Edward Caldwell Moore

Edward Caldwell Moore died in Cambridge, Mass., on March 26, 1943, at the age of eighty-five. He had been a member of the Century since 1905. The son of a minister, he was one of a large family of brothers all of whom proved men of note. After study in America and in Germany, he spent some years in the pastorate and went to Harvard in 1901 as Parkman Professor of Theology. In 1915 he succeeded Professor Francis G. Peabody in the additional duties of Chairman of the Board of Preachers, which means the headship of the University church. He carried these responsibilities, as he did those of teaching, with dignity and tact and found time for substantial writing. His “Outline of the History of Christian Thought since Kant” is notable and so are two volumes, “The Spread of Christianity” and “West and East,” which correspond to his long-continued and active interest in missions. It should be mentioned that he was active in practical and responsible work of organization in this field, as President for eleven years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

These concerns and others which have not been mentioned might have made many a man self-conscious or dour. There was not a trace of either quality in Edward Moore. He had an immense and unaffected natural charm and kindliness. He did love his brother as himself but not by any unpleasant effort; he was upright, without the faintest trace of censoriousness and he was a man of solid personal intellectual achievement without pretense or vanity. In the last few years ill-health, borne with characteristic patience and good humor, prevented his attendance at the Club but, like his brother-in-law William Adams Brown, he always had its interests at heart and among all members who knew him he leaves a memory which is wholly sweet.

Geoffrey Parsons
1943 Century Memorials