May 14, 2018

Martin Moore

Board Member Since 2006

As the third of three children, Martin Moore followed the leads of his older brother and sister growing up in Lawrence, where he attended Centennial and Sunset Hills Elementary Schools, West Junior High School and Lawrence High School.

“My older brother and sister read constantly, so that was one of the things we did with our time growing up,” Moore said. “As a result, reading literature was never school work for me. If I could have done that all day at school, I would have only gone home to change reading material.”

As a kid Moore enjoyed reading comic books before moving on to The Phantom Tollbooth and books about sports and athletes and Lord of the Rings. In college he read books by Carlos Casteneda, Tom Robbins and Hunter S. Thompson. Today he is still an avid reader and enjoys James Clavell books, classics and biographies on musicians.

Moore is the second-longest tenured Lawrence Schools Foundation Board member, having joined the organization in 2006, one year after Tom Hornbaker.  He has served in a number of roles, including as president in 2013-14 and is currently is on the finance and program committees.

“I LOVE all the meetings. Well, maybe not all of them,” he joked. “The program committee is fun because you get to read innovative teaching grants, which is a delightful insight into how educators try to think outside the box and offer different educational opportunities to their kids. You also get to read scholarship applications, which can be very humbling when you look at the accomplishments of our students, some of whom come from very difficult circumstances.”

Moore also has an important role as a long-time member of the finance committee.

“The finance committee has a ton of responsibility for the administration of our financial business, including overseeing many donor-specific funds, cash management and reviewing the management of our investments,” he said.

When Moore was approached about replacing Bob Georgeson on the Foundation board he was excited to be involved in what he calls the group’s most visible work – the staff awards and early childhood program.

“Educators are always making sacrifices and going the extra mile for their kids,” he said. “They do it because they want the best for their kids and because they can make a difference in a kid’s life, not because they are hoping for a moment’s recognition - and unfortunately , they usually don’t get a moment’s recognition,”  he said.