Bessie Boehm Moore

Bessie Grace Boehm Moore (August 2, 1902 – October 24, 1995) was an American educator from Arkansas. She was a lifelong advocate to increase funding and support for libraries and served on the Arkansas Library Commission for 38 years. In 1999, American Libraries named her one of the "100 Most Important Leaders We Had in the 20th Century".

Biography

Early life and education Bessie Boehm Moore was born August 2, 1902, in Owensboro, Kentucky, but grew up near Mountain View, Arkansas. At age 14, she earned a teaching certificate and began teaching at the public school in the village of St. James, Arkansas. Arriving in St. James on the eve of World War I, she found a sign scrawled on the schoolhouse door "We ant agonna have no German teachers here." As irrelevant as it was, the threat unsettled her, but she pulled down the sign and started to work.

"The Arkansas State Council on Economic Education formed in 1962 with Moore as the Executive Director from 1962 to 1979."

From 1972 to 1988 she was a member of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science appointed by three consecutive presidents, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. On the council she served as vice Chairman Emeritus.

While many of her accomplishments were focused in her home state of Arkansas, she was an annual lecturer at many out of state universities from 1974. This list included the University of Michigan, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Florida State University, University of Arizona, and the University of South Florida. Moore established the Bessie Boehm Moore-Thorndike Press Award in 1991, sponsored by the American Library Association, giving a $1000 scholarship to the recipient. 1996 was the only year that her scholarship was not awarded. It was resumed in 2000. The Mountain View Public Library in Mountain View, Arkansas, was renamed the Bessie B. Moore Public Library in her honor on August 1, 1992.

Awards 1952: Arkansas Woman of the Year 1958: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Arkansas 1959: C.E. Palmer Distinguished Service Award (Moore remains the only woman to have ever received that award) 1977: Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Arizona. 1980 American Library Association Honorary Membership. 1989: Distinguished Lifetime Service Award, NCLIS. National Distinguished Award, Joint Council of Economic Education of New York 2018: Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame