Skip to content

Emerson mourns Linda Moore

Linda_Moore

Linda Moore, Emerson's vice president of academic affairs from 2003 to 2013, passed away on March 1. (File Photo)

A gathering to celebrate the life of Linda Moore, Emerson’s former vice president for academic affairs, will be held Wednesday, March 4, 4:00–6:00 pm, in the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre in the Paramount Center, and will be open to all.

Moore, of Watertown, Massachusetts, died on March 1 at the age of 71.

Emerson President Lee Pelton announced the news in a community email on March 2, calling Moore “our dear friend.”

“She will sorely be missed,” Pelton said.

Jacqueline Liebergott, Emerson President Emerita, worked closely with Moore and said she was “an important part in our success.”

“She was really a genuinely nice, kind person,” said Christine Hughes, vice president and general counsel at Emerson. “Linda could be counted on to be completely unflappable.”

“The sadness of the recent passing of Dr. Linda Moore cannot be measured,” said Professor Richard West of Communication Studies. “Linda, as so many of us know, was an enormously thoughtful senior administrator.”

“The sadness of the recent passing of Dr. Linda Moore cannot be measured. Linda, as many of us know, was an enormously thoughtful senior administrator.”

Moore worked at Emerson from 2003 to 2013, providing exemplary leadership that included, most notably, hiring exceptional faculty, and establishing the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship, and the Office of Institutional Research.

Moore was Emerson’s academic leader during a particularly arduous stretch of labor negotiations between administration and faculty.

“She put her talent of building trust and goodwill to very good use,” said Pelton, who mentioned in his message that Moore was instrumental in creating the College’s first Faculty Handbook as a result of the negotiations.

“She was really a part of the healing that happened once we finalized the collective bargaining agreement,” Hughes said. “She slowly built trust. This faculty handbook was very different than a union contract, and it was very much a collaborative, cooperative document.”

West said during academic meetings, Moore “certainly could laugh!”

“At her academic council meetings…Linda either cracked a well-timed joke or was willing to be the joke’s target, never once invoking the fact that she was our boss,” West said. “She was also quite gracious…We will miss her terribly.”

Liebergott said of Moore’s passing: “The eighteenth century distinguished between wit (an aspect of imagination) and judgment (an ability to recognize what is true). Linda had both, which made her especially well suited to foster and guide the creative energy of Emerson’s faculty, academic personnel, and students. Her concern for institutional quality, effectiveness, and even-handedness made her an important member of the many committees she led on and on which she served. She made us all do better and played an important part in our success.”

Before coming to Emerson, Moore served as dean of the College of Fine, Performing, and Communication Arts at Wayne State University in Detroit, where she was also a tenured professor of communication. She also served as a tenured professor at the University of Akron, where she held several administrative positions. She earned a PhD in speech communication from Kent State University and held several degrees from Bradley University.

Among Moore’s survivors are her mother, Fanchon Irwin; sister, Louise Irwin; son, Christopher Moore; and daughter, Lee Moore; and many other family members.

A website has been established in Moore's honor, where anyone can share remembrances or make a donation to a scholarship fund in her memory.

(Visited 80 times, 1 visits today)

Categories

Archives

Leave a Reply