Written by Eric Moore with the aid of Beth Moore
Eric’s fondest memories of his childhood always center around his love for his family, especially his dad, Charles Hurtte (Red) Moore, and sports. He spent a lot of one-on-one time with his dad fishing, hunting, and playing baseball, his favorite sport. Red was born and raised in Houston, and as a young college student he was a catcher on the varsity team at Rice University, progressing to playing on semi-pro teams that traveled all over Texas.
Eric’s mom, Eugenia (Jean) Franek Moore, was an accomplished swimmer and her biggest claim to fame was she swam against, and BEAT, Babe Didrikson as a teenager. Babe went on to swim in the Olympics. With World War Il on the verge of breaking out, Jean’s family decided to send her to the U.S. (alone and on a cruise ship) when she was 16. She moved in with an older single woman near Rice University, who became her tutor and mentor. Because of her limited English, Jean enrolled in a public school, advancing from the first grade ail the way through high school in approximately 11 months. Jean was always timid about letting anyone know she was from an Austrian/German heritage. Her goal was to be as “American” as she could, but she never quite lost her European accent.
Red and Jean met while swimming in Galveston (Jean always bragged to her sons that she had a good figure and was a knock-out and that was what caught Red’s eye on the beach in Galveston!). They were married shortly after during the height of World War and with the high demand for oil & gas, Red was able to avoid military duty after he left Rice University to pursue a career as a geologist with Standard Oil. He took information from geographic teams and plotted possible drill sites for oil. This launched a career as party chief on a seismic crew, which began with Standard Oil, later known as Humble Oil, Exxon Oil, and finally Exxon-Mobil: the only company Red worked for. Their married life began in Houston and his career as a “Doodlebugger” took them all over Texas and New Mexico. They had 3 sons: Charles was born in San Angelo, Eric was born in Houston, and John was born in Kerrville all 22 months apart.