Pierce Jones Moore, Jr., MD, 102, passed away at his home in Clemont, FL, on April 6, 2022, of natural causes due to aging. He was a man of great faith and integrity who served the people of Western North Carolina with exceptional medical expertise, dedication and love.

He was the only child born to Mary Lucretia Trimmer Moore and Pierce Jones Moore, Sr. in Spartanburg, SC. After completing high school, he attended Southern Junior College in Collegedale, TN and Pacific Union College in Northern CA, both of which are Seventh-day Adventist Schools. He was then accepted into medical school at Loma Linda University School of Medicine in Loma Linda, CA. During his senior year, his entire class was drafted into the United States Army and upon graduation, in 1944, he was stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia. He was tasked with doing revisions of field amputations on soldiers injured in battles of the European theater, most notably the Battle of the Bulge. He took pride and pleasure in teaching the amputees how to play golf in his very limited spare time. As the war began waning, he was reassigned to a military hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on site of the old El Morro Castle. There, he met Dora Deanne Crumley, an enlisted army nurse and upon discharge from the army, they were married in Atlanta, GA. There he completed a surgical residency at Georgia Baptist Hospital and then went to Spartanburg, SC, to do a surgical fellowship, where he was chief resident at Spartanburg Regional Hospital.

He set up his first practice in Pickens, SC, but after a few short years, he was called to go to a small, failing Self Supporting Seventh-day Adventist Institution that consisted of Mountain Sanitarium, a school of nursing, a boarding academy and an elementary school. He believed God was calling him to this location and he moved his family to the mountains of Western North Carolina in May 1953. With his influence and leadership, the institution thrived and soon became Mountain Sanitarium and Hospital, then Fletcher Hospital, Park Ridge Hospital and now known as Advent Health Hendersonville. While the school of nursing eventually closed, Captain Gilmer Elementary School, Fletcher Academy and now also Fletcher Park Inn, are thriving entities. Advent Health Hendersonville was purchased by the Seventh-day Adventist organization when the new facility which was named Park Ridge Hospital was built. In the early days, he made many house calls to homes on the gravel mountain roads, delivered numerous babies, performed countless surgeries all without a wound infection or major complication and gave general medical care without discrimination to the many residents of Western North Carolina.

After retiring from his surgical practice, he went to Saudi Arabia and worked for the Army Corp of Engineers. When he returned to the States, he was not ready to stop his medical career and worked as an ER physician, plant physician for Bon Worth and Diamond Brand and contracted his surgical first assist services to many of the area surgeons. Eventually, he scaled back to just doing surgical first assisting which he did till the age of 90, at which time he was the oldest physician Mission Hospital had ever granted privileges. At the age of 96, he decided not to renew his medical license and was told by the NC Medical Board that he was the oldest practicing physician in the state of North Carolina at the time.

After 57 years of marriage, his wife, Dee, died and he went on to marry Elaine Twomley Moore at the age of 87. They were married for 14 years.

He greatly enjoyed his pastime of golf and won numerous trophies.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine; and his five children; ten grandchildren; and ten great-granddaughters; they are Pierce Moore, III (Pat) their children, Brian Moore (Lindsay) and their two daughters, Heather Carvill (Clint) and their three daughters; William Moore (Janis) their two daughters, Alisa Nicholson (Mark), and their three daughters, Natalie Moore and her two daughters; Robert Moore (Lois) and their three children, Christina Jordan, Marcella Moore, and Robert Moore (Lacey); Lucretia Pintacuda (Jay) and their daughter Lauren Pintacuda; David Moore (Julie) and their two sons, Michael Moore and Matthew Moore.

He has been a tower of strength to his family, his community, his friends, his profession, his church and his God. He received many awards and acknowledgements, most notably the Order of Long Leaf Pine from the Governor of North Carolina, named Person of the Week from WLOS in March 2010, the Distinguished Service Award from Southern Adventist University, First Annual Dr. Pierce J. Moore, Jr. and Dr. Arthur Pearson Award of Excellence from Park Ridge Hospital, Town of Fletcher recognition for 50 Years of Dedicated Service, Honored Alumnus of Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Star in the Hendersonville, NC Walk of Fame and Park Ridge Health Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, he was given an Honor Air Flight to Washington, DC by Jeff Miller to visit the WWII Memorial. On November, 11, 2020 he gave the keynote address for Veterans Day in the city of Asheville, NC and Mayor Esther Mannheimer gave him a proclamation declaring that day Dr. PJ Moore, Jr. Day.

He has lived a full and rewarding life and now is at rest where he waits to meet his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

His ashes will be buried in the Veteran's Cemetery in Black Mountain, NC, attended by family only. The public is invited to an informal Celebration of his Life and visitation with family at the Lelia Patterson Center on Howard Gap Road near Advent Health Hendersonville, on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. on May 28, 2022.

Donations in his memory may be made to the PJ Moore Fund at Fletcher Academy, at PO Box 5440, Fletcher, NC 28732. The funds are planned to be used for a project to be named in his honor.