Tom Moan (1940-1985)

Tom Moan's friends and colleagues created the Tom Moan Memorial Award soon after Tom's death in 1985, in memory of Tom's long career as a child welfare caseworker and administrator. The award is intended to recognize and promote leadership and outstanding achievement by caseworkers in the field of child welfare. It honors the same type of commitment to that field that Tom admired and embodied. 

Tom was born in Glenwood, Minnesota in 1940. After graduating from the University of Minnesota, he moved to Eugene, Oregon, where he began work in 1965 as a caseworker for the Lane County Welfare Department. He received an MSW in 1968 from Rutgers University, where he was named the outstanding student in his MSW class. He then returned to the Welfare Department, serving as an intake unit supervisor. 

In 1971, Tom was appointed regional manager for Region 4 of the newly created statewide Children's Services Division. In 1981, he was appointed CSD's Deputy Director, and he filled that role for three years. At the time of his death from cancer in 1985, he was the agency coordinator for the licensing of residential care facilities. 

Tom believed an effective approach to child welfare required the combined efforts not only of CSD workers, but of other institutions, community organizations, and individuals. Tom was a board member with the National Conference on Social Welfare and served on over a dozen county and state boards, including the Governor's Task Force on Juvenile Corrections. He taught for years as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon. Tom also served as the first director of Planned Parenthood in Lane County. 
 
Tom recognized that those most committed to child welfare often go unrecognized. In 1973, he wrote that "as an administrator, I sit in an unusual place. Few praises reach my ears, either about my performance or the staff at CSD. Rather, I get my attention called more often towards problems, whether they be contracts needing writing, kooky complaints, budgetary concerns, or some problem bearing on CSD and another agency." 

It is also worth noting that Tom viewed himself as an advocate for children, and that he was willing to emphasize children's interests even when that emphasis brought him into conflict with others in the community or with others in state government. 

Tom was devoted to his own children. As a divorced father with custody of his daughter Tamara and son Rolf throughout most of the 1970s, he was something of an anomaly. Upon marrying for a second time, he then experienced the challenges and rewards of helping to raise his stepdaughters Shelley and Heather as well.

One of the last things Tom said to his children, while he was in the hospital with cancer in 1985, was "Always use your brains and your compassion, especially with children."