Background
Hugh E. Moore was born on April 27, 1887, in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of six children of Alice Elizabeth Harbison and John James Moore. Hugh began making his own way at the age of twelve, when his father died.
Hugh E. Moore was born on April 27, 1887, in Fort Scott, Kansas, the youngest of six children of Alice Elizabeth Harbison and John James Moore. Hugh began making his own way at the age of twelve, when his father died.
Moore was a good student, graduating with honors and awards from Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1905. While in high school, he worked for various local newspapers. He then worked on The Reform, a Kansas City newspaper, and next The Packer, a national fruit-and-produce trade newspaper.
Moore was admitted to Harvard twice as a special student, in 1906 and again in 1908.
Hugh Moore received an honorary degree of Humane Letters from Lafayette College in 1961.
Soon Moore left Harvard to enter into a business venture with his brother-in-law, Lawrence Luellen, who had conceived the idea of a disposable drinking cup. Despite resistance to this unique idea, Moore and Luellen were able to raise $200, 000 to establish the paper cup business. They used a shock technique, substantiated by research, to capture the attention and money of those able to help him. Moore knew that contemporary studies showed public drinking glasses were a health menace - they were forbidden in many states. Therefore, Dixie Cups (at first called Health Kups) were developed at precisely the right time. To market his product, Moore edited a small magazine called The Cup Campaigner. With characteristic singleness of purpose he continued to build the firm even after his partner left for other ventures.
In 1920, Moore moved the business to Easton, Pennsylvania, where he spent the rest of his life. Moore served as a captain in Army Intelligence during World War I. He was chief salesman of the Dixie Cup Corporation until after World War II, raising sales to more than $50 million per year.
When the company merged with the American Can Company in 1957, it had eight plants valued at $53 million. Moore continued his association with Dixie, serving as a consultant until shortly before his death. Long before Moore sold the Dixie Cup business, he had begun to turn his attention to public service with the same intensity he had brought to the business world.
In the late 1930's, as the threat of world war again loomed, he began to think of a role businessmen could play in the peace movement.
In 1939, Moore became chairman of the Executive Committee of the League of Nations Association, which advocated American entry into the League. He also was cofounder of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies and served as chairman of its Executive Committee. Moore was appointed by the National Peace Conference (comprised of forty American peace organizations) to convince President Franklin Roosevelt to hold a conference of Western nations to avert war.
In 1944, with money he had made from Dixie Cups, Moore established the Hugh Moore Fund, a nonprofit educational foundation to promote peace. He also formed Americans United for World Organization.
In 1945, Moore was one of those representing the United States at the historic San Francisco conference to establish the United Nations. In 1948, he was treasurer of the Committee for the Marshall Plan.
Moore's efforts for world peace began to center on the population problem in the early 1950's. He continued to use the techniques of a hardheaded businessman, as well as sheer determination, to proclaim the message that overpopulation was at the very heart of many environmental and social problems. Moore wrote a pamphlet entitled The Population Bomb (1955), using the expression "population explosion" to describe the increasing numbers of people in the world. Population experts had understood the danger for many years but had confined their warnings to scholarly areas.
Moore brought the crisis to the public eye in a dramatic manner. The title of this pamphlet was lent to Paul Ehrlich, with Moore's permission, for his bestselling book (1969). Until his death, Moore concentrated on the population problem, gaining support and funds from influential Americans and demanding government attention and funds as well. He distributed his pamphlet to more than fifty thousand American leaders, picked from Who's Who in America. He paid for numerous full-page ads in the New York Times that graphically described the population problem. These ads were also signed by prominent politicians and business-people.
By late 1969, Moore had captured the attention of the government and had received a personal letter from President Richard Nixon: "Your dedication to easing the problem of world population growth has led to a significant public service and the people of the world are in your debt. " Hugh Moore died on November 25, 1972, in New York City.
Quotations: "Today the population bomb threatens to create an explosion as disruptive and dangerous as the explosion of the atom, and with as much influence on prospects for progress or disaster, war or peace. "
Quotes from others about the person
"He is a man with a mission a forceful man whose enthusiasm rubs off on everyone around him. " (Former U. S. senator Kenneth Keating)
On September 15, 1917, Hugh Moore married Berenice Brown. They had two children and were divorced in 1946. In 1947 he married Louise Wilde; they had no children.