Jack Moore, the founder and longtime principal of Aquinas Academy in Bear, died May 17. He was 64.
Moore had master’s degrees in educational leadership from the University of Delaware and theology from Franciscan University. He worked at the Ferris School for Boys in Wilmington before founding Aquinas in 1997. The school offers a liberal arts education.
He was a lifelong parishioner at St. Peter Cathedral in Wilmington, where he often served as an altar boy during high Mass when he was younger. He attended the parish school.
When Aquinas opened, students met at a site on Kirkwood Highway in Wilmington for two years before moving to its current location on Red Lion Road on the site of a former Coptic Orthdox church. The school was recognized as Catholic by the diocesan schools office in 2015, a move that had long been sought by Moore.
“We’re a very good school,” Moore said then. “One of the reasons we are good is because we’re small. Being small allows us to be very personal with the kids, to be very effective in our educational delivery.”
Father John Solomon, the pastor of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Ocean City, Md., attended Aquinas for four years, from seventh through 10th grade. He was there at the beginning and helped when the school moved to Bear. Moore, he said, was dedicated to the school and “a very faithful man.”
“It was great, just his dedication and his passion for the community and education,” Father Solomon said. “I always remember the motto of the school, ‘Consecrate them in faith,’ and that’s what he wanted. He wanted to teach us the truth and the joy of the Catholic faith.”
Moore worked with at-risk children at Ferris, and he applied that to Aquinas.
“I saw that even good Catholic families were at risk, in a sense, because maintaining your faith in today’s culture is difficult. I felt that the best practices of dealing with at-risk population could be applied to Catholic students.”
Father Solomon said Moore was always engaged with the students, even with the duties of operating the school.
“I remember at recess, he would be out there playing basketball with us, playing football with us. He was a very good athlete.
“He really made it feel like a family there,” Father Solomon said.
Moore is survived by his wife, Diane; children Bernadette Speck (Joseph), John (Jeanne Marie), Catherine, Mary, Theresa, Monica and Gianna; grandchildren Benedict and David; and sisters Mary Moore and Margaret Cristello.
A visitation will be held on May 22 from 5-7 p.m. at Mealey Funeral Home, 2509 Limestone Road, Wilmington. A Mass of Christian Burial will be May 23 at 11 a.m. at St. Peter Cathedral, with burial to follow at All Saints Cemetery.
Donations in Moore’s memory can be made to Aquinas Academy, 2370 Red Lion Road, Bear, DE 19701.
