William T. Moore

William Tyler Moore, Sr. (April 9, 1918 – May 27, 1999) was an attorney and businessman in Bryan, Texas, who was a conservative Democratic member of the Texas State Senate from District 5 from 1967 until 1981. Moore originally represented District 14 from 1949 to 1953 and then revised District 11 from 1953 to 1967. In 1957, Moore was the Senate President Pro Tempore in the 55th legislative session.

After thirty-two years in the Senate, Moore was unseated in the 1980 party primary by former Bryan City Judge Kent Caperton, who was born the year that Moore entered the upper chamber of the state legislature. Caperton received 52.6 percent of the ballots cast.

Though he was dubbed by the media as the "Bull of the Brazos," a reference to the intrastate Brazos River to the west of Bryan, Moore is also remembered as the lawmaker who pushed most forcefully for the physical expansion of the campus and the admission of women to his alma mater, Texas A&M University in College Station.

The race against Caperton was the first challenge that Moore had faced in years. Caperton, the 31-year-old opponent, TAMU graduate, and formerly from Caldwell in Burleson County, courted younger voters in the district who remained steadfast to the Democratic Party. A number of former Democratic primary voters had by 1980 turned Republican and were no longer available to vote to re-nominate Moore. Former Brazos County Judge W. T. "Tom" McDonald recalled that Moore was "devastated" when he was unseated by Caperton: "The district had changed, and he didn't realize it and was blindsided." and Mary M. Moore, a Certified Public Accountant who tried unsuccessfully to capture her father-in-law's former Senate seat. Services were Moore were held on May 30, 1999, at First Presbyterian Church in Bryan.

Tom McDonald said that he always knew where his friend Moore stood: "He wasn't like one of those spin- doctor types we have now. When he was saying something, you knew it was coming from Bill Moore, not from some speechwriter or pollster or someone like that." Tyler Moore said that his father had "a genuinely kind heart beneath that gruff exterior."

Steve Ogden, a Bryan Republican, defeated Democrat Mary Moore in the special election held in 1997 and then the regular general election of 1998 for her father-in-law's former seat. Ogden called Moore "one of the giants of Texas politics who built many of the things we take for granted today. Texas A&M would be substantially different and not as great a university if it weren't for him. [He set the foundation] for everything that deals with state government within two hundred miles of Bryan-College Station. He left a legacy, and I am sorry to hear of his passing."