CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hundreds filed into the West Virginia Culture Center on Friday and paid final respects to Arch Moore, the former governor who became a towering figure in West Virginia politics and history.
Emcee Charles Ryan welcomed the audience to “the house that Arch built,” referencing the culture center Moore engineered into existence despite rampant criticism.
“It wasn’t even in the budget,” Ryan said quoting a member of the legislature of the time.
“As the building started going up and the stone facade was going up, they started to put the letters on it and the first letters were A, R, C, and H,” said Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, drawing a laugh from the audience. “For a year while the building was being completed it drove the critics crazy. It was not only etched in the stone out there, but it had gold leaf in it.”
Tomblin lauded Moore as a visionary who worked to better the state of West Virginia.
“Whether Arch was in Glen Dale, Charleston, or Washington, he never forgot where he came from or the people he served,” Tomblin said. “Like all of us here today, Governor Moore believed West Virginia was the greatest state in the country.”
Moore’s son, Arch A. Moore III, spoke on behalf of the family. Kim, as he’s known to many, said his father surrounded himself with an energetic team and set out to lift up the state’s economy and morale. He said Moore worked to instill pride in everybody living in the hills and hollows.
“The state map was displayed on our license plate. They coined the phrase ‘Wild and Wonderful’ as a new state slogan. Dad sang and recorded ‘Country Roads,'” joked Kim. “That’s what he told me. But when the song became a hit in 1971 the timing couldn’t have been better. We had West Virginia pride. It was a great time.”
Kim Moore recalled that his father was engaged in the children’s lives and was there to instill values and character.
“We as children were privileged to have him as a role model,” he said. “The world would be a better place if every child could have what we had.”
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin traced back the long history between his family and the Moores.
“Arch Moore and my father, like Arch Moore and many of you, had a friendship that was unconditional,” Manchin said. “He never asked questions. He didn’t judge you on whether you supported him or whether you did this. It was totally unconditional.”
Kim Moore closed with this tribute:
“No man believed in his Lord more—he was a man of faith. No man loved his family more—he was a devoted husband and father. No man loved his country more, a patriot willing to risk his life on the battlefields of Germany for our freedoms. No man loved his state more—he was a proud Mountaineer. No father is loved more by his children. God bless you Dad. May you and Mom rest in peace.”