Board Members
Mrs. Betty I. Moore
Elected 2009
Born in Los Gatos, California, Betty Irene was raised on her grandparent's orchard ranch following the early death of her father due to tuberculosis; she attended Campbell Grammar School and graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1945.
Her interest in international relations led to two scholarship summer sessions at Mills College—1945 and 1946. Meeting Gordon Moore at a San Jose State seminar in September 1947 began a long relationship. She graduated from San Jose State in 1949 with an AB in journalism. After a year working in
San Francisco as a stenographer at U.S. Rubber Company, she married Gordon in September 1950 and moved to Pasadena.
With Gordon a full-time graduate student, she took an advertising/publishing position with Consolidated Engineering Corporation. She moved to the Ford Foundation when it opened its office in Pasadena. The foundation moved to New York, and the Moores moved to Silver Springs, Maryland, in the summer of 1953 when Gordon joined Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In December 1954, their first son, Kenneth, was born in Washington, D.C.
After a few cold winters, steamy summers, and Hurricane Hazel, William Shockley provided an opportunity to return to the West Coast in 1957. The Moores' second son, Steven, was born at Stanford in October 1959.
When Gordon received his PhD from Lee DuBridge, Betty was awarded a PHT (Put Hubby Through) by Mrs. DuBridge. Betty remains a member of the International Gamefish Association, where she held a women's world record for
13 years for lingcod caught off Queen Charlotte Sound, B.C.
Other affiliations include the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Moore Family Foundation, El Camino Hospital Board (ret.), and Filoli Board (ret.).
As a co-founder of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, she initiated the foundation's nursing program, which supported the establishment of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and the Betty Moore Women's Hospital at UCSF. She is also active with Stanford Medical School and Health Care.