Dan Moore was born on April 2, 1906 in Asheville. He died on September 7, 1986 at the age of 80.  He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1927 with Phi Beta Kappa honors in business and spent one year studying law... He practiced law in Sylva before serving in the NC House of Representatives from 1941 to 1943. During that time he also served as an attorney for Jackson County and the local school board. In 1948 Moore was appointed, and in 1950, elected to the state Superior Court. He served until 1958 when he resigned and became counsel of Champion Papers. Moore was elected Governor in 1965. He is credited with maintaining domestic tranquility in North Carolina during the turbulent civil rights’ times of lunch counter sit-ins and campus activity. At the end of his one-term he was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1969, and elected to a full term in 1970. He served in that capacity until 1978, when he reached the mandatory retirement After retiring from the Supreme Court he joined the Raleigh law firm of Ragsdale, Liggett, and Cheshire. During World War II Moore was a paratrooper in Europe.