Remembering Moore Industries founder Leonard W. Moore

Leonard W. Moore (Len), founder and owner of Moore Industries-International, passed away on September 6, 2019 at the age of 85.

The automation control company serves a variety of industries such as chemical, pulp and paper, food and beverage, mining, and industrial machinery and equipment.

Moore was born November 26, 1933 in Hazelton, Iowa, where he attended elementary through high school. At the age of 16 he graduated high school and then attended Iowa State University where he obtained a BS in Electrical Engineering.

After graduating college, Moore entered the Army in 1953 as a weapons guidance specialist and spent time at Fort Sill, OK and Fort Bliss, TX. He then trained and taught soldiers how to operate, calibrate and repair various guidance and artillery weapon systems. This was when Moore realized he had a passion for instruments and control circuits.

In 1968 he founded Moore Industries-International, Inc. in North Hills, California. Starting out in a small office with one employee and a very small budget, Moore set out to design the most rugged industrial instrument solutions that he knew the industry needed. He used to say that at Moore Industries “we are an engineering company that solves customers’ problems by manufacturing bulletproof solutions.”

Beginning with one instrument, the SCT Signal Converter and Isolator, Moore and his “troops” (the term that he used for the company’s employees) went on to design, build and support more than 225 different products that isolate, protect, convert, alarm, monitor, control and interface with any industrial or automation control and monitoring system. Moore often said, “the best compliment we can get from our customers is that they forgot about our products or solutions because they performed so well that they just plain forgot they were ever installed.”

The company continues to manufacture 100 per cent of its products at this USA location, something Moore insisted upon. With two acquisitions, more than 19 industry-associated patents, 200 employees and remote offices located in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and China, the company continues to engineer, design, manufacture and support existing and new products for worldwide process control and automation customers.

In 2009 Moore was inducted into the ISA’s group of Honorary Members – individuals whose support of, and/or contributions to, the advancement of the arts and sciences of instrumentation, systems and automation are deserving of special recognition. Moore was also a professional engineer, had a private contractor’s license and was a pioneer and cornerstone for the industry.

Moore is survived by his three sons: Tony and his companion Sonnie, Nick, and Chris and his wife Deanna; his grandsons Nick, Matthew, Justin and Christopher; and his longtime companion Christine Hulfish.