Franklin H. Moore, Jr. (IV) was born in St. Clair on December 5, 1934 to Franklin H. Moore (III) and Alice Wolfs Moore. He was the oldest of four children. Like his father, he grew up in St. Clair and attended prep school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts where he graduated in 1953. He proceeded to Williams College in western Massachusetts and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity. He considered majoring in Engineering following the Sputnik launch, but instead opted for English.
While at Williams, Frank met Nancy Shearer who attended Skidmore College across the state line in Saratoga Springs, New York. His classmate was dating a Skidmore girl and needed a ride and Frank had a car. The classmate arranged to find him a date if he’d drive. The girlfriend at Skidmore found Nancy in the library and was able to introduce them. They were married on August 30, 1958 and lived in Ann Arbor where Frank was attending law school at the University of Michigan. See the letter Frank penned to his mother, Alice, describing his new girlfriend.
Frank graduated from law school in 1960. Frank’s father, then president of the Commercial & Savings Bank, needed help at the bank and insisted that if Frank, Jr. wanted to work there that he would need to come then. Frank turned down a better offer to work as an attorney in Detroit and settled for the $5,000 per year salary at the bank.
In their move to St. Clair, Frank and Nancy initially lived in the lower level of the new home Frank’s parents had built at 722 North Riverside but soon found an apartment above the bakery on the St. Clair River. Their first son, Franklin Shearer Moore (V), aka Spike, was born in October. One of his first words was boat as he enjoyed watching the freighters on the river.
In July, 1962 they moved into their first house on Sixth Street in St. Clair just in time for the birth of their second child, Elizabeth (Beth). Their third child, Jennifer Ann, was born in September, 1964 and their fourth, Walter English, was born in April, 1967. A woman that lived across the street, Ruth Nelson, was the regular babysitter for the family and became a beloved third grandmother to the kids.
Franklin H. Moore, Sr. developed some land he had purchased into a subdivision on the north side of the city and gave a beautiful corner lot to Frank Jr. The family built a home there in 1968 and lived there until 2017. The woods behind the home were never developed and Frank loved feeding the birds. He continued his vegetable garden at the new house, a hobby he enjoyed into his late ’70’s, often while listening to Tigers games broadcast by Ernie Harwell.
Frank was involved in many civic organizations over the years. One of his first projects was with the Jaycees, who took on the relocation of the public library during St. Clair’s “urban renewal” in the late 1960’s. Frank worked with the architect to design the new building that still stands on Second Street and he became Chairman of the library board of directors, a position he held and enjoyed for decades.
Frank’s civic contributions are too numerous to count. He often was asked to serve as the chairman of the board of organizations and some of these included:
- Michigan Bankers Association
- ABA Community Bankers Council
- Community Foundation of St. Clair County
- Mental Health Association in Michigan
- Blue Water Clinic
- St. Clair Jaycees
- St. Clair Rotary Club
His recognitions include the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts, Man of the Year from the Jaycees and Distinguished Citizen of the Year award in 2014 from the Community Foundation of St. Clair County. He was also named Citizen of the Year by the St. Clair Rotary Club in 1998 and by the St. Clair Chamber of Commerce in both 1997 and 2007.
See Franklin H. Moore, Jr. Awards Gallery
In 1972, Frank took over as president of the Commercial & Savings Bank and established a trust department. His father retired as president, but continued on as Chairman of the board of directors and took over investment management in the trust department. During Frank’s tenure at the bank, it grew dramatically despite the stable population of the small town of St. Clair. When he joined the bank in 1960 there were just 14 employees and, despite his education, he started off as a teller. And, he’ll admit that he wasn’t a very good one. See ABA Journal article from March, 1987 titled, ” A Small Town Banker Worth His Salt.”
In 1988, the Algonac Savings Bank was merged with Commercial & Savings under the Seaway Financial bank holding company. In 1996, the holding company was sold to Old Kent which was subsequently acquired by Fifth Third. At the time of the sale the holding company served communities throughout St. Clair County, boasted assets of $360 million, and had about 230 employees. Frank, then age 62, retired. See Michigan Banker article on “Moore Family Name Leaving Banking” from October, 1996.
See the 2002 article on his banking career and Michigan Investor magazine article on his being named president of the Michigan Bankers Association in 1980.
In addition to the banking and civic contributions, Frank served on the board of directors of the Diamond Crystal Salt Company along with his father, Frank (III), Charles Moore, and later his cousin Fred and son Frank (V). He’d worked summers on the shaker line while he was in school and was an important advisor as the company slowly wound down from the 1980’s through early 2000’s.
See more photos of Franklin H. Moore, Jr.
He also took care of the finances for many of St. Clair’s widows, often customers of the bank, who he was able to assist as an estate planning attorney and tax preparer.
One of Frank and Nancy’s favorite activities was travelling to Stratford, Ontario for the theater there. The Stratford festival began in the late 1950’s and Frank and Nancy started attending plays shortly after it started. By the early 1960’s they had introduced enough friends to the festival that they declared the group Moore’s Militia and they would attend a few plays together each summer. The group has continued for over half a century with Frank organizing the tickets, accommodations, and more for the annual outing. In addition to the group outing, Frank & Nancy have introduced dozens of others to the festival and they routinely see every play each year, and a few of them twice.
Frank was never much of an athlete, but he did love tennis and played regularly for decades. For years he and his friends would head to Port Huron’s indoor courts at 6:00 a.m. to get in some doubles before heading back to St. Clair for the workday. He enjoyed playing in Port Huron’s annual Robinson tournament and often fared well in his age group, winning in men’s doubles in 1979 in the over 35 age group and again in 1993 in the over 55 men’s doubles.
Frank & Nancy’s four children each had two or three kids, giving them a total of ten grandchildren. Here’s video of Frank with some when they were younger (note password is 321). As each grandchild turned ten years old, Frank & Nancy took them on a trip, typically a long weekend in a big city.
Nancy co-founded the St. Clair Travel Service in 1984 and the couple enjoyed travelling the world over the decades to follow (See more of Frank IV travels). They visited six continents and considered Antarctica, but decided to pass after talking with other travelers who had been there. They visited Russia, China, India, Europe and Africa and had planned to see the Egyptian pyramids before their trip was cancelled due to the Arab Spring in 2011. In more recent years, they’d spend January in Puerto Vallarta and March in Palm Springs with their good friends, the Groff’s.
Frank and Nancy’s last trip together was a cruise down the length of the Mississippi River with a few extra days in New Orleans in the fall of 2017. Frank passed peacefully at Port Huron Hospital under hospice care on February 3, 2018 after a short stay. See obituary as published in the Port Huron Times Herald. The Times Herald also had a nice article on him published February 6, 2018 and the Community Foundation of St. Clair County also posted about him.