Additional Games
- Game, Thomas Elmer Moon vs. William Allen Ruth, Washington Birthday Tournament, Y.M.C.A., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1920.
Thomas Elmer Moon
January 15, 1889 - February 26, 1976
First, Middle and Last Name: Thomas Elmer Moon |
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Date of Birth: January 16, 1889 |
Date of Death: February 26, 1976 |
Name of Father: Thomas Moon |
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Name of Mother: Anna Moffett |
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Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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Education: |
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Military Enlistment: Enlistment date November 28, 1917 Discharge date December 14, 1918 |
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Occupation(s): Engineer; General Electric and Western Electric Companies |
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Residence(s): (1916-1942) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; (1950) Englewood, New Jersey; (1956) Norfolk, Virginia; (d.) 1976, Norfolk, Virginia; Greenwood Crematory, Richmond, Virginia |
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Spouse(s): Marguerite B. Moon |
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Siblings: |
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Children: |
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Other: |
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May 14 1916
The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tennessee, Sunday, May 14, 1916
THREE COMING PLAYERS.
The news comes from Philadelphia of three talented young chess players, Edward S. Jackson, Roland H. Horner and T. E. Moon. Edward Jackson in the championship tournament of the Pennsylvania Chess Association, at the Franklin Chess Club, tied with Sydney T. Sharp for first place, but the latter won in the play-off.
Young Jackson is a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Roland Horner also made a good record in the tourney and T. E. Moon has the honor of having played the most brilliant game in the tourney.
Malcolm Sims, the champion of Toronto, is conducting a chess department in the Canadian Courier.
With so many live-wire departments now we can stir up all kinds of matches. From the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to New Orleans let the editors keep the players busy.
The Brooklyn Chess Club is enjoying a series of simultaneous exhibitions by prominent club members.
The first was given by F. K. Perkins, the champion, the next by C. S. Howell and George Schweitzer and Herman Helms was scheduled to hold forth last night.
1917
U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 for Thomas Elmer Moon
1918
Pennsylvania, U.S., World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1948 for Thomas Elmer Moon
Pennsylvania, U.S., World War I Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1948 for Thomas E Moon
April 24 1918
Trench and Camp, Augusta, Georgia, Wednesday, April 24, 1918
Attention Chess Players.
Sergeant Moon of Ordnance Depot requests all chess players report to him at Y. M. C. A. Tent No. 234.
1942
U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 for Thomas Elmer Moon
January 16 1950
The Record, Hackensack, New Jersey, Monday, January 16, 1950
CHESS TOURNEY BEING RESUMED
Bohrer, Keeney Paired For Tomorrow Night
Rochelle Park - The adjourned game between W. A. Bohrer and R. D. Keeney in the last round of the County Judge A. Demorest Del Mar Chess Tournament will be resumed tomorrow night at the Irvin G. Herman home, 18 Terrace Avenue.
The match was started between these two contestants Friday night the Hackensack Y-for-All and after running 40 moves had to be suspended because of time limitations. Bohrer sealed his last move and deposited it with Ernest W. Tyler, chairman of the tournament committee. At the adjournment Keeney was reported a slight edge in position.
Robert Deacon of Bogota was scheduled to play. Walter Dill of Little Ferry on Friday but was unable to be present. These two contestants will be paired off tomorrow night.
Tyler, a vice-president of the Bergen and Passaic County Checker and Chess Players Association and in charge of chess activities, announced today that the annual chess tournament of that organization to get under way during the latter part of this month. William Guissanie, captain of the chess team, is now making up schedule of team matches to be played against a number of out-of-town clubs. The contests will be played at Rochelle Park.
Thomas Moon of Englewood, the blind chess player of the Northern Valley Chess Club, now sojourning in Florida, is reported to be taking part in a chess tournament being held by one of the southern clubs. Moon is one of the regular members of the Northern Valley Chess team which meets at Hackensack Y-for-All and is rated as a top player. He was formerly chess champion of Pennsylvania.
February 19 1950
Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Florida, Sunday, February 19, 1950
Blind Master Of Chess Play Visits Divan
Capt. T. E. Moon of DeLand was a welcome visitor yesterday at the local chess divan. Capt. Moon is totally blind and it was interesting to see how he managed his game.
He has a specially constructed board with raised surfaces between the squares and the chess men are constructed half of wood and half of aluminum which enables him to instantly tell the differences by relative weight and coolness.
With these mechanical aids, plus a good memory and photographic mind, he is able to play a cracking good chess game, “I bet cha” as little Betty Lou would say.
CAPT. MOON had a most enviable record in tournament and simultaneous play before his disability and still retains his “edge”.
Col. F. E. Lynch has recently joined the ranks of “Chess Review” postal players. Also among the postalities who are members of the chess divan are Frank Power, Albert Mailhot, Emil Olin, Captain Moon and Marc Gureff. In competition are players from all over the United States, Canada and abroad, numbering some 3,500 postalite master, ranking among the top fifteen players and is now competing in the finals for the Golden Knight chief prizes.
September 02 1950
Orlando Evening Star, Orlando, Florida, Saturday, September 02, 1950
State Chess Tourney Here
Notables Attend Champion Play
Among the notables attending the Florida Chess Championship Tournament being held here through Monday is Major J. B. Holt, Sarasota, president of the Correspondence League of America.
This League, the oldest in America, began about 1900, Major Holt said. Its early history includes games being carried from one section of the country to another by stage coaches.
HIGHLIGHT OF LAST night's first round match was a game between Mary Bain, former national women's champion and Don Dyal, former Florida State champion. Apparently having lost to Dyal, Miss Bain continued the game and finished with a draw.
Arthur Montano, Tampa, and Horace P. Taylor, Jacksonville and Stetson University champion, played the shortest game of the evening: 14 moves in 15 minutes. The usual game is 40 moves in two hours for each player. Montano was the winner.
T. E. Moon, blind ex-champion of Pennsylvania, is one of the participants in the tournament.
One game was started this morning. Others began at 1 p.m. this afternoon. A total of seven rounds will be played altogether as the series continues through Monday.
November 28 1956
Ledger-Star, Norfolk, Virginia, Wednesday, November 28, 1956
Round Robin Chess Tourney Begins Soon
NORFOLK-A full round robin tourney will begin shortly in Tidewater chess circles, the new champ announced today.
H. B. Wobus, president of the Tidewater Chess Club, said the tourney will give each player opportunity to compete with every member of the club. The group meets each Tuesday night at the YMCA. The contest will begin tentatively in two weeks.
Wobus earned the championship title in a five-month point system battle that produced six finalists. They were Wombus, G. B. Massinger of Hampton; C. B. Spencer of Portsmouth; R. H. Cross of Portsmouth; James McCarthy of Norfolk, and T. E. Moon of Norfolk.
December 18 1956
The Sentinel, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Tuesday, December 18, 1956
Eye Research Group Here Gets Recognition
By Francis Church
Staff Reporter
Thomas Elmer Moon yesterday felt like a man who finally was beginning to reap the fruits of many years of work.
The Marguerite Barr Moon Eye Research Foundation of Winston-Salem, established in honor of his wife who died more than a year ago, had received a grant from the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
The foundation was incorporated here earlier this year. Its president, Grady T. Morgan, and secretary-treasurer, Robert Marshall, are employed at the local plant of Western Electric Company.
To obtain this grant, the foundation had to “get the approval and faith” of two important medical groups associated with Institutes of Health. “You have to know what you're doing to receive such a grant,” Mr. Moon noted.
But, he pointed out, the grant of $41,000 for the next three years won't make it possible for the program to proceed at as fast a pace as originally planned—unless private funds can be obtained.
For the foundation hoped to receive $42,000 during 1957 alone.
As he put it:
“It is obvious that the foundation cannot proceed at as fast a pace as was originally laid out, nor can it set up the essential coordinate and administrative functions adequate to secure results within the time given us.
“Therefore, the foundation finds itself in a position whereby it has to solicit additional funds to complement those already given us, so we may attain these desirable humanitarian ends.”
Mr. Moon has been here this past week conferring with officials of the foundation. His home is in Norfolk, Va.
The foundation is seeking to develop tools which will mechanize delicate eye operations and thus make many people who are presently blind see again.
Mr. Moon said the foundation is currently looking for space locally where the instruments may be kept, together with suitable housing for the animals necessary for current experiments with the tools.
“And we would appreciate the cooperation of local organizations in searching for this housing. We want to place Winston-Salem at the forefront in this eye research program.”
Mr. Moon conceived the idea of the instruments some 10 years ago shortly after he went blind. He got financial and moral encouragement from his family, Western electric officials and engineers and surgeons and ophthalmologists.
“We had to perfect these instruments where it wouldn't hurt. The ophthalmologists told us our limitations.’
What turned out to be a significant time in the development of these instruments occurred in September, 1955, when principals in the project appeared before the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness in Bethesda, Md.
“Robert Marshall (secretary-treasurer of the foundation), Rudy G. Polivka and Joseph Malik of the Western Electric plant here and myself gave a lecture, blackboard demonstration and physical demonstration and on rabbits before some 20 research ophthalmic surgeons connected with the institute.”
Later the National Advisory Council for Neurological Diseases and Blindness, consisting of approximately 200 surgeons located over the whole United States were brought together in three groups—one on the West Coast, another in the Plains States and the other on the Eastern Seaboard.
“These surgeons approved the original recommendations made by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness in Bethesda, Md.”
And the foundation thus had its federal grant.
Mr. Moon believes it takes the hands of engineers to perfect these tools to perform better eye operations. But, he stresses further, “the physician must have the skill and judgment to do the actual operation.”
Thus, the foundation is working closely with ophthalmologists (eye surgeons) both here and at the well-known Wills Eye Clinic in Philadelphia, Pa.
August 03 1961
The Herald-Sun, Durham, North Carolina, Thursday, August 03, 1961
Blind Engineer Will Get Medal For Contribution
NEW YORK (UPI)-A blind engineer who developed a machine to help transplant - eye corneas will receive the 1961 Holley Medal, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers announced Wednesday.
Thomas Elmer Moon, 72, of Philadelphia and Winston-Salem, N.C., will be presented with the ASME's medal at the group's winter meeting here in November. Moon worked for General Electric Co. and Western Electric Co. before he became blind in 1945.
The professional group said Moon's major contribution which earned him the award “for an act of genius that accomplishes a great and timely public benefit” was the corneal transplant device. It gives surgeons great control and precision and provides a better chance for a successful operation.
Moon has devoted himself to developing devices on behalf of the blind since losing his sight 16 years ago. He founded the Margaret Barr Moon Foundation in Winston-Salem to finance this work.
The foundation also has aided in the development of a device for surgically removing skin cancer, an ultrasonic guidance system for the blind and an improved electrical soldering iron.
February 26 1976
Virginia, U.S., Death Records, 1912-2014 for Thomas Elmer Moon
Moon, Thomas Elmer ➦ bio + additional games
January 15, 1889 - February 26, 1976
