For Henry Moog Jr., searching out unique foods, studying architecture, buying antiques and identifying rental properties all translated to excellent reasons to travel. And for more than 30 years, all of those elements factored into Mr. Moog’s professional adventures as an entrepreneur.
“He wasn’t one to take a vacation and stick his toes in the sand,” said Dinah Dees Moog, his wife of 45 years. “He didn’t really sit still.”
Henry Bertram Moog Jr., a native of Atlanta, died Tuesday, a day before his 74th birthday, from complications of lung cancer.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill, which is also in charge of arrangements.
For 20 years, Mr. Moog owned and operated H. Moog Fine Porcelains in Buckhead. There, he not only sold Chinese porcelain, made exclusively for export in the 1700s, but other historical pieces that caught his eye.
“His passion was really aesthetics,” his wife said.
“If he saw a great mirror or something that had a great story behind it and he fell in love with it, he’d sell it too. But his primary focus was the porcelain,” said his son, Henry B. “Tripps” Moog III, of Atlanta.
Henry Moog Jr., scaled back his porcelain business in 2006 when his Caribbean real estate rental venture, which he started in the 1980s, began to take up more of his time.
One of the few things he loved but never pursued as a business was his interest in culinary arts. Cooking was his hobby, his son said, something he did for fun.
“He loved having dinner parties,” Mr. Moog said. “He loved food and flavors. He could eat something in a restaurant, figure out what was in it, then go home and make it. He had a tremendous palate.”
Shandon Moog Benedict said her father’s interests were always changing and that “he was never satisfied with the status quo.”
After Mr. Moog’s earned a business degree from the University of Alabama, in the early ‘60s and fulfilled his military service later that decade, he began working for his father. His time in the military had opened his eyes to the world and he soon left his father’s company to start his own business, buying, renovating and selling homes in Inman Park in the ‘70s.
He eventually formed a charter travel service, which ultimately led him to his appreciation of Chinese export porcelain and his antique business.
“One thing always led to another, where his interests were concerned, and he was open to that,” said Mrs. Benedict, who also lives in Atlanta.
Yet he was open to doing even more in his life. While he loved what he did, there were “so many things he wanted to do,” his wife said.
“He wanted to write books, he wanted to build a Japanese-style house, he wanted to do so much more,” she said.
In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Moog is survived by six grandchildren.
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