Horace T. Moody Jr.

SCARBOROUGH — Horace True Moody Jr., 94, of Turner died peacefully Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough. His health had been declining for about the past six months.

Horace was born Nov. 12, 1923, in Lowell, Mass., the first child of Horace T. and Elsie (Perry) Moody Sr. When he was 12, he moved with his family to a farm in Turner where he lived until going away to school. In 1946, he married Agnes Althea Hopkins in Auburn, who passed away in 1988. As an adult he lived for long periods in Auburn, Old Orchard Beach and finally back in Turner. For 30 years after retiring he owned a condo in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he enjoyed the winter months.

He graduated in 1941 from Leavitt Institute in Turner, was proud to have spent a post-grad year at Hebron Academy and subsequently spent about a year in college before being swept into World War II. He resumed his formal education in the 1970s and eventually graduated from the University of Maine with a degree in industrial arts education.

Over the course of his life he proudly served 32 years in the U.S. Navy on both active and reserve duty. He retired as a chief petty officer (E7). He originally was in the Navy from December 1942 to March 1946, and served as a carpenter’s mate in the light cruiser USS Vicksburg CL-86, of which he was a plank owner. He was aboard the Vicksburg while it was engaged in battle at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, was involved in the hunt for the Japanese battleship Yamamoto and fought off a number of kamikaze attacks. In 1956, he rejoined the Navy as a reservist with a SeaBee (CB) unit in Augusta, finally retiring in 1983. In 1968 he was reactivated to serve in Vietnam, arriving there shortly after the Tet Offensive. He was there a year, in charge of a gas engine equipment depot in Phu Bai, which is near the coast between Hue and Danang.

In civilian life Horace worked for 20 years as the machine shop foreman at R.I. Mitchell in Auburn, a business of which his father was half owner. He then worked for a few years as an auto parts salesman and finally, for more than 10 years, as an automotives teacher at the Maine Youth Center in South Portland.

Horace was known for thriftiness and a strong belief in working, of which he did a lot and virtually never took a vacation until he retired. As he approached retirement he began pursuing a family legend that he was descended from Gov. William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony. He eventually proved that not only was Gov. Bradford his direct ancestor, but seven other Mayflower Pilgrims as well. In the process, genealogy became his passionate hobby, and he spent many days driving around New England visiting cemeteries and searching old town hall and church records for centuries-old ancestral connections. He also joined and participated in ancestry groups such as the Mayflower Society, of which he was the governor for Maine from 1981-1984, the Sons of Colonial Clergy, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Elder William Brewster Society, the Maine Old Cemetery Association, the New England Genealogical Association and the John Howland Society.

Horace also belonged to the Masonic Tranquil Lodge 29 in Auburn, where he received his 70-year pin a year ago, to Kora Shriners in Lewiston, and was a member of the High Street Congregational Church in Auburn in the years he resided in Auburn and Turner.

In addition to his parents and wife, Horace was predeceased by his brother, William F. Moody.

He is survived by his beloved brother and sister, James H. Moody Sr. of Ayer, Mass., and Frances Bacon of Matthews, N.C.; four children, Horace T. Moody III and wife, Ann, of Port Republic, Va., Anne E. Tewhey and partner, Douglas Caldwell, of Gorham, Sally L. Moody of Old Orchard Beach and Jill D. Steinman of East Poland; seven grandchildren, Matthew Moody of Asheville, N.C., Benjamin Moody of Garner, N.C., Sarah Tewhey McCune of Seal Cove, MDI, Ryan Tewhey of Southwest Harbor, Emily Frawley of Windham, Tyrus Steinman of Bangor and Amy Steinman of East Poland; five great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, at The Fortin Group Funeral Home in Auburn. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at the High Street Congregational Church in Auburn with the Rev. Stephen Carnahan officiating. Interment will follow at the Turner Village Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to either the Shriners Hospital for Children, Attn. Office of Development, 2900 N. Rocky Point Drive, Tampa, FL 33607 or online at https://lovetotherescue.org, or the Turner Fire Department, 19 General Turner Hill Road, Turner, ME 04282.

Condolences may be shared with the family at www.thefortingroupauburn.com.

Arrangements are under the care of The Fortin Group Funeral Home, Cremation and Monument Services 217 Turner St. Auburn, 783-8545.