In tribute: Terry Moberly remembered for service, kindness

Terry Moberly is remembered as putting the needs of others and the communities he served before his own and for having fun doing it.

He led his family in the operation of Moberly Moving and Storage from 1976, when Moberly and his wife Mary Jo bought the company from Moberly's father,  until his death on June 21.

Family and those Moberly worked with in community affairs agreed Moberly was warm and friendly person who could get things done.

"It was the joy of his life to be funny, to have fun and be joyful," his widow Mary Jo Moberly said, "and to do for others."

"He was the party," she added. "When he showed up, the party began.  He just liked fun."

He even made work fun, Mary Jo said.

"If you messed up, he made a joke of it," she said.

That was important to his home life, Mary Jo said, because they worked together for 47 years, "and I would go home with him, too."

Mary Jo added that employees, too, would get help from Moberly in times of need, even with buying a house.

Moberly's attitude spread to his family, especially on weekends when the family would travel to Ute Lake or Conchas Lake while weather held out, and to Purgatory, Colorado, for skiing in the winter, Mary Jo said.

"On Friday afternoons we'd have the car packed up and as soon as work ended, we would be on our way," she said. 

Moberly's background was in computers, Mary Jo said, and that was useful in the moving business, which can involve complex logistics, and Moberly showed generosity even to competitors.

"He wrote a computer program and shared it with all his competitors," Mary Jo said.

To Mary Jo, an only child, Moberly's close family was refreshing. Terry Moberly stayed close his mother and father, as well as to his sister.

"I loved being around the family," she said, and the Moberlys were "always around family."

The Moberlys' moving business almost exclusively served military families moving into and out of Cannon Air Force Base.

Terry Moberly "was very partial to military families, and he took pride in the operation," Mary Jo said.

The Moberlys were active in community activities, especially those that involved Cannon AFB.

Terry Moberly chaired the Committee of 50 in 2005, when Cannon was on the U.S. government's list of military bases to be closed.

The committee was a factor in keeping Cannon open as special operations base, its current status. Later, Moberly served on a subcommittee that helped to add the Melrose Bombing Range's 600 acres to the base.

But Moberly was also quite active in other community affairs, serving on the Clovis-Curry County Chamber of Commerce, and the Clovis Planning and Zoning Commission.

Ernie Kos, executive director of Clovis Economic Development, said that while she served with Moberly on the Committee of 50, she learned that Moberly was the kind of leader who would "include everybody and affirm the people working for him."

In a remembrance of Moberly on Facebook, Kos recalled, "There are so many high level photos of Terry with generals. governors, wing commanders, politicians and airmen."

But there was also a photo that showed Moberly helping out in a very different way. Within the Committee of 50 photo collection, she wrote on Facebook, "is a fun photo of Terry making himself sick to win the pancake eating contest."

Moberly was also a leader who "could make you work without you realizing you were working," Kos said on Thursday. "I learned a lot from him."

Also during that time, Kos said, there were six women working at the Chamber of Commerce, while Moberly was chair.

Kos recalled on Friday, the female staff were called the "Chamber Chicks," and they called Moberly "Rooster."

In her Facebook post, Kos noted that during that time Mary Jo Moberly was always at her husband's side, and "together they were the best leadership team."

Carolyn Spence, now a member of the Clovis Community College board of directors, remembers when she served with Moberly on the Clovis Planning and Zoning Commission.

As a planning commissioner, she said, Moberly "was always looking for what he could do for the whole community" and would ask how any commission decision would "affect the whole."

Spence said Moberly was "diligent" in his duties for the commission and "was always very helpful, even excessively helpful."

Spence and Moberly did not agree on everything, Spence said.

"We had some strong debates on a few things," she said.

She remembered that Moberly showed his debating skill on a question of whether Clovis residents should be allowed to own chickens.

"He thought owning chickens was beneficial," she said.

Luckily, Spence said, she and Moberly were both "pro-chicken," and the chicken owners prevailed.

 Moberly was born in Clovis, according to his obituary, and, except for three years in which he played football on scholarship at Southwestern State University from 1971 to 1973, he lived in Clovis.

Mary Jo said that Jason Moberly, the oldest of Moberly's children, is now in charge of day-to-day operations of Moberly Moving and Storage, but she keeps her hand in the business.

Moberly coached his son Jason's sports teams and even attended his daughter Jessica's dance recitals, according to his obituary.

Spence remembered Moberly mostly for "always having a service orientation," she said.

Kos mostly remembers Moberly's "kindness."

"I miss him a lot," Kos said.