A well-known retired banker and businessman who was a distinguished Salisbury University alumnus died last week after a long illness.

Marshall Whitfield Moore, 90, died last Monday at Coastal Hospice By The Lake. Born in the Neck District of Dorchester County, he was the son of Willard W. Moore and Rosie M. Moore.

He went to a one-room schoolhouse in the tiny village of Thomas and then matriculated at Cambridge High School, where he graduated in 1941.

He entered what was then known as the State Teachers College in Salisbury until World War II interrupted his studies in 1942. During the war, he was a member of the U.S. Navy’s 107th Construction Battalion, where he saw action in the South Pacific.

At the war’s conclusion, he returned to the Salisbury college, where he became active in student affairs and athletics. He was editor-in-chief of both the yearbook and the student newspaper. He was captain of the soccer team and president of the Men’s Athletic Association. He graduated from STC in 1948.

SU President Dr. Janet Dudley-Eshbach said Moore was a loyal campus supporter.

“We are saddened by the passing of Marshall Moore, a 1948 graduate of Salisbury University and one of the founders of the SU Foundation,” Dudley-Eshbach said. “He was the longest serving member of the Foundation’s board of directors and, for many years, was known as one of SU’s most ardent ambassadors. He leaves behind a legacy of dedicated service to the campus and its students.”

At STC, Moore met his future wife, Ruth Baldwin, whom he married in 1948. She graduated in 1949, and they settled in Salisbury and began raising a family.

Following graduation, Moore taught at East Salisbury Elementary School before going to work at Salisbury Nash, which was owned by Linwood Morris. Later, he joined Community Building Supply, where he oversaw residential construction.

In the early 1970s, he became affiliated with Loyola Federal Savings & Loan Association, rising to the position of senior vice president in charge of marketing at the Baltimore headquarters. While there, he worked closely with then-mayor William Donald Schaefer in the redevelopment of the downtown Charles Street area. He retired from Loyola Federal in 1988.

In 1986, Moore was inducted into the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame.

Moore was very active in local civic affairs. He was a founding member and chairman of the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art. He was also a former president of the Salisbury Lions Club.

In educational affairs, he was a former chairman of the Maryland Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges. He was also a founding member and chairman of the Salisbury University Foundation. He participated in what was formerly known as the Sea Gull Club.

An avid duck and geese hunter, as well as a trot-line crabber, he spent many hours in retirement at the family cottage located on Brannock Bay in Dorchester County known as “Point of View.”

He was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth B. Moore, in 2014 and by a son, Marshall B. Moore, in 2010.

He is survived by a daughter, Clary Moore Jackson, and a son, David W. Moore, both of Salisbury; by his grandchildren, Lauren H. Duffy, Devin B. Holland, Lindsey M. Hall, Lisa M. Nicoll, Jennifer Moore, and Alexander D. Moore; and by his great-grandchildren, Alana Duffy, Carter Duffy, Ava Holland, Lila Holland, Levi Hall, and Alden Nicoll.

A funeral service was held Monday at Asbury United Methodist Church in Salisbury.

Dudley-Eshbach said Moore’s business acumen was especially beneficial to the university.

“In 1973, Mr. Moore and others envisioned the Foundation as an institutional nexus for conducting educational and charitable activities to benefit the campus. They believed in the vitality of the college and wanted to help it reach its greatest potential,” she said.

“Over the next 33 years, Mr. Moore assisted in growing the University’s fundraising arm from a few thousand dollars to some $38 million when he retired in 2006. He also is credited with pushing forward some of the Foundation’s real estate investment efforts, knowing properties such as the Allenwood shopping center (now Sea Gull Square) would be needed in the future.”