Kay Moran: Civic engagement, volunteerism, and a reporter’s instinct
Kay Moran
Civic engagement, volunteerism, and a reporter’s instinct
Can you talk about where you were born?
I am a native Washingtonian. To those who live on the east coast, that is Washington, D.C. I was raised in the NW section of D.C and attended public schools, K-12. It was the true, “taxation without representation.” At that time, my parents and all residents of Washington, D.C. did not have the vote. The 23rd Amendment changed that in 1961, although that only allowed the citizens of D.C. to choose electors in the presidential elections.
Even today, with a locally elected mayor and a 13-member council, Congress maintains full authority over the city and can overturn local laws. The district has no representation in the Senate and while there is an elected at large delegate to the House of Representatives, they don’t have a vote.
What do you think was the biggest lesson you learned living in D.C.?
I think perhaps the unfairness of not having representation. Very early on you were aware that you had no say at all, no local government. It was entirely Congress that ran D.C.
The next decade was certainly packed with significant moments. Can you share this path?
I left D.C. in 1960 to attend Brown University, where I majored in history. Brown is also where I met my husband Charlie who was a graduate student in English. We got married a week after I graduated in 1964. Then we moved to Wallingford, CT when Charlie got a job teaching at the Choate School. At that point, all that remained for him to receive his Ph.D. was his dissertation. We lived in the dormitories at Choate for two years, - which at the time was an all-boys school - and I enrolled at Wesleyan University in the MAT program.
When I became pregnant with my son, we made the decision to move back to Providence during the final year that Charlie was finishing his dissertation. Then we moved to Amherst when Charlie got a job teaching 18th-century British Literature in the English Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Two years later we had our second child, our daughter. We remained in Amherst for 51 years.
Can you talk more about life in Amherst, Massachusetts?
It was a lovely place to live and raise our children. There were so many cultural events and interesting people. Charlie and I did choral singing almost from the beginning of moving there. First in a big chorus and then we were invited to join a small, chamber chorus, Da Camera Singers. I sang in this group for more than 30 years.
You also served on the Board of a local HMO. Can you talk about that?
I was elected to the board of Valley Health Plan, an HMO that had started in our area. At the first meeting, I was elected Vice Chair and then, six months later, the Chair died, and I became Chair. I am a strong believer that we should have a single-payer system, although recognize that it won’t happen in my lifetime. This HMO was established with about 22,000 members and needed to grow to spread the risk. Eventually they merged with Kaiser Permanente to gain the strength of numbers. It was a deep and unexpected immersion into an industry that I was unfamiliar with, and what I learned was fascinating.
When did you begin to pursue journalism?
This was in 1978, about ten years after we moved to Amherst. I had been very active – and for a time served as President with the local chapter of the League of Women Voters, which was very outward looking at what the government was doing, both local and state. My kids had started school, and I answered a want ad for a local correspondent for the small town that I lived in and started freelancing.
The paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette is based in Northampton and was founded in 1786, making it one of the oldest newspapers in the country. When I first began I was working for the weekly magazine, writing features. Then the editor in chief took a sabbatical and I was moved over to the daily as an editor for the area region. From there I became the business editor, and then, I was the editorial page editor for five years.
You mention that being the editorial page editor was challenging. Can you expand on that?
The Daily Hampshire Gazette was a small newspaper and there was an editorial every day, preferably on a local subject. This meant coming up with an opinion five or six days a week on a local subject. It was a lot of work, and very intense.
After five years and many opinions later, I went back to being a reporter and began covering the town government in Amherst, as well as the fire and police departments. It was fascinating and fast-paced. You never knew when something was going to happen. I learned so much, especially about how fire departments, including ambulances and EMT’s work. After 25 years at the paper, I eventually retired in 2003, the same year that Charlie retired.
After journalism you continued with civic volunteerism?
Yes. After retiring, I volunteered for more than a decade to be a warden in one of the voting districts within Amherst. It was most certainly a continuation of my experience with the League of Women Voters. Assisting others to participate in the democratic process was volunteer work that was both useful and important. Often, however, I witnessed how confusing it was for many people because the ballots were at times complicated with numerous candidates and measures. Our role though was only to oversee and monitor the voting process of that particular district, not to offer advice or opinions.
In contrast, the vote-by-mail system in Oregon allows voters the opportunity to review the ballot in the privacy of their home, to seek out information and do the necessary research to make informed decisions. While I miss the social aspect of voting in person and the thrill of witnessing the democratic process, the vote-by-mail system allows me the time to think about my choices.
Can you talk about your election to Amherst Town Meeting including 12 years on the Finance Committee?
The Town of Amherst had a five person Select Board who were elected officials who oversaw the Town Manager. The Town Manager ran the day-to-day operations. This was a very old New England structure. There was an annual town meeting and then a special town meeting in the fall. After I retired from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, I served on the Finance Committee that was advisory to the Town Meeting, including serving as the Chair for several years. We reviewed the town manager’s budget, met with the various departments, and then wrote a report for the Town Meeting and spoke at Town Meetings in favor of budgetary items or initiatives.
What brought you to Portland, Oregon and specially, Terwilliger Plaza?
My husband Charlie became ill and died in 2015. I knew I wanted to live in Oregon. My son Seth, a volcano seismologist lives in Camas, WA – and my daughter, Amy, is a marine biologist and she and her husband are on the faculty at The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. I also have three grandchildren. I moved here in 2018. It’s so nice being closer to my children and grandchildren.
You have also secured an apartment home in Parkview.
Currently I live in The Tower. When the plans for Parkview began to develop, I looked at the various apartment homes and decided to pursue a two-bedroom with southern exposure.
Your ethos of volunteerism has followed you to Terwilliger Plaza.
I have been on the Board of Directors since March of 2021, and currently serve as the Vice-Chair. I also serve on the Finance Committee. The responsibility is daunting at times, and yet so important. I believe that if you are in a community it is important to participate in how it works. There are many people here at Terwilliger Plaza who have served on the board at some point, and it is a component to our success to have active Members as Board Members. You live your responsibility.
I understand that you are also on the Disaster Preparedness Committee.
This is such an important committee and is being chaired by Lyn Maben with more than 15 active Members. We are developing an Operations Plans in the event of an earthquake. We all went through the neighborhood emergency team training and are now developing a plan focusing on three key elements: helping Members get prepared for emergencies, including what to stockpile and how to secure their apartment homes, as well as what to do if an earthquake did occur, including assessing people’s conditions and status, and medical first aid if necessary.
Is there a reason you gravitated towards the Disaster Preparedness Committee?
We lived in the woods for almost 26 years, in Pelham, a little town just outside of Amherst. We had running water and heat if there was electricity. At the time we didn’t have a generator. We always had to think about preparedness.
Tell us more about this house in the woods adventure.
I designed the house when my kids were little and it was built by a lumber company in Greenfield, MA. They took my scale plans and turned them into blueprints. I was inspired by a friend who had done something similar. So, I got a book from the US Government Printing Office on wood frame houses, and with graph paper began to develop a plan. We determined the layout, a simple floorplan on two levels. During the design phase, whenever we went to someone’s house, I had a tape measure in my pocket and I would pull it out to measure doors, or closets, and tub sizes so I could draw them to scale on the plan.
This must have been pre-Internet.
Yes. The resources available from the federal government were amazing.
What have you found to be the biggest difference between the East Coast and Pacific Northwest?
Other than the size of the trees? I would say that the climate is milder here in the Pacific Northwest and the vegetation is green a good majority of the time. The political feeling is similar and most importantly, living near my children and their families.