March 28, 1945 – December 25, 2021
Harry William Moore, 76, known to family, friends, a few foes, and just about everyone else as Bill or Billy Moore, passed away peacefully at home on Christmas Day.
Bill is survived by Billie Ellen Jackson, his wife of 49 years; his two daughters, Amber Dawn Johnson of Phoenix, AZ and Filaree Faith Moore of New York, NY; his brother Gerald Edward Moore, Jr. and sister Eva Wilda Morse; his brothers and sisters-in-law; numerous nieces and nephews; and his and Billie’s beloved dachshund, Izzy.
Bill was born on March 28, 1945 in Dubuque, Iowa to Ruth Tobin. We do not know much about his biological father other than that his last name was Short. Ruth and Bill landed in Upton, Wyoming with her family, including Grandpa Yancy who Bill adored, before settling in Tempe, Arizona when Bill was around 10 years old—give or take a year. Ruth married Gerald Edward Moore, Sr. They had four children together: Henry, Gerald Jr., Charles, and Eva.
In 1962 at just 17 years old, Bill signed himself out of school to become a man on the rivers of Vietnam serving in the U.S. Navy. He hated swimming and was not entirely comfortable in the water, but, during the Vietnam War the Navy seemed like his best bet of returning home in one piece. Although he managed mostly to do so, according to his combat stories, this may have been sheer luck. He always said the first scene in the film the Deer Hunter was a fairly accurate depiction of his early days in Vietnam, patrolling the river, dodging bullets on either side. Bill was honorably discharged in 1965 after serving as a communications specialist, learning Morse Code which he remembered up to the day he died.
Bill came home from Vietnam in 1965 to raise a little Cain on Tempe’s Mill Avenue. He lived with his buddy Bill Mosely in an apartment, which has for many years since been home to the Shoe Mill. He started working as a bar tender at the Hut, and, as fate would have it, met Billie at Taco Bell while visiting a friend who also worked there. He asked her out that very night, and, in 1972 after dating for two years, they got married. Soon after, Amber and then Filaree were born.
In addition to being a doting father and husband, Bill wore many different hats. He owned and operated a used car dealership known as the Garden of Gears on Phoenix’s used car row on Van Buren. In his notorious late night commercials, you would see Bill clad in vibrant Hawaiian shirts and fedoras with tropical hatbands, surrounded by bikini babes and cars—“the cars guys, not the girls”—and known by the moniker “Aloha Bill”.
Bill’s career coaching baseball spanned four decades. In that time, he coached at nearly every level, from high school to college to professional, and at every age group. Beginning in the eighties, he was the hitting coach at McClintock High School and coached in the Connie Mack League in the summertime. His team, who shared the same name as his car dealership, the Garden of Gears, won many league championships and played tournaments throughout the western U.S., including in Farmington, New Mexico each Fourth of July.
In the mid-nineties Bill traded in the fedora of his day job for the ball cap and the almighty glove when he began coaching baseball full time. For the last over twenty years of his life, Bill devoted his energy to his passion. He coached at Mesa Community College, he reinvented the Garden of Gears to play in the Pecos League’s Spring Training, gave hitting lessons to all age groups, brought baseball to Bisbee, AZ, and managed five teams in the Pecos League—an independent professional baseball league. Whether he was volunteering his time coaching Connie Mack or getting paid to manage professional teams in the Pecos League, Bill coached with gusto and an unrivaled enthusiasm for the game.
To say that Bill was a fanatic would be perhaps the biggest understatement of the twenty-first century. In his time coaching baseball, Bill boasted over 1,400 wins as head coach, had at least ten players in the Major Leagues, scouted for several Major League teams, won more championship games than he could count at all levels, was a lifetime member of the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America, and mentored thousands of young men who thought they loved the game—no one ever did or ever will more than he. This year, Bill met a milestone in his life when, just days before his death, he learned that he would be the first person ever inducted into the Pecos League Hall of Fame in March of 2022.
A grave side memorial service will be held at 12pm at Valley of the Sun Cemetery in Chandler, AZ on Monday, January 3, 2022. Due to the surge in Covid-19 cases, there will be no reception. Please feel free to send flowers or, in lieu of flowers, donate to the Arizona Humane Society.
