938 to Jere and Sarah Moore,
Powell spent his entire childhood in Milledgeville where his father co-owned
and edited the city’s Union-Recorder newspaper.
He attended high school and junior college at the Georgia Military College
Preparatory School.
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| Powell Moore with Senator Richard Russell in Milledgeville ca. 1946 |
After graduating from Georgia Military College, Moore completed
his college education, receiving an ABJ, at the University of Georgia’s Henry
Grady College of Journalism in 1959. He then entered the United States Army as
a junior infantry officer serving a tours of duty in West Germany. After
returning from Europe in 1963, Moore put his UGA degree to good use, working briefly
at the Union-Recorder before joining the
Birmingham, Alabama, based Southern Natural Gas Company as a public affairs
specialist.
Like the vast majority of Georgians in those days, the
Moore was reared by Democrats, but he became an early Republican convert after
a visit to the newly erected Berlin Wall and a careful reading of Arizona senator
Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a
Conservative while stationed in Germany. Moore went on to support Goldwater for president in 1964, and
he played a part in the conservative takeover of the Georgia Republican Party
that same year.
Two years later, in late 1966, Moore received an
unexpected, fateful phone call. Bill Bates, Senator Richard B. Russell’s press
secretary, was preparing to step down, and he was seeking his replacement.
Always a great admirer of the senator, Moore felt obliged to inform Senator Russell
that he was, in fact, a Republican. “I’m not hiring you for your politics. I’m
hiring you because I want you to do what I tell you to do,” Moore recalled
Senator Russell responding.
And with that, Moore joined Russell’s Washington
office staff, which was led at that time by Charles E. Campbell. An energetic,
young staffer, Moore collaborated closely with his counterparts, participating
in the Senate Press Secretaries Association as well as the Congressional Staff
Conservative Luncheon Club.
Despite a difference in partisan labels, Powell Moore
proved an attentive and loyal assistant to the aging, and increasingly infirm,
Russell. According to historian and Russell biographer Gilbert Fite, Moore’s
tenure as press secretary coincided with a thaw in relations between the Georgia
senator and the press. In fact, Russell even acceded to a request from the Atlanta Constitution’s Wayne Kelley to tape
record an interview. With a wary Moore perched nearby, Senator Russell spoke
for over an hour. Unfortunately for Kelley (and posterity), the recorder
captured only silence!
Moore was at his post on January 21 in what is
currently the Russell Senate Office Building when he received a telephone call
from Charles Campbell informing him that the ailing senator had died. Moore
shared the news privately with fellow staffers as well as Russell family
members before making the official announcement at approximately 2:40 p.m.
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| Moore during his time as a Nixon presidential staffer |
Following Senator Russell’s death, Moore returned to
the Republican fold when he accepted a position in Nixon White House as Deputy
Director of Public Information at the Justice Department. While at Justice, Moore
served under Attorney General John Mitchell and his successor, Richard Kleindienst.
He soon joined Mitchell at the newly established Committee
to Re-Elect the President (CRP) in May 1972. As CRP’s Director of News and
Information, Moore served as one of the primary points of contact between the
committee and the Washington press, including two intrepid Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, as the
pair investigated a “third-rate burglary” at the Democratic National Committee
headquarters in the Watergate complex. The ensuing scandal that unfolded over
the next two years, embroiled the White House, and forced President Richard Nixon
from office in disgrace.
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| Moore (left) shaking hands with President Gerald Ford in August 1974 |
Although Moore provided testimony to the Senate
Watergate Committee, he was never implicated in any criminal wrongdoing.
Reflecting on the Watergate saga in 2010, Moore maintained, “It was not only
illegal. It was not only immoral. It was just stupid.” He also admitted frankly,
“[I]t’s a period of my career that I wouldn’t want to relive.” But on a
brighter note, Moore and Bob Woodward became friends and, eventually,
neighbors.
Moore, who had worked as Director of Press Relations
for Nixon’s 1973 Inaugural Committee, was serving as a senior legislative
affairs staffer when Nixon resigned in August 1974. He remained briefly in that
position as a so-called “Nixon holdover” under President Gerald Ford, but he
resigned in January 1975 before joining Ford’s presidential campaign.
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| President Ford and Moore in the Oval Office |
After almost a decade in government service, Moore rejoined
the private sector in 1976. He established a consulting firm, the Marketing
Corporation of America, where he advised clients on Washington’s complex
federal bureaucracy.
Ronald Reagan’s presidential election in 1981 signaled
Moore’s return from the political wilderness. He joined the new Republican
administration as Deputy Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs, overseeing
Senate-White House relations. In that role, Moore helped guide Sandra Day O’Connor’s
historic Supreme Court nomination successfully through the confirmation process.
Afterward, Moore moved to the State Department where he served as Assistant
Secretary of State for Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs under both Al
Haig and George Schultz (both former Nixon White House alumni).
After leaving the Reagan administration toward the end
of 1983, Moore joined the Lockheed Corporation as its Vice President of
Legislative Affairs. Thus began Powell Moore’s longest sustained period of private
sector work. In 1985, he stepped down from Lockheed to form the consulting firm
of Ginn, Edington, Moore, and Wade. Like Moore, former Congressman Bo Ginn and
Rogers Wade were both native Georgians. He moved on to the Capitoline
International Group in 1992 and to Global USA in 1998.
Moore left K Street for Capitol Hill in
1998 to become chief of staff in Tennessee senator Fred Thompson’s office where
he remained until 2001 when President George W. Bush appointed Moore as Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs. Moore devoted the bulk of his time
and attention to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as on the wider “War
on Terror” following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He was awarded
U.S. Defense Department Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2005.
Powell briefly joined McKenna, Long & Aldridge
(now known as Denton’s) as Managing Director for Federal Government Relations
after Bush’s first term came to a close. By 2006, however, Moore was back in
government as the Representative of the U.S. Secretary of Defense to the
Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). A lifelong
Europhile, he had long harbored a desire to return to the continent. Working
out of Vienna, Austria, Moore represented the U.S. government on such security-related
issues as arms control, human rights, and conflict prevention. He returned stateside
following President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
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| Moore speaking with Bob Short in 2010 |
Moore was working as a senior legislative advisor with
Venable, LLP in Washington D.C. when he passed away.
On a personal note, I first met Powell Moore when I
was still a graduate student in the UGA History Department. At that time, I did
not know the full extent of Powell’s impressive resume. If I had, I would have probably
been too nervous to strike up conversations for fear of exposing my ignorance of
issues and events that he had participated in firsthand. He shared freely with me of his
time, insights, and experiences, and I never saw him in a less-than-genial
mood. As a former Russell staffer and foundation trustee, Powell was an
unflinching supporter of and advocate for the Richard B. Russell Library—its mission,
programming, and staff.
The last time I saw Powell was this past January in Milledgeville
at a symposium examining the long life and career of Congressman Carl Vinson. And
that’s where Sheryl Vogt and I were this Saturday to bid Powell farewell as he
was laid to rest in his beloved hometown.
Ashton Ellett
Postscript:
Remembering Russell Library’s Powell A. Moore
Powell Moore first visited the Russell Library in the late 1970s.
I remember coming in on a Saturday, when we were normally closed, to
accommodate his visit. He was, after all, a former Press Secretary to Senator
Russell. The tour was short; there was not much to show in the early days, but
we shared at least three hours of reminiscing about the senator and imagining
the library’s future.
As Ashton has written, Powell was a busy man. Even so, he never
missed an opportunity to benefit the library. He was a mentor, adviser,
advocate, colleague, and co-worker. Over the years, I treasured his friendship.
Many members of our staff were touched by his engagement.
Powell arranged special visits for two of the senator’s closest
colleagues, John Stennis and Robert Byrd; not only attended programs,
recommended and engaged program speakers but also participated in one of our
highly rated programs on intelligence gathering as well as several others;
agreed to donate his papers, and helped to organize them; assisted in signing
other donors; wrote articles and generated publicity for us; gave annually to
the Russell’s oral history program and served as one of our expert interviewers
on numerous occasions.
One of our favorite memories is a trip four of us made to McLean,
VA, to collect more papers from Eugene Methvin, a Georgian and former editor of
Reader’s Digest. Powell met us there to interview Gene, while some of us packed
files and loaded a van. For lunch, he took us to one of his and Gene’s favorite
Greek restaurants in the area and followed that with a quick driving tour of
the cherry trees in bloom. The conversation was lively and fun. I believe we made
one of our first Russell Tweets that afternoon.
Every visit with Powell ended in a conversation prompted by his
“What can I do for the library?” That he will be missed is true on so many
levels, yet all too inadequate in light of his generosity and spirit.
Sheryl Vogt
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