Moore, G. Paul
Biography
(George) Paul Moore was born November 2, 1907 in Everson, West Virginia, the son of George Binney and Emma (Ayers) Moore. He took his A.B. in Speech from West Virginia University in 1929, and his M.A. in Speech Correction in 1930 and Ph.D. in Speech Correction in 1936, both from Northwestern University. His doctoral dissertation was entitled “A Stroboscopic Study of Vocal Fold Movement.”
Moore married Gertrude Conley on June 10, 1929. They had two children: Anne Gertrude Moore born November 20, 1937 and Paul David Moore born February 12, 1942. Mrs. Moore died January 22, 1975.
Moore was a member of Northwestern University's faculty from 1930 to December, 1961. His initial appointment was as an Instructor in the Department of Speech Correction and Audiology in the School of Speech. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1938 and Associate Professor in 1946. Moore took a leave of absence from teaching during the 1953-1954 academic year to engage in research connected with the production of a Pronunciary or “talking dictionary,” an audiovisual sound reproduction device used in teaching pronunciation of a language. The anticipated applications of the Pronunciary included listings of commonly mispronounced words; technical vocabularies and phrases of foreign languages; aid in remedial reading; instruction for the blind; and speech correction. Following his leave Moore became a part-time Associate Professor of Speech Correction in the Speech Correction and Audiology Department until August 31, 1960 and later a part-time Professor of Voice Pathology in the Department of Communicative Disorders. However he taught few courses during this time, instead devoting most of his energy toward the manufacture and promotion of the Pronunciary.
During his tenure at Northwestern Moore also served as a Lecturer in Otolaryngology at the Northwestern Medical School and as Director of the Voice Clinic, operated jointly by the School of Speech and the Medical School. He also served as Director of the Gould Research Laboratory of the Institute of Laryngology and Voice Disorders from 1957 to 1962.
Moore's professional interests centered on voice defects and the physiology and anatomy of the larynx. In addition to his work on the Pronunciary, Moore developed a system that utilized a camera and mirrors to study the larynx through the use of ultra high speed photography. Using this device, Moore and Dr. Hans von Leden of the Northwestern Medical School created two award winning scientific motion pictures: Larynx and Voice: Function of the Normal Larynx (1956) and Larynx and Voice: Physiology of the Larynx under Daily Stress (1956).
Moore's many professional memberships and activities included service as President and Fellow of the American Speech and Hearing Association, President of the Central States Speech Association, President of the Chicago Speech Therapy and Audiology Society, Editor of the Central States Speech Journal, Associate Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Associate Editor of Speech Monographs and Associate Editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders.
Moore resigned from the Northwestern faculty on December 31, 1961 to become Chairman of the Department of Speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He died in January, 2008, in Gainesville.