Robert Lee Moore - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

In 1987 various unknown and unnamed engineering gear-heads and geeks stole Old Alec, the lontime and lawfully-purchased property of the University of Texas Law School.

We responded by suing the aforementioned unknown and unnamed engineering gear-heads and geeks, and informed the court that defendants could be served with notice of this lawsuit at the towering brown eyesore otherwise known as Robert L. Moore Hall. See: (visit link)

The gear-heads responded that they were merely retrieving their property originally stolen by law students and requested a permanent injunction. We counterclaimed, and etc etc etc.

The court dismissed all the petitions, and hoped the students would figure it out.

(No, really -- I have a copy of the filings! I was a first year law student at the time. We were all INCREDIBLY offended!)

Long story short: As of 2016 Old Alec is still a prisoner, deep in the bowels of RLM. And he's still ours. (visit link)

All of that to say: in 2016 I am learning from the historic marker in front of his house that Robert Lee Moore was a great man and brilliant professor, even if the engineering geeks infesting his namesake building are squeaks and scoundrels.

Marker Number: 14321 Marker Text: (1882-1974) Dallas-born Robert Lee “R.L.” Moore was a noted figure in the new generation of American-educated researchers of science in the early 20th century. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning both bachelors and masters degrees in 1901. In 1905, he graduated with a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago, which had a renowned department of research mathematics. After his studies, Moore taught at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Princeton University and Northwestern University. In 1910, he married Margaret MacLellan Key, and the two moved to Philadelphia, where Dr. Moore took a position at the University of Pennsylvania. Here he developed a teaching method where he gave students assumptions and gradually introduced hypotheses which they had to prove or disprove. This pedagogy, whose roots are in the socratic and inquiry-based models, became known as the moore method. In 1920, Dr. Moore started a five-decade long career as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, living in this house (originally located one block west) for most of that time. He guided forty-seven students to doctoral degrees and conducted research, including his principal work, foundations of point set theory (1932). He published over 60 papers on this topic, establishing a branch of topology. Moore was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1932) and named president of the American Mathematical Society (1937). He retired in 1969, and in 1973, the university named a newly constructed building for him (R.L. Moore hall). Today, Dr. R.L. Moore is remembered as a prominent mathematics researcher, an influential teacher and a mentor to students who would become leading mathematics figures themselves. (2008) Marker is property of the state of Texas

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