Soon after Interstate 285 was complete in 1969, Ben Moore took his family for a spin.
“He said then that it was too small,” recalled his daughter Elizabeth Moore Kippels, of Greensboro. “He said the way Atlanta was growing, it needed more lanes.”
But Mr. Moore, who had been on the Atlanta Board of Aldermen in the mid- to late-60s, didn’t miss the opportunity to take his daughters for a ride around the 63-mile loop.
“It was the new and exciting thing to do in Atlanta,” Mrs. Kippels said, with a laugh. “Back then you could do it in under and hour, but not anymore.”
Mr. Moore, who was a vice president at First National Bank at the time, was asked by then-Mayor Ivan Allen to finish out the term of an alderman who died while in office, his daughter said. Now known as the Atlanta City Council, the Board of Aldermen was more of a public service vehicle than a political machine, she said.
“The bank would allow him to take off and attend meetings as part of a community service,” Mrs. Kippels said. “And he really seemed to enjoy that time.”
During Mr. Moore’s time on the Board, he also witnessed the beginning of what is now known as Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said his daughter Howell Moore Williams of Atlanta.
“He got to see a number of things developing first hand,” she said.
James Benjamin Moore, of Marietta, widely known as Ben, died Saturday at his residence after going into respiratory distress, his daughter said. He was 98. A funeral service has been planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. Burial will immediately follow at Westview Abby. H.M. Patterson & Son, Canton Hill Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Moore loved Atlanta and called it his second home, his daughters said. He was born in Texarkana, Ark., but his family moved to Atlanta when he was 7 years old. Mr. Moore attended the old Tech High and after graduation served in the Army Air Forces. He was stationed in Italy during World War II, his daughters said.
Up on his return, he earned a law degree from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law. He was an active member of the State Bar of Georgia from 1949 until 2009, according to membership records.
Though Mr. Moore didn’t run in the election that followed the end of his term on the Board of Aldermen, he stayed aware of what was going on in the city. He retired from First National, where he was an attorney and the head of the trust department, around 1975. He then took a job in a Marietta law firm, specializing in wills and trusts, much like he did at the bank, his daughters said.
Since retiring from law, Mr. Moore rekindled his love for art, Mrs. Williams said.
“When he was younger he wanted to go to school to be an architect,” she said. “But I guess due to the depression and all, there wasn’t much money to send him to school for that.”
But he started taking art classes in the assisted living center where he lived, she said, and he was thoroughly enjoying it.
“He had leisure time again and there was someone there to teach him,” she said. “And he turned out a massive number of canvases, especially to be in his 90s.”
In addition to his daughters, Mr. Moore is survived by three grandsons; two great-grandsons; stepdaughters, Judy Williams of Sunnyvale, Calif., Suellen Chester of Alpharetta; and stepson, Robyn Bryan of Hendersonville, N.C.
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