Remembering Aquatrols' Bob Moore

Robert A. “Bob” Moore, founder of the Aquatrols Corp. of America and the man who introduced golf course superintendents to wetting agent technology, died Nov. 4. He was 89.

Moore, a chemical engineer by training, marketed the first commercially available wetting agent, AquaGro, in the 1950s. At the time the golf course industry had never seen anything like it, and its use spread to the horticulture industry as well as to general agriculture.

Moore was a GCSAA member for more than 50 years, and served on GCSAA’s first Industry Advisory Committee. In 2000, the company established the Robert A. Moore Endowment Fund, which is administered by GCSAA’s Environmental Institute for Golf. Each year part of the company’s proceeds go to the fund to support applied research aimed at increasing the effectiveness of applied water, fertilizers and pesticides.

Earlier this year, Aquatrols made a $10,000 donation to the Institute in support of the Moore Endowment, which brought the company’s total donation to the fund past the $100,000 mark.

“Bob Moore was a pioneer in the golf course management industry,” said Greg Lyman, GCSAA’s director of environmental programs. “His dedication to developing solutions for golf course superintendents over the years has had a tremendous impact on the management practices employed today.

“He and the members of his Aquatrols family were committed to helping advance the industry through their support of GCSAA and The Environmental Institute for Golf. As we reflect on Bob’s accomplishments, we are honored to have had the opportunity to work directly with Bob and his family to establish the Aquatrols’ Robert A. Moore Endowment to recognize Bob’s commitment to continue discovering new ways to manage water resources.” Moore’s children, Tracy Jarman and Andy and Demie Moore, are all involved in running the family business today.

Besides Moore’s and Aquatrols’ long relationship with GCSAA, Bob Moore’s involvement with GCM also goes back decades. A search of the magazine’s archives reveals that the first of his many articles in the magazine was published in 1957.

Moore also was active in his community as, among other things, a swim coach for many years, board member of US Pony Clubs, president of Woodbury Country Club and key member of the organizing committee of the Underwood Memorial Hospital Foundation Golf Classic since its inception in 1994.

For those wishing to do so, the Moores request that donations be made to the “Aquatrols’ Robert A. Moore Endowment” (The Environmental Institute for Golf, Attn: Aquatrols’ Robert A. Moore Endowment, 1421 Research Park Dr., Lawrence, KS  66049 http://www.eifg.org/support/moore.pdf ), or the “Bob & Bobbie Moore Memorial Fund” c/o The Underwood Memorial Hospital Foundation, 509 North Broad Street, Woodbury, NJ 08096.

Comments

[Demie Moore]

Thanks for the original posting of this and running it again in this week's GCSAA This Week. While our dad knew from the start that what he invented was important - he remained positively amazed at how it grew - and especially at all the fine people who over the years have and continue to work with Aquatrols to bring what he started to golf course superintendents and growers worldwide.
To all of you - on his behalf, and from us - Thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Tracy Jarman, Andy Moore, Demie Moore

[Garry N. Crothers]

Hi!! All the Moore family and Staff at Aquatrols. Your Dad was a wonderful person and certainly contributed alot to our profession with the use of wetting agents . I will miss seeing him at the GCSAA show. A;ways had a very positive attitude. I have know him for 50 yrs from my first internship at Winged Foot Golf Club and Sherwood Moore. My sincere sympathy to all of you.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving. All the best

Sincerely

Garry N. Crothers, CGCS