BOMBER MEMORIAL

WILLIAM "GARY" MOORE ~ Class of 1968
November 14, 1950 - February 15, 1971



Gary, 20, died February 15, 1971 in a motorcycle-truck collision. He was born in Galesburg, IL, and had lived in the Tri-Cities four years. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1968, attended Columbia Basin College and Central Washington State College, Ellensburg.

Published on the front page of the Tri-City Herald on February 16, 1971:

Crash Kills Cyclist

A Richland youth heading to Central Washington State College in Ellensburg died yesterday, February 15, 1971, in a motorcycle-truck collision south of the Vantage Bridge.

William Gary Moore, 20, son of Mrs. Phyllis Moore, died about ten minutes after the 4pm collision, the State Patrol said.

Moore, a 1968 graduate of Columbia High School, was majoring in sociology and anthropolgy at CWSC. He was on the dean's list of honor students when he attended Columbia Basin College in 1969 and 1970.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Highways 243 and 26, and about a mile south of the Vantage Bridge. Moore, driving a motorcyle, was northbound on Highway 243 and apparently failed to stop at the stop sign, State Partolmen said. He was hit by a pickup truck driven by James Dearing, 38, of Othello. The impact knocked Moore onto the roadway and the cycle about 50 feet away.

"He died in my arms," said Patricia Beadel, of Pasco, one of the several persons who stopped to help at the accident scene. Mrs. Beadell said she was an ex-ambulance driver in California and knew first aid, "but he didn't know what hit him."

A Bremerton Navy Yard doctor who stopped at the scene to help said even a neurosurgeon could not have saved Moore, Mrs. Beadell recalled. Moore was wearing a helmet, but it was extensively damaged, and he apparently died of head injuries.

State troopers said damage to Dearing's pickup truck was estimated at $1,000. The motorcycle was wrecked. Dearing's daughter, Erin, 10, was treated at the Othello hospital for ankle injuries.

Published on page 17 of the Tri-City Herald on February 16, 1971.

He was a member of the Tri-City Musicians Association Local 524, Pasco; a drummer with the Desert Tones and attended Westside Protestant Church in Richland.

Survivors are his mother, Phyllis; siblings Christine ('70) and Richard "Ricky" ('76); grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William A. Moore and Mrs. Marian D. Woods.

Services were held at Einan's Funeral Home and followed with burial in Sunset Memorial Gardens. The Rev. John Zimmerman officiated.

Bomber Memorial put together by Shirley COLLINGS Haskins ('66).