Bert C. Moore; American Diplomat Among 52 Held Hostage by Iran

Bert C. Moore, 65, one of the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran from 1979 to 1981. Moore, who taught high school history classes in Mount Vernon, Ohio, from 1957 to 1960, joined the State Department as a foreign service officer in 1961. He served in Washington, D.C., and in U.S. embassies and consulates in Canada, Rhodesia, Malawi, France, Zaire, Spain, Nigeria, Indonesia and India as well as Iran. Moore was sent to Tehran in early 1979 as administrative consul in the U.S. Embassy there. Seized in the embassy after the Islamic fundamentalist revolution, the 52 Americans were held 444 days before their release in early 1981 on the Inauguration day of President Ronald Reagan. Moore, who said he was not tortured during the ordeal, returned to foreign service and continued as a State Department consultant, even after his official retirement in 1990. He was awarded the Christian A. Herter Award for extraordinary contributions to the practice of diplomacy and the State Department Award for Valor. He also received a Presidential Meritorious Award in 1985. During his long captivity, Moore sent a moving and much-publicized message to his wife, beginning, “Marjorie, my love” and praising her and their four children for how well they were coping with the situation. On Thursday in Homosassa, Fla., of cancer.