Many Art Styles, Many Life styles, Many Names—
Irving Richard Moore (3-12-31—11-1-25)
As told to me during our 43 years together.The quotes are all from his words and writings. The bold type years, describe Richard’s timeline.
1931 to 1949: Born in Cook Co.Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. Dick (nickname for Richard) was 4 years old when his father died of pneumonia. His mother found work as a “26 Girl” (a score keeper for dice games, only in Chicago). At age 5, Dick was drawing Mickey Mouse. “Depression times, so every 6 months I would receive knickers, long stockings, shirts and shoes (too tight). Delivered fish from markets—cats followed me home!”.
Age 9, Dick was in the hospital for 1 1/2 months, paralyzed, also with an extreme fevers.(Diagnosis?) “From playing in the streets in winter? My mother visited, she could hear from the hallway, me screaming. ! was embarrassed to be in diapers.”
Age 14, “My job was packing munitions in green wax. I’d dip my arm in quickly many times into the hot wax. Taking the ‘elevated’ home, I’d pull up my sleeve to scare the other passengers.”
“My first self-appointed task, at the age of 16, was to copy (for a year) a single panel of Hal Foster’s ‘Prince Valiant’ Sunday comic strip from the Chicago Tribune. That was my first intro to graphic arts. Later,I was very happy to find that Frank Frazzetta also copied ‘Prince Valiant’ , to learn how to use the brush and pen.”
“Worked at Walgreens as a soda jerk. A partner and I developed a bit of entertainment (tossing and catching ice cream scoops in the blender cups. We were moved to other locations to improve their customer attendance.”
1948 Entered trade school. Metal shop. Studied mechanical drawing, architecture and illustration.
1949 Marketing! Sold “Good Humor” ice cream (how appropriate). (Note price: 12 cents! )
1950 Worked at a litho house and then worked daily hauling steel to pay for the classes at the
Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Graduation photo. You can spot Dick as the only one showing his personality.
1950-1952 Met Barbara MacDonald at the Academy. Married. Joined the US Navy (Dick, there, was also known as ‘Irv’.) Aboard the USS Willard Keith.
“Six months of sea-sickness, then I finally got my ‘sea legs’—but when we pulled into Le Havre, France—and hit the still breakwater— threw-up!”
Irv visited Gitmo Bay, Cuba, Puerto Rica, Bermuda, Europe and the Mediterranean and later Argentia, Newfoundland on the USS Willard Keith.
June 21, 1952, daughter, Cynthia Lee.
1952 Injury!—an infected and gangrenous thumb—from bowling! “The bowling ball didn’t fit my hand! There wasn’t a surgeon on the Willard Keith, so they had to lift me with ropes in a basket (a basket case!) to an aircraft carrier that had a sick bay.”
The third photo: “A storm blew the door off! “ Fourth photo: “I was one of a duo of ‘comedians’. The photo shows the two of us ‘doing our thing’ on deck entertaining our fellow shipmates during a talent show. His last name was Dicks and we were billed as the ‘Two Dicks’. Well, probably not a good idea.”
“My second two years were in a graphic arts department on an admiral’s flagship, USS Pokono AGC16, when my duties took an artist turn, something besides lettering the life preservers on the Keith.There was a full art and photo department where I was able to create charts and cartoons as shown on this menu for the 1952 Thanksgiving Day dinner.”
1953 Correspondence course: the Famous Artist School was offering cartooning along with illustration and design.
1954 “Worked in various art studios in Chicago, then, two years in Enid, Oklahoma as a studio illustrator. Then two and one half years heading up a group of artists specializing in slide presentations in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At one point, I traveled to create a ‘Top Secret’ storyboard and art. Governmental clearance with involvement with the Redstone Missile.” (No photos—Hush, Hush.)
“First chance to sketch outdoors, first portrait commissions, first watercolors.”
May 2, 1954 Son, Jim, born. (A later photo.)
1959 “We moved to San Francisco. Shared a studio with Fred Meinke, and the Dickey & Harleen Studio. Met Gene Hoffman, Bill Shields and Willi Baum, all of whom became lifelong friends.
All phases of commercial art and teaching ‘Creative Illustration’ at the Academy of Art of San Francisco. My new studio was a Victorian at #7 Scott Street, in San Francisco.”
Newspaper ads for Purity Stores, Agency: Hoefer, Dieterich & Brown, AD: Richard Wilson, Cartoonist: Dick Moore.1962.
Painting trip to Mexico with Willi Baum and Earl Thollander
1963 At this time, Dick illustrated “End o’ Steel” written by Glen Dines 1963. The book had 45 pages of his illustrations. Barb filed for divorce.
Argonaut Insurance Co., Annual Report — Agency: The Wyman Company, AD: Don Carlson, Cover Artist: Dick Moore, 1963
1964 Award of Excellence / Ad for Koret of California, A variety of paintings. Christmas card for 1964.
(BTW: This 1964 photo of Dick with his friend, Bob McNie was at the time that I first met them. They visited the Butte, Herrero and Hyde studio where I worked. Annie Butte said “Wow”. I asked “Which one?”. She pointed at McNie. I said: “The other one.” (But then I found that Dick was married.)
1964 Divorced, Barbara. Painting trip to Hawaii with Earl Thollander. Hiked down inside Haleakal? National Park, Maui. Three weeks, 22 watercolors. First ‘one-man show’, while on another visit to Hawaii. Met Ellen Bordé at the Pritikin Mansion at 222 Sacramento Street, San Francisco.
1964 ABC outdoor boards, bus cards. Working with G. Dean Smith. for the 1966-1968 series. Awards in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
1965 Marriage. Photo with Ellen at #7 Scott Street.
1966 Another book: “Sybyll, The Dog Who Had All the Advantages”. "SYBYLL" Book w/29 Illustrations, Cover and inside dust jacket - Author: Bea Seidler, Cartoonist: Dick Moore, Printer: Pisani Press, SF, 1966
San Francisco Magazine, “The Mark”, Cover-Artist: Dick Moore, March 1966
1967 “Moved to Muir Beach, Marin Co. and did artwork at the ‘No Name Bar’ in Sausalito, CA. “Dropped out” as I. Richard Moore (as I signed my paintings). I returned to the commercial world only sporadically (to bolster the coffer) painting even less and primarily “working the soil”—farming, cutting and splitting fire wood and generally getting down with nature. “
“Human be-in” (Oakland Museum of CA Collection) - Photographer: Lorin Gillette, Design /Collage: Dick Moore, 1967
During the ‘Summer of Love’ (1967), Funky Features presented the signs of the zodiac. The Gemini poster was assigned to Dick who said that he ‘posed’ for the male twin and he also named the female. His own zodiac sign was Pisces. Funky Features https://www.funkyfeatures.com/dick-moore.html
‘Gemini’ San Francisco Funky Features, Poster — Illustrator: Dick Moore, 1967
1968, “Ellen and I ended our marriage.”
1969 “Living in Muir Beach, north of San Francisco. Met Deb Reid, we traveled to New York City. After staying in Greenwich Village with friends, we came back to Muir Beach.” Deb’s father worked directly with Paul Masson Wines.
Paul Masson, P.O.P. tear-off - Agency: Brown Vintners, AD: David Reid, Artist: Dick Moore, 1969
1969 Daughter, Heather, born.
1970 “We stayed on a farm in Santa Cruz, Vegetarianism. In Capitola, I assisted at Tom King’s restaurant.” “Then a move to Colorado when a friend introduced us to the ’Mineral Hot Springs’ Spa with 92’ x 20’ mineral pool, 5 rooms w/hot baths, cafe and gas station. Fifty miles north of Alamosa, CO.” A contact in Boulder, led to work repairing a lath and plaster sphere. Contacts in Denver led to paintings for a calendar.
Assignment: ‘Bonanza’ (Bank Calendar for East Denver, Colorado)— Artist: Dick Moore, 1970
1973 “Back to California. Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead had property, along the Russian River at the time, an eighteen acre commune in Forestville’s Pocket Canyon. Three year stay. Met Bill Champlin and designed the ’The Sons of Champlin’ LP album.”
Here are, through the years, some of Richard’s other art concepts for family and friends. For John Barrett’s group ‘SPURS USA’, for son Jim’s band ‘THE LUGS’, for Timberlake Gallery, for Jon and Jackie Early’s B&B in Sonoma ‘Thistle Dew’, for his Sufi friends ‘Winged Heart’ and for Richard’s 80th Birthday Retrospective Party (held in two opposite locations) hence the ‘caution’ road sign.
1973 “Designed wool banners for Keystone Lodge in Colorado.” (There were more than these, shown.) “Worked in the barn, hired Hippie Chicks to sew the two sides of each banner. Traveled with Dean Smith to the lodge to direct the installation.”
1974 “Rock Scully (manager of the ‘Grateful Dead’) moved back to the river property so we moved to Congo Street in San Francisco. Choice? Costa Rica or Hawaii?
Moved family of Deb and two daughters to Hawaii. Temporarily in tents, total of 7 years. I rebuilt 8’ x 8’ open-sided shack from a stack of pieces and I found and straightened the nails. On three acres of a plateau of lava rock on the Kona Coast in Captain Cook. $25 per month rent. No electricity, no water, no car. Added to the shack. We visited Maui. A couple (vacationers) from California’s ‘Nut Tree’ Gallery, viewed my art. Our youngest daughter was born in 1975. My good friend, G. Dean Smith, visited us and built an art studio for us on the property, west of our shack.”
1977 “There, at the Hilton Hotel, was the opportunity to create portraits for the visitors. There were numerous exhibits of my watercolors and I led many workshops throughout the Islands.” “I began to paint once more and had five one-man shows. In 1980 I won the National Watercolor West award.” (Third image,’Ti Plant’)
Signature member of the National Watercolor Society.
1981 ”Came to California to have a show of paintings at the ‘Nut Tree’ in Vacaville (located between San Francisco and Sacramento). (This show was the result of the two vacationers who saw Richard paintings in 1974. The shipment of the paintings from Kona to Vacaville and the direction for the show, kept him from his family.
This year, also, was the time of the very painful permanent separation of his family.)
1982 A printed poster of one of my painting “Callas” promoted the show. January to May of 1982.”
(Richard, again, was back in San Francisco as graphic artist, Dick Moore, stepping back into his commercial arts career. He was staying with friends.
On 2-11-1982, Dick was calling on the agency where I was a steady free-lance artist. I, that morning, was called to come into work. Dick was to interview with Rex Simmons to show his graphic art samples and he was sitting in the reception area, just as I arrived.
I recognized him from 1964 and the later ADASF club activities. It was just moments of our meeting again! In one month, his daughter (age twelve) came to live with us. in June of 1983 the two younger daughters also came to live in our home.
We have been together for the following 43 years. Our work was the same, our graphic arts friends were the same. His children have added much to my life.)
“Now living in Marin County, Back into the advertising whirl, once again, completely swept up by the vortex of creative energy that is the Bay Area.” Working first for various ad agencies, Art Director Richard, worked at Palcom for Viking Freight System, Inc. Apple Computer followed with assignments for the first owner’s manuals. We got an Apple computer and learned a lot at home, He was ‘painting on the computer’.
1987 Richard joined Colossal Pictures of San Francisco (Dogpatch area). There, he and Dewey Reid brought computer art into the animation studio. “Doing animation background painting and moving to computer painting during a 6-year stay there.”
They worked on the animated, ‘Back to the Future’, ‘MTV' and other animated films.
1997 Industrial Light and Magic. When Colossal broke up into smaller studios, Richard was brought into George Lucas’s ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) by Danielle Dubay, who had already made that move.
His first work, there, was in the commercial department.“Star Wars” was the major movie feature. Richard worked as a digital artist, ‘view painter’. Being near the age and size of the actor, Phil Brown, who played Luke Skywalker’s “Uncle Owen” (in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) Richard was placed in the episode as a stand-in. When the film was shown in the theater in Mill Valley, we saw him in the movie. Richard would say that he was “very small on the screen”, but he enjoyed being a part of the production. (Fourth photo: At George Luca’s Skywalker Ranch) (Fifth photo: make-up for Uncle Owen.) (Last photo: Each year there was a huge Halloween party. One year we were—HE.coli and SHE.coli.) The two groups of the very talented staffs of Colossal and ILM, became more of our friends.
April, 2004, When George Lucas moved most of the San Rafael ILM location to San Francisco, Richard retired from ILM at age 73. He then, with the generous ILM 401K, played the stock market and did quite well!
“And the beat goes on!” “So far, so good.”
The four years in the US Navy gave Richard the wonderful health care at the San Francisco Veterans Hospital. After his retirement, as we were making monthly trips to the VA for a B-12 shot, we would stop on our way back, by way Sausalito, to photograph a replica of a Brigantine ship being built. From that we published a 2 pound, 250 page photographic report: ‘The Building of the Matthew Turner’.”
There were 7 major VA ‘saves’ in the years from 2010 to 2025. But in 2012, Richard lost one quarter of his sight in his left eye and in 2014 lost total vision in the right eye (CRAO: Central Retinal Artery Occlusion). So all work (and play) after 2014 was with only the 3/4 vision in his left eye. The most recent, in 2024-2025, were these paintings! The first painting is one of a series of just line art Richard created in the 1970s, and only in 2025, added color. The last one, stopped when the August heat in his studio brought him into our cooler house.
Clear and witty to the last, when Richard was asked, “How are you doing?” His answer was “I’m great!—I lie al lot.” We were all together on November 1st (an earlier photo).
Richard, with his children. He wears the shirt he ordered from the New Yorker magazine commemorating cartoonist, George Booth, who was Richard’s classmate at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1950, 75 years earlier.
As word has spread of his passing on November 1, 2025, there are so very many who have phoned and written about their friendship with Irving Richard Moore.
Here are a few of the tributes: James Baker’s Facebook page, Tom McClure’s Tribute, and John Stevenson’s two emojis.)
(Richard was also known as: “Sir Laughalot”!)
This is my extensive report. The number of photos and details of Richard’s life were all easy to collect. Richard and I were a part of the original Geezers Gatherings, held first in 1993 in Penngrove, CA We presented the Geezer picnics in Corte Madera’s Park from 2003 to 2018.
Oh, there is another name (that we shared). Every morning we would say: “Good morning, my number one Sweetheart.”
(At the time that we married, I kept my ‘maiden’ and ‘professional’ name.)
Ann Thompson
Richard Moore November 15, 2025 by James Baker.
I just learned that Richard Moore died earlier this month, at the age of 94. He was one of the artists I worked with when I first came to San Francisco to be one of the art directors on the Back to the Future cartoon. I was a 26 year old pipsqueak "directing" Richard, who was already a versatile & talented artist with decades of experience. However, he never rolled his eyes at me even once. Richard was always a joy to work with, and simply to be around. An absolutely lovely fella!
Though I met him in the context of animation, Richard was originally an old-school illustrator. He was born in Chicago, and studied in Chicago, and studied at the famous Art Institute (back when it was called the " Chicago Academy of Fine Arts). After a stint in the navy, he became an illustrator working at various places across the country till he landed in San Francisco in 1959, to become part of the Bay Area's 1960's illustration scene. (Richard's partner Ann Thompson runs a fantastic website about that great generation of Bay Area art directors and artists.) Versatile and adaptable, Richard all styles of illustration, graphic design, and cartoons.
Richard spent much of the 1970s living on Hawaii's Big Island, focused on fine-art colour painting. I've always loved the looseness of watercolour, and Richard was a master at this. He came back to the Bay Area for more illustration in the early 1980s, and was still freelancing when we met in 1991. He became a part of our crew immediately when we laid eyes on his work. I was awed by the range & variety in Richard's portfolio. I remember asking him if working on a silly cartoon was a drag for him. With his big & booming, joyful & infectious laugh, he stressed how much fun he was having.
He told me something back then that I didn't quite get at the time but do understand now - as artists get older and the industry shifts, it can be difficult to adapt. When I first met Richard he was in the process of reinventing himself in his 60s, and enjoying it too. Learning how to work in the computer at Colossal Pictures, then taking those skills to ILM, where he worked till finally retiring in 2004. Richard, and another artist I worked with at Colossal - Bud Luckey - were incredibly inspiring to me as a youngster. Unlike some artists who lose their enthusiasm as they age, these old dogs continued to learn new tricks and inspire other artists.
When I went on staff, as a busted down old shop-worn artist, I was (and am) very grateful for the opportunity to reinvent myself too. As a young artist, I greatly admired Richard 's talent, versatility and adaptability, but also that he managed to keep joy in his work, and spread it around his colleagues. Though I'd not seen him in person for years, Richard was a frequent commenter here on my blog (FaceBook) right up until a few months ago, so I've felt in contact with him this entire time. He sent me some pictures late last year, still painting..
For an old goat myself now, and I try to be like Richard - Hopefully I can be a fun old coworker rather than a bitter old coworker. Richard's example inspires me even more now that I'm as old as he was when I first met him.
Richard Moore
1931 - 2025
4 Thoughts on "Richard Moore"
1. Tom Rubaclava
November 15, 2005 at 3:00 pm
Now there's a man that has had a huge impact on my career, my outlook, my work ethic and my true introduction to Photoshop and realizing how much a desktop computer was to be so integral to my art.
I'm sad to hear this news, but your tribute really helps to put the loss in perspective.
Thanks, Jamie.
2. James Baker
November 15, 2005 at 3:12 pm
Richard was a lovely man. Inspiring and just plain FUN to be around. He had a good long innings but it would have been great if it had been even longer, eh?
3. Nicole Grindle
November 15, 2005 at 3:22 pm
Oh, what nice memories, Jamie. When I think of Richard, I, too, immediately think of his booming, uninhibited laugh, which inevitably made me laugh. Isn't it crazy to find ourselves at the age he was when we met him!? So soon! He is definitely an inspiration for staying fresh as we age, as is Bud, but also you, Jamie. You always spread joy and laughter. Thank you.
4. Jerry van deBeek
November 15, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Arriving from the Netherlands and landing at Colossal Pictures I was welcomed with open arms by Richard. What a wonderful person he was and one I will always fondly remember. Thinking of him now just makes me smile. Thanks pal!