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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I rise today to remember the late Frank Moore of Oregon. Frank passed away last month at 98.

The story of Frank Moore is really at least three stories. It is a story about a war hero; it is a story about a natural resources hero; and it is a love story, which is the only way to describe his wonderful marriage with his wife Jeanne, who survives him.

To begin, Frank will always be remembered in our corner of the Nation as a legendary fly fisherman who channeled his love of the Umpqua River into protecting and preserving this extraordinary natural treasure in Southern Oregon.

It has been said in fishing circles:

Most of the world is covered by water. A fisherman's job is simple: Pick out the best parts.

And my friend Frank picked out, consistently, the best parts of his extraordinary life, and all of us as Oregonians are better off for his good judgments about the Umpqua and about so much else in Oregon.

After returning to our State from World War II, storming Utah Beach at Normandy on D-day and later fighting at the Battle of the Bulge, Frank bought the Steamboat Inn with his wife and work teammate, Jeanne. Together, they provided generations of visitors an unmatched recreation experience on the North Umpqua.

In the decades that followed, Frank became a fly fisherman so, so revered, so quintessentially Oregon, that he could count our late Governor, Tom McCall--an extraordinary fisherman in his own right--as just a fishing buddy. We call it the Oregon Way, where Oregonians come together to keep our State so special for living, working, and raising a family.

I will tell the Presiding Officer, I know Oregon is a long way from Georgia, but the fact is, there isn't anything that is more ``Oregon Way,'' that shortens the distance between Oregon and the rest of the country, than priorities like fishing and having a special relationship with somebody like Tom McCall.

With respect to his war heroism, in addition to earning France's highest award of merit for his World War II service, we saw Frank's extraordinary accomplishments in Oregon when we talked about his work in natural resources and what we saw when he got together with friends, and I am going to talk about one particularly eventful meeting.

Frank was named Oregon's Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year in 1969. He served on the State Fish and Wildlife Commission from 1971 to 1974. He was among the leaders in getting passed the Oregon Forest Practices law to protect fish in streams. He earned the International Federation of Fly Fishers Conservationist of the Year Award in 2003, and he was inducted into the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in 2010.

I had a chance to have some of the most memorable experiences I have had in public service with Frank Moore. Back when I was chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I remember being in the backyard of the Ratzlaffs, Jim and Jane Ratzlaff, of Roseburg, OR. Jim has passed. I continue to stay in touch with Jane. And in their backyard one wonderful day, where my former staffer, Mary Gautreaux, who is up in Heaven listening to this discussion, the late Mary Gautreaux, we conceived of the idea of all working together to protect 100,000 acres of public lands in the Steamboat Creek watershed for steelhead preservation.

I say to the Presiding Officer, as former chairman of the committee, I have been through some of the rituals that we all see in the committee process--and I am sure my colleague has gnashed his teeth over one or two of them already--but one of the things that we noted early on is that this incredible love affair between Frank and Jeanne that went on for decades didn't really fit into the legislative process so I wanted to name a Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary after both of them because they were partners in life, partners at the Steamboat Inn, partners in everything.

Well, I just checked in with the inimitable David Brooks, who is our guy at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee who has worked for decades on preserving these treasures. At the time, David reminded me, you really had a tradition of not being able to name one of these bills to protect your treasures after two people. It was not like it was a law; it was a tradition, but members felt kind of strongly about it. I won't mention any names.

But Frank Moore, when I told him that, he said: Ron, I love you to pieces, but this bill has got to be named for both of us because we have been partners in life. We have been partners in the Steamboat Inn and in the sanctuary and the like.

So I went back and told David Brooks about this. And, finally, I am not sure everybody actually agreed to name it after Frank and Jeanne, this wonderful love affair, but I just basically did it. And around here, as the Presiding Officer knows, sometimes if you do it, other people won't raise a fuss. That is how Frank Moore of Southern Oregon ensured that, for all time, we would have a wonderful place known as the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary, as a monument to make sure, for generations to come, young people would have a special place to go.

I would just note, because I talked to her just a few minutes ago, that Colleen Moore Bechtel, who is a teacher at West Intermediate School in Sutherlin--she and her class may be watching this proceeding today. They were trying to figure out how to get C-SPAN on live. I will have more to say about Colleen before I wrap up.

But I am so pleased because that is exactly what Frank and Jeanne, to this day, have always wanted--was to make sure that our treasures, our really special places, would be there for the future. So I am hoping, if they weren't able to see it live, that Colleen will be able to show these remarks to all the kids at the Douglas County school, West Intermediate in Sutherlin, what their U.S. Senator thought about Frank Moore.

The last time I visited with Frank and Jeanne in October 2020, circumstances had really dealt them a tough hand. We had a horrible fire known as the Archie Creek Fire. It had destroyed the log cabin that Frank had built above the Umpqua, and Frank and Jeanne were living with their daughter, Colleen, and her family in Glide. But you would have never known from Frank about that loss of a lifetime's work and care.

Instead, that fall afternoon, on a pretty front porch in rural Douglas County, Frank came striding out onto the porch with that wonderful smile, a bone-crushing handshake, and one joke after another, with a twinkle in his eyes. He was always optimistic about our State, an optimist on that day right after his treasured home had been ravaged by fire.

He never wavered from that focus. In fact, this past July, I was so pleased that he wrote an opinion piece in our publication, Eugene's Register-Guard, that detailed how the ``wild & scenic river'' designation had helped the North Umpqua. He talked about his involvement with me to promote the River Democracy Act--a really fresh approach endorsed by hundreds of small, rural businesses to ensure that we preserve our treasures and also tap the full potential for the recreation economy.

Now, there have been a lot of recent remembrances of Frank, and almost all of them talk about him being a giant of Oregon. Those characterizations--certainly of his impact on the southern part of my State and our entire State--are on point. I want to make sure, though, that something else that Frank said can stick with me. He was always quoted as saying the important thing was that Jeanne was with him.

Referring to Jeanne, his wife of 79 years, Frank said:

I have the treasure with me. That's my treasure.

And I can tell the Presiding Officer that virtually every time I saw this wonderful couple, they were holding hands. It just said it all-- holding hands. And they had been married for 79 years.

So tonight I just want to say to Jeanne, to all of Frank's loved ones, to all of the kids who may be following this in Oregon schools, I am just going to add: Frank is always going to be Oregon's treasure. And on behalf of Oregonians, who are certainly scattered almost everywhere, I thank you for sharing Frank with all of us. And I am speaking on behalf of Oregonians everywhere.

Through the Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary and so many other ``best parts'' that Frank leaves as his legacy, Frank Moore will never be forgotten.

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