In Memoriam: Michael J. Moore

A specialist in child and young adult development, Dr. Moore joined BC in 1977. During his 45-year tenure, he served as director of undergraduate education for the University, and as Psychology Department chair and assistant chair. Among his scholarly interests were parent-child interactions, emotional development, cognitive development, sports psychology, and children’s participation in organized sport.

It was Dr. Moore’s eagerness to build a rapport with students that defined his BC career. Widely praised for his teaching—including classes such as Cognitive Psychology, Self-Help Literature, Learning Theories, Advanced Developmental Psychology, and the Courage to Know first-year student seminar—and advising, he also found more informal ways of engagement, notably by hosting small groups of students for dinner at his home or a day trip to his Cape Cod house.  

In 2006, the University selected him for a Distinguished Teaching Award. “Michael’s lectures are a work of art,” wrote one faculty colleague in nominating Dr. Moore. “He conveys his own enthusiasm about the issues to his students, treating each of them as a curious, intelligent social scientist. Michael’s dedication to and passion for teaching and undergraduate education is unequalled. He is truly one of our best and most dedicated teachers.”

Fourteen years later, Dr. Moore received BC’s Student-Athlete Academic Services Outstanding Faculty Award, co-presented by the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Services and the student-athletes of Boston College. The award, while honoring an overall commitment to teaching and to fostering students’ intellectual and personal growth, also recognized Dr. Moore for an “extraordinary concern for and support of the academic lives of Boston College student-athletes.”

Dr. Moore demonstrated an acute understanding of student-athletes, specifically those whose involvement in sports ended with the beginning of college, in a 2009 interview with The Heights. Most first-year students are just beginning to define themselves in a broader sense, which is seldom an easy process, he explained—but it can be especially difficult for those who built strongly held identities as athletes early in childhood. Furthermore, said Dr. Moore, former athletes who spent so much time in high school with teammates, and seldom had to think about making friends, are now without their social circle and support system.

“Anybody who goes in thinking the transition is seamless is naïve,” he said.  

Prior to Boston College, Dr. Moore taught at Harvard University, where he earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

A native of Erie, Pa., Dr. Moore is survived by his wife, Gail; his children, Rebecca and Samuel; and two grandchildren. He was predeceased by his brother, Richard.

Services were held in June.