Robert Thomas Moore

Who was Robert Thomas Moore?

Robert Thomas Moore was an American businessman, an independent ornithologist, a philanthropist, and the founder and for some years the editor-in-chief of the Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards. In his obituary, Lionel Stevenson wrote, "Robert Thomas Moore was an exceptional amalgam of the poet, the scientist, and the man of affairs."

Moore was the son of Henry D. Moore, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman. Moore earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1904 and an M. A. from Harvard University in 1905 in English literature. Moore's father was from Maine, and owned a family vacation camp at Big Benson. Moore purchased land on Borestone Mountain in Maine and began the Borestone Mountain Fox Company. The Company ran several fur farms that raised foxes for their pelts, which were used for fur garments. In 1921 the Borestone Mountain farm was referred to as "the leading ranch in North America". In the 1920s Moore opened the Borestone Mountain Ranch, which was a fur farm near Big Bear Lake in southern California.

In addition to his business activities, Moore was an active ornithologist who published about 60 scientific papers.