Senior Page: Service Comes First For Centenarian Woodworker Robert Moore

Robert Moore, a resident of South Yarmouth and a well-known Chatham woodworker, celebrated his 100th birthday June 5. A World War II veteran who has spent over 70 years on the Cape, Moore has lived a life dedicated to the service of others.

For over half a century, Moore’s work days stretched from three in the morning to nine at night. Seven days a week, from dawn to dusk, he balanced his time between working at Chatham Wood Works, volunteering with the Chatham Fire Department, and building connections with Cape Codders of every stripe.

“In a day’s time I worked on half a dozen different jobs,” Moore said. “I knew everybody in town and everybody in town knew me.”

Moore started working at Chatham Wood Works in 1946 and gained ownership of the carpentry shop in 1988, before retiring in 2002. To locals, summer tourists, and the occasional celebrity, Moore was a cornerstone of the Cape Cod experience.

“Summer people would come into the shop, one year to the next,” Moore said. “They would get to Chatham and half an hour later they would be in the shop.”

Moore kept the doors to Chatham Wood Works open all day. Numerous Cape residents and visitors, including renowned actress Shirley Booth, would frequently stop by just to chat with him as he worked.

“I came here in 1946 and I don’t know why, but the Cape people seemed to accept me,” Moore said. “I never felt like an outsider.”

Before establishing his roots on the Cape, Moore served in the navy for 35 months during World War II in the Pacific. He participated in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which placed him at MIT, but he decided to leave the program when he was discharged.

“I was young and foolish,” Moore said of his choice to quit higher education. Instead he moved to Alaska, where he began a carpentry apprenticeship. At age 22, he moved to the Cape to work at Chatham Wood Works and has been here since.

“I have never been to any place that I wasn’t happy to get back here,” Moore said of the Cape.

Moore spent 38 years volunteering with the rescue squad of the Chatham Fire Department, a short distance away from his shop. Moore would respond to local emergencies and shuttle patients in ambulances, experiences which expanded his circle and helped to fill his 18 hour work days.

“I just wanted to help,” Moore said. Ambulance runs would sometimes leave Moore at the doors of Cape Cod Hospital, where he would see his late wife Eileen Moore, who worked there as a nurse.

After marrying in 1956, the couple built a house, a family and a life in South Yarmouth, which they enjoyed together until Eileen died in 2021.

Moore still has the original sketch of the house he built for them by hand.

“It never even entered my mind to buy,” Moore said.

Although he let go of his shop in 2002, Moore continued to take on carpentry jobs for several more years. In 2003, he became a volunteer with Meals on Wheels, a nonprofit organization focused on delivering balanced meals to the homes of the elderly and those with disabilities.

“If Meals on Wheels got a hold of me first, then I would deliver meals rather than go to work,” Moore said. “I put the meals first.”

Moore volunteered until he was 99 and built strong friendships with the many people he delivered meals to over the years. After contracting COVID, Moore had to take a step back from volunteer work, but he is planning on getting right back into it when he fully recovers.

“It is just something that has to be done,” Moore said. “I don’t understand how we can’t get more volunteers.”

On May 29, Moore’s friends and family gathered to celebrate him and the indelible imprint he has left on his loved ones, on his community and on Cape Cod.