Barry Walter Moore, chair of Towson University department of electronic media and film, dies

Barry Walter Moore, a retired Towson University professor who had been chair of the department of electronic media and film, died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease April 26 at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. The Towson and Loch Raven Village resident was 76.

Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of Benjamin Moore, an engineering designer, and Esther Smith, a homemaker. He was a 1964 graduate of Springfield High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in American studies at Penn State University and a doctorate in film studies at the University of Michigan.

While in Ann Arbor, he met his future wife, Colleen Mazur. They married in 1977.

Barry Walter Moore was an amateur photographer, and loved detective novels and Los Angeles. (handout)

A year later they moved to Baltimore’s Bolton Hill, where Mr. Moore started his career as a professor of film studies at what was then called Towson State University.

“Over the next 30 years, he saw the university grow, and with it, he led the expansion of the film program to become chairperson of the newly formed department of electronic media and film,” said his son, Ian Moore.

“Barry was a principal architect of creating the department,” said a university colleague, Michael Angelella. “He taught students who went on to become noted film professionals. He inspired a student, Mike Flanagan, who went on to be a successful film director [”Dr. Sleep” and “Gerald’s Game”] and Shelly Strong, a film producer. In my view, his role at our institution was legendary.

“In this landscape of academia, he studied management and had a proactive, take charge mentality. He ruffled feathers and he got things done. Our department became bigger, stronger faster.”

Said Ian Moore: “My father’s dedication to his students and his love of teaching were evident to everyone who knew him. He was known for his passion for film and his ability to make even the most complex creative concepts accessible to his students.”

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His son said Mr. Moore “did not like the pomp and circumstance associated with academia.”

“My father was an accomplished amateur photographer and a lover of Bob Dylan, Los Angeles, film noir and hard-boiled detective novels by Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy,” Ian Moore said. “He was known for his coffee and cigarette addictions. He quit smoking cold turkey upon being diagnosed with COPD in 2017.

“My father had a passion for street photography, often venturing into areas of Baltimore to capture the faces of its people there. He was interested in the daily lives of those in the vicinity of the [2015] Freddie Gray incident. He empathized with the unhoused and with people from different walks of life from his.”

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Another Towson University colleague, Peter Lev, said: “We often visited the Baltimore Museum of Art together. He thought the [American artist Richard] Diebenkorn exhibit was excellent and went twice. He had 6,000 photographs of the eccentric personalities he’d meet on the street on his computer.

“Barry liked folk rock music and was responsible for changes in programming at the Towson radio station, WTMD. He was involved in making it more community-based with an alternative rock format,” Mr. Lev said.

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Dr. Robert Irving Levy was a pioneering nephrologist, World War II Navy veteran and classical pianist.

“He was in seventh heaven when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize [in 2016],” Mr. Lev added.

Mr. Moore was a cat fancier who had an affection for his pet, Warren.

“My father was the only one Warren loved,” his son said.

A celebration of his life is being planned for June at Towson University.

Survivors include his son, Ian Moore of Fall City, Washington, and two grandchildren. His wife, Colleen Mazur Moore, a music columnist for magazines and assistant at Stoneleigh Elementary School, died in 2014.