MOYER, Theodora Albree Moyer (“Tat”) of Bucks County, Pa., passed away peacefully from natural causes at Cedarbrook Fountainhill Senior Care in Bethlehem, Pa., on Dec. 16, 2022.
She is survived by her sons Brett, his partner Jacqui Duong, David, and Jon, and his wife Juhie, along with nine grandchildren and one great grandchild. She was the daughter of the late Walter T. Tower Sr. and Theodora A. Tower of West Newton, Mass., the brother of the late Walter T. Tower Jr., and the wife of the late Gerald V. Moyer (“Jerry”). She is survived by her siblings Katherine B. Tower (Carter) and Samuel F. Tower.
Tat was born at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, Mass., on March 23, 1934. She was raised in West Newton, Mass., and graduated Newton High School in 1952. She attended Beloit College, Beloit, Wis., and graduated in 1956 with a degree in anthropology. After college she moved to Lebanon, Pa., while working for the YMCA and met her late husband Jerry, a U.S. Navy World War II veteran. They were married in 1957 and were together for 31 years until his death in 1988. They moved from Lebanon, Pa., to Springfield Township, Bucks County, Pa., in 1962 where they lived most of their life on Springtown Hill while Jerry worked for Bethlehem Steel Corporation as a design draftsman at Homer Research Labs.
While raising three young children and teaching kindergarten half days in a one-room school house in Pleasant Valley, Pa., which was part of Springfield Elementary School, Palisades School District, Tat earned a master’s degree in Education from Lehigh University and graduated in 1970. While at Lehigh, she studied under acclaimed early childhood author, educator and anthologist, adjunct professor Nancy Larrick (Crosby) and was pictured teaching in her book “Crazy to be Alive in Such a Strange World, Poems About People” (M. Evans And Co., Inc, New York, NY 1977). Tat was always fond of teaching young children and taught kindergarten in the one-room school house beginning in 1966 for 14 years prior to moving to the main building at Springfield Elementary School.
In 1986, administrators of the Palisades School District nominated Tat for State Teacher of The Year Award and she was recognized as a Top Ten Finalist for Teacher of The Year by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education, which culminated in an award ceremony at the Governor’s Reception Room in Harrisburg, Pa., hosted by then Gov. Richard L. Thornburgh and his wife Ginny on Oct. 31, 1986.
Tat taught kindergarten for Palisades School District for 30 years before retiring in June of 1996. Upon retirement, Tat was drafted to run as a write-in candidate for the Springfield Township representative of the Palisades District School Board where she won her first term and garnered 80% of the vote. She served on the Palisades School Board for 12 years from 1997 to 2009 including two terms as president, and nine years on the Upper Bucks County Technical School Board as the Palisades District representative, including two years as chairperson. During her tenure on the Palisades School Board she selected and supported the late Francis V. Barnes, Ph.D., then superintendent, and his administration’s initiatives to transform Palisades High School from what was an unremarkable small rural farm school into a nationally ranked Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education (2001-2002).
Tat was an outdoor enthusiast and loved her cabin on Upper Lead Mountain Pond, Aurora, Maine, where she spent each summer to kayak, canoe, hike, bike and camp. In addition, she was very spiritual, a devote Quaker, and volunteered regularly at the Quakertown Food Bank, Quakertown, Pa.
Memorial services will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers and remembrances please make a charitable contribution to the Quakertown Food Bank or the Richland Friends Meeting, Quakertown, Pa.
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