James Moore Obituary

James Reardon Moore, Jr., M.D., 89, passed away peacefully on January 4, 2026. He is survived by his wife, Madeleine, to whom he was married for over 65 years, his brother, William, his sons, Kenneth and Richard, and two granddaughters, Pamela and Catherine.
Jim was born on May 16, 1936, in Long Branch, NJ, to Addie Maye ("Adeline") Cornish Moore and James Reardon Moore, Sr. He attended a one-room schoolhouse in New Jersey and spent summers with his mother's family on a farm in Kentucky, where his favorite adventure was fossil hunting. The family moved to Arlington, VA, and famously built a 30-ton, 56-foot steel sailboat in their front yard. The completed boat was towed with police escort through the streets of DC and launched by cranes at the Naval Gun Factory. Jim graduated from Washington & Lee High School in Arlington and attended George Washington University, where he met Madeleine. They were married in 1960. He graduated from George Washington University Medical School in 1961 and they started a family.
Jim served in the U.S. Army as a Captain, and in 1965 the family of four was stationed at the 14th Army Field Hospital in Bad Kreuznach, West Germany. While there, he and Madeleine traveled across Europe and North Africa, camping in a VW van. He developed a particular interest in pipe organs and attended organ recitals at churches across Europe. In 1968, they returned to the US, and Jim opened a private internal medicine practice in Gaithersburg, MD, near Asbury Methodist Village. As Jim's practice grew and aged, so did his patients. He ultimately had a gerontology practice and a "guest" office at Asbury for the convenience of his many Asbury patients. After retirement in 1996, he remained connected to the medical community through activities at Shady Grove Medical Center.
Jim had lifelong passions for history, cultural anthropology, nature, geology, paleontology, and camping. He converted a Ford Econoline 150 van into a pop-top camper and drove the family on countless camping trips throughout the states, to Mexico and Central America, to the Panama Canal Zone, and to the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway. Along the way, he summited Half Dome in Yosemite, hiked into the depths of the Grand Canyon, gazed at the midnight sun from a beach on the Arctic Ocean, witnessed the great Serengeti migration, walked on the Great Wall of China, marveled at the Taj Mahal in India, cross-country skied around Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone, and much more.
Jim and Madeleine were members of DC area square dance clubs, including the Ferris Wheelers, and they enjoyed square dance camping. They participated in group bicycling tours in the US and Europe. They also extensively researched their respective family genealogical histories from as far back as the Norman Conquest to the present. Jim self-published several thoroughly researched dissertations chronicling the Cornish, Demaree, and Moore families. Throughout his life, Jim was the consummate amateur engineer. He tinkered with every facet of his automobiles, and he rebuilt farm tractors. He designed and constructed a pipe organ in his basement with over 1000 pipes, and built string and wind musical instruments for Madeleine.
Jim will be remembered as a devoted family man with tremendous insight, brilliant ingenuity, a passion for caring for others, and the vigor to explore life's abundant opportunities.
A Celebration of Life for Jim is planned for May 16, 2026. For more details, please email [email protected]. Please consider donating to Jim's favorite organizations: organhistoricalsociety.org and railstotrails.org.