Dan K. Moore
historyDaniel Killian Moore (April 2, 1906 September 7, 1986) was the 66th Governor of the state of North Carolina from 1965 to 1969. Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Moore earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. He practiced law in Sylva, North Carolina and served a term in the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1941 before entering the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war, Moore served as a North Carolina Superior Court judge from 1948 to 1958. Subsequently, Moore served as counsel for the Champion Papers company in Canton, North Carolina, while also serving on the state Board of Water Resources. He left Champion to run for Governor in 1964. He was seen as the moderate in the Democratic primary, between the conservative I. Beverly Lake, Sr. and the more progressive L. Richardson Preyer. Moore won a primary runoff with Preyer.
After serving one term as governor (North Carolina governors were not then eligible to be re-elected), Moore's successor, Governor Robert W. Scott, appointed him to the North Carolina Supreme Court, the first governor of North Carolina to be so honored. He served on the Court from November 20, 1969 until December 31, 1978.
At the 1968 Democratic National Convention Moore received 17 1/2 votes for president on the first ballot, finishing fifth behind Vice President Hubert Humphrey (1,760 1/2), Sen. Eugene McCarthy (601), Sen. George McGovern (146 1/2), and Rev. Channing E. Phillips (67 1/2). Moore received 12 of North Carolina's 59 votes, 3 from Virginia, 2 from Georgia and 1/2 vote from Alabama.