Sigma Nu lost one of its most beloved brothers when Charlie Moore ’51 passed away on October 8, 2020. As noted on the Cornell Athletics website, “the impact on his family, the Big Red, and the sporting and business worlds will long be told.” The same is true of his impact on our chapter, because Charlie was not only an esteemed alumnus but continued to be a staunch supporter of the chapter. He coined the “Building a Bridge” phrase for our current fundraising effort while attending our annual property association meeting in the fall of 2019.
A fierce competitor on the track, Charlie never lost a race in the 400-meter hurdles during his outstanding career, which included a gold medal in the 1952 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland. More information on Charlie’s life and legacy can be found at www.CornellBigRed.com.
Remembrance by Jack Vinson ’51
Jack has been a life-long friend of Charlie. They first met when they joined Sigma Nu together in the fall of 1947.
Charlie Moore was born in 1929 at RD4 Wawaset, Pennsylvania, just south of highway 80, a few miles west of Philadelphia. His father was president of a steel plant that was originated by his grandfather. His father had been on the 1924 US Olympic team. Charlie graduated from Mercersburg Academy, where he was on the track team and was never beaten in the hurdles, which was his specialty. Upon graduation, he planned to go to Penn State, where his father went, but could not be admitted due to the fact that he was not a World War II veteran, something that was necessary at that time. Incidentally, I could not be admitted to Stanford University the same year because I was not a World War II veteran either. Each of us then applied to and was admitted to Cornell University in the fall of 1947. In that year, only veterans of WW II were admitted at Penn State and Stanford.
As fall classes began, so did fraternity pledging at the dozens of fraternities at Cornell. During the two weeks of pledging, Charlie and I met and got to know each other. Sigma Nu was primarily a fraternity that involved many students who were active in various major sports on campus. After the two-week pledge period, we joined the nineteen students who pledged Sigma Nu, ten of whom were veterans and nine of whom were the first recognizable group of civilians who became undergraduate students. Charlie and I were two of the three pledges who were engineering students. During our freshman year, we lived in dormitories but ate meals and enjoyed activities at Sigma Nu. It is important to remember that, for us nine civilian undergraduate students, all other male students were significantly older than we were. During our second year at Cornell, Charlie and I roomed together at Sigma Nu in a two-man study room and slept upstairs as all of us did then, in the dormer.
We became very close and over and above on campus activities. I also was welcomed at Charlie’s home in Wawaset many times during my return from Kansas City, Missouri, where my folks lived during the five-year undergraduate program.
At Cornell, Charlie was super as a member of the track team. As a hurdler, he never was defeated while at Mercersburg Academy, and he never was defeated as a Cornell hurdler. He won his hurdling event in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, taking gold against a favored Russian, and one week later at White City Stadium in London, he set a new world record. After that, he hung up his cleats and was never beaten in his specialty in his life.
After the sophomore year of the five-year academic program, Charlie married his girlfriend, Judith, who lived in Newark, Delaware, and moved into an apartment in Ithaca. I was the best man at Charlie’s wedding. Charlie took over the operation of his father’s firm, later sold it, and became the CEO of several Fortune 500 firms, as well as a member of the US Olympic Committee and its financial committee. He also returned to Ithaca as Cornell’s athletic director in 1994.
During the remainder of our lives, we have retained and enjoyed our friendship since 1947, as evidenced by the fact that he attended my 90th birthday here at the Quadrangle in Haverford, Pennsylvania, where I have lived since 2016. I have been an engineering professor at the University of Delaware, where I have served as chairman of mechanical and aerospace engineering for 14 years and the H. Fletcher Brown Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering for 42 years.
Lastly, I am sorry to say that Charlie passed away this last fall.
Brothers interested in connecting with Jack can email his son, Chris Vinson, at ceevee830@gmail.com.