Dan K. Moore
Daniel Killian Moore was the 66th Governor of the state of North Carolina from 1965 to 1969.Life and career
Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Moore earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He practiced law in Sylva, North Carolina and served a term in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1941 before entering the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war, Moore served as a North Carolina Superior Court judge from 1948 to 1958. Subsequently, Moore served as counsel for the Champion Papers company in Canton, North Carolina, while also serving on the state Board of Water Resources. He left Champion to run for Governor in 1964. He was seen as the moderate in the Democratic primary, between the conservative I. Beverly Lake, Sr. and the more progressive L. Richardson Preyer. Moore won a primary runoff with Preyer.
After serving one term as governor, Moore's successor, Governor Robert W. Scott, appointed him to the North Carolina Supreme Court, the first governor of North Carolina to be so honored. He served on the Court from November 20, 1969 until December 31, 1978.
At the 1968 Democratic National Convention Moore received 17½ votes for president on the first ballot, finishing fifth behind Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Sen. Eugene McCarthy, Sen. George McGovern, and Rev. Channing E. Phillips. Moore received 12 of North Carolina's 59 votes, 3 from Virginia, 2 from Georgia and ½ vote from Alabama.
He is buried in historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
On April 1, 2017, a North Carolina historical marker was dedicated at Mark Watson Park, in Sylva, North Carolina, in recognition of Moore's significant impact on the state's judicial system. The marker was unveiled by his children, Edith Moore Hamilton and Daniel Killian Moore, Jr.
Representative David McKee Hall was a nephew of Governor Moore. Portraits of the two men hang today in the Jackson County Library in Sylva.
