San Francisco Chronicle (CA) - November 29, 2005
Deceased Name: Ernest J. Moore -- former 'Ritchie Boy'
Ernest J. Moore, who fled Germany in 1934 and later joined the U.S. Army as an intelligence operative to help defeat the Nazis during World War II, has died at his home in Palo Alto.

Mr. Moore, 86, died Nov. 18 after a short illness. He had been a career executive at SRI International in Menlo Park and had also been president of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

Mr. Moore was a member of "The Ritchie Boys," a group of transplanted Germans who joined the U.S. armed services during the war and were trained at Camp Ritchie, Md., in the black arts of intelligence gathering, psychological warfare and prisoner-of-war interrogation. The derring-do of the Ritchie Boys was highlighted in a well-received documentary made by a German filmmaker and released about two years ago.

Mr. Moore was born Ernst Hans Moos in Stuttgart. He was part of a Jewish family that by 1934 was forced to leave its homeland -- moving first to Belgium, where Mr. Moore became fluent in French, and then to England, where he mastered English. Mr. Moore took a bachelor's degree from the University of London, and his family emigrated to the United States in 1941, settling in San Francisco, where he changed his name to Ernest J. Moore.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in November 1942 -- the war interrupted his electrical engineering studies at UC Berkeley -- and, after basic training, he was sent to Camp Ritchie. There, he joined other native-born Germans who had become American citizens. After training at Camp Ritchie, Mr. Moore was flown to England and stationed first in Northern Ireland, then in England.

Landing in Normandy a few days after D-Day in June 1944, Mr. Moore "trudged through France, Belgium and then into Germany," according to his wife, Ursula Moore. Because of his expertise in electronics, Mr. Moore drove an elaborately equipped truck crammed with electronic gear. He was assigned to install electronic eavesdropping devices in the cells of captured Germans so the Allies could listen in on the prisoners of war and gain vital intelligence about enemy troop deployments and intentions.

Mr. Moore also "wired up" the cells of high-ranking Nazis who would eventually be defendants at the war crimes trials in Nuremberg, his wife said.

In the spring of 1945, after Germany surrendered unconditionally, Mr. Moore was assigned to the tiny town of Oberursel, not far from Karlsruhe, where he was raised. Mr. Moore's U.S. Army office was right across the street from a factory where his father had been a director.

After the war, Mr. Moore returned to Cal for his doctorate in electrical engineering and in 1950 moved to Palo Alto and joined the fledgling Stanford Research Institute, now known as SRI International. He retired in 1984 as vice president and then joined the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology when it was in Menlo Park. It is now in Palo Alto. On its Web site, www.itp.edu, the institute describes itself as a "leader at the forefront of psychological research and education, probing the mind, body, spirit connection."

Mr. Moore retired in 1989, his family said, but continued to serve as a trustee for the organization. He was also a trustee (including two terms as president of the board) of the Palo Alto Unitarian Church.

In addition to his wife, Ursula Moore of Palo Alto, Mr. Moore is survived by a sister, Ruth Schrag of San Francisco; three daughters, Barbara Ellis of Danville, Ginni Davis of Davis and Jacqueline Moore of Berkeley; and nine grandchildren.

A memorial service will take place at 4 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Palo Alto Unitarian Church, 505 East Charleston Road, Palo Alto.

The family suggests contributions to the Ernest J. Moore Memorial Scholarship Endowment Fund, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 1069 E. Meadow Circle, Palo Alto 94303.

More information about the Ritchie Boys' exploits can be found at the Web site www.ritchieboys.com.