Download Magazine - Levin College of Law - University of Florida

Gene Moore
basketball team and the baseball team my first year,” says
Moore, who received six varsity letters at the school. After
surviving his first year, when he would write letters home
imploring his parents to get him out, Moore began to enjoy
the camaraderie and saw the advantages of the discipline life
in the school was instilling in him.
TURNING DOWN PRO BALL
A baseball team captain in college, Moore flirted with
an opportunity to pursue the dream of so many young men
when he received a contract offer to play professionally with
the Philadelphia Phillies. The club was led by future Hall of
Famers Richie Ashburn in center field and hard-throwing
pitcher Robin Roberts—part of a team of young stars that
would earn the nickname “The Whiz Kids.”
The year was 1950. That fall, the Phillies won their first
National League pennant in 35 years before being swept in
the World Series by the New York Yankees. Moore meanwhile
was in Gainesville, where heʼd enrolled for law classes at the
University of Florida. He had passed on his childhood dream
of playing baseball to pursue a career in law.
“I lost the opportunity to play professional baseball, which in
retrospect was a break,” he says. “It worked out good for me. I
might have never made AAA or AA in baseball. Who knows”
In law school, Moore made lasting friendships with
a few of his classmates, some of whom he still sees on
JAMES HELLEGAARD
occasion. Last year, on behalf of the class of 1953, Moore
honored the memory of one of his former classmates when
he made a bequest creating the Leo Wotitzky (JD 53) Deanʼs
Discretionary Fund, which will help provide the college
with the means to sustain high standards of learning.
One of Mooreʼs former law professors, Clarence John
TeSelle, stands out in his memory for the effect he had
on his students. A few years ago, with the support and
approval of his classmates, Moore funded and presented to
the law school a bust sculpture of TeSelle, who taught at
UF 1928-1958 in areas such as legal ethics, trial procedure
and techniques, evidence, military law and federal
rules. Moore recalls the unsettling feeling he got
when called on by the professor. Even military school
didnʼt quite prepare him for Professor TeSelleʼs command
of the classroom.
“ʻMoore, stand up!ʼ You remember it, I tell ya, 50 years
later. You remember what he taught you, too.”
Shortly after graduating from UF Law in 1953, Moore
was called into the service, gaining good experience trying
courts-martial as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Judge
Advocate Generalʼs Department for two years in Sampson,
New York. He returned to Florida in 1955, taking a job with
a big law firm in West Palm Beach for three years before
moving to Boynton Beach to form a partnership with local
attorney Bob Griffith.
BUILDING A COMMUNITY
Moore began handling real estate deals in his practice
and soon became involved in the community, helping to form
the local Jaycees and serving as president of the Chamber of
Commerce. Moore ran for the Florida Legislature in 1963
and lost. Over a quarter century later, he sought and won
election as mayor of Boynton Beach.
Proud of what he was able to accomplish in two years in
office, from 1989 to 1991, Moore nonetheless acknowledges
he was not the most well-liked guy in town. The Palm Beach
Post described him as “brash but dedicated” and “probably
the fastest lip in politics.” Never backing down from a good
political fight, Moore is proud of the nickname he earned
while in office, “The Kamikaze Mayor.” Seeing how the city
has grown to more than 50,000 residents, Moore realizes the
pioneering role he and others leaders at the time had on the
areaʼs development.
“There are a lot of things that we were able to accomplish
here,” he says. “There was basically nothing here when we first
came down. A bunch of guys got active through starting the
Jaycees chapter down here. Then we got active and took over
the city. A couple of guys were elected to the city commission
and I was appointed the city attorney. We got a lot done.”
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