Grove City College mourns the passing of President Emeritus Dr. John H. Moore, who died on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Florida.
Dr. Moore became the College’s seventh president in June 1996 and led Grove City College during a time of significant change. He retired in 2003.
“President Moore’s leadership safeguarded the College’s independence, strengthened its commitment to academic excellence, and reflected its Christian and conservative convictions. As a student during his presidency, I witnessed firsthand his principled and intellectually serious leadership. His legacy continues to shape the College today, and he will be deeply missed by the entire Grove City College family,” College President Bradley J. Lingo ’00 said.
Dr. Moore oversaw the College through its withdrawal from federal student loan programs and instituted an innovative private student loan program in its place in October 1996. This move completed the College’s break from federal student aid programs, following the historic 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case, Grove City College v. Bell, when it withdrew from federal student grant programs.
Shortly after the withdrawal, Dr. Moore led the College in its successful $60 million Change & Commitment capital campaign. The College exceeded its goal for student aid, built the new Hall of Arts and Letters, and completed an addition to the Pew Fine Arts Center. The final phase of the campaign provided for the building of Breen Student Union and renovations to the Carnegie Alumni Center.
Dr. Moore also led the effort to make enhancements to laboratory equipment and the physical structure of what is now Smith Hall of Science and Technology.
An experienced international educator, Dr. Moore encouraged the College to groom students for the Rhodes and Fulbright Scholarship programs. He also instituted exchange agreements with Kyushu University of Japan and Seoul Women’s University of South Korea.
The College hired and retained exceptional faculty under Dr. Moore’s leadership. During his tenure, he reorganized the faculty structure into two schools – The Albert A. Hopeman Jr. School of Science and Engineering and the Alva J. Calderwood School of Arts and Letters.
Dr. Moore kept the College at the forefront of technology by leading the effort to network the campus with high-speed connections, to secure web access to electronic information, to create online class registration and to enhance the College’s website. The College continued to distribute laptop computers and printers to every student under Moore’s leadership.
Dr. Moore and his wife, Sue, reached out to alumni and friends by leading the College through its 125th Anniversary Celebration in 2001 with nationwide events and the publication of a College history, Freedom’s College by Lee Edwards.
After leaving Grove City College, the Moores retired to Florida. Mrs. Moore preceded him in death on May 30, 2024.
Dr. Moore earned an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan. He earned a doctorate in economics from The University of Virginia in 1966. He received an honorary doctorate from the University Francisco Marroquin in 1997. Dr. Moore published numerous books and articles on a range of subjects, including science policy and the economic systems of Eastern and Central Europe. He was a Procter & Gamble research chemist, a professor at well-known universities, associate director and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, and President Reagan’s deputy director of the National Science Foundation. He was president of Sigma Xi international scientific honor society and recognized with a National Science Foundation Distinguished Service Award in 1990.
Dr. Moore is survived by two sons, John and Matthew, and their families.