Remembering Jade Moore

By at 23 February, 2010, 10:33 am

It was overcast and windy. Fire engines roared past (twice). A Florida flag fell over (twice). But 200 people who showed up at PCTA-PESPA headquarters last night for a ceremony to re-name the building after Jade Moore just took it in stride and kept laughing – which is undoubtedly what Jade would have done. "Jade Moore never reminded me of any other person I ever met," said John Ryor, former executive director of the Florida Education Association, the state teachers union. Moore served as executive director of the local union from 1974 to December 2008, when he died of a stroke

. Last night's attendees included state Sen. Dennis Jones, state Reps. Janet Long and Bill Heller, Superintendent Julie Janssen, former Superintendent Scott Rose, most of the Pinellas County School Board and about a dozen former Pinellas union presidents. Guest speakers recalled Moore's larger-than-life personality, including a tongue salty enough to shock a shock jock. Moore "actually spoke two languages fluently," Ryor joked. But it was Moore's widow, Sue Moore, who summed up his approach to life: Work hard. Play hard. Treat everyone as equals. If everybody does that, she told the crowd, "his legacy will really continue."

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Remembering Jade Moore

Categories : Education | Florida | Tampa




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