J. Moore; State Environment Commissioner

J. Jamison (Jerry) Moore, controversial state environmental commissioner during the administration of Gov. Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 62.

Moore died of cancer Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, his family announced Tuesday.

A Beverly Hills management consultant, Moore was appointed by Reagan to two state commissions charged with overseeing development of a coastal management program--the California Advisory Commission on Marine and Coastal Resources in 1967, and the Navigation and Ocean Development Commission in 1969.

But he came under disfavor and conflict of interest accusations in 1971, when he became a paid consultant to developers who were fighting coastal conservation. Reagan fired him from the advisory commission, whose members serve at the governor’s pleasure, and asked him to resign from the development commission.

Insisting that he had done nothing wrong, Moore refused to resign and vowed to complete his four-year term.

He left office in 1973, a few months before his term ended, citing an increasing professional workload.

In Southern California, Moore was known for the concept of “mass transport” outlined in the 1950s for the Southern California Rapid Transit District. Moore said mass rapid transit of people could pay for itself if it were tied to mass transport of cargo. His plan, which was never developed, would have moved people by day and freight by night over the same rail network.

“So far as we know, no one has ever thought of this before,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1959. “All the proposed systems visualize carrying only people. Why not cargo too? Cargo that moves continuously throughout the Los Angeles area. Eggs, milk, meat.

“Ultimately,” he said, “there must be a rapid transit system to serve Los Angeles. This, as we see it, is a chance to stop regarding the system as a deficit operation. It can be profitable and--from a passenger standpoint--even luxurious.”

Educated at UCLA, the University of Madrid and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, Moore was active in Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and later in the Jonathan Club.

Working as a consultant for the state of Alaska, he helped draft the state’s initial program for coastal management.

Moore was chairman and founder of the Los Angeles Consultants Council and served on the National Academy of Engineering Marine Board Panel on Offshore Resources.

He is survived by his wife, Mara, a son and five daughters from two previous marriages, and three grandchildren.

Services are scheduled at 1 p.m. Friday at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills.

The family has asked that memorial contributions be made to the Cancer Research Institute in New York City.