AUGUST 2001
DONOR LOVES BASEBALL, CARS AND FREE ENTERPRISE
It's not easy to get DeVoe Moore to
talk about money. Motives, yes. Money, no.
Not that he hasn't given a lot of it to Florida State University.
Just this past year, he chipped in a cool $2 million to help
restore and expand the Dick Howser baseball stadium.
The improvements - still on the drawing board - will include boosting seating from about 4,700 to more than 6,000, upgrading the clubhouse and press box, and a new Hall of Fame, according to Bernie Wax-man, assistant athletic director.
That gift comes on top of the more than $5 million Moore previously gave, most of it to study the effects of government regulation on free enterprise.
Ask Moore about all that money $7.5 to $8 million at last count and he'll gloss over his latest donation for the stadium with ho-hum quick answers.
But drop a question about the government subject, and he's off and running, this time in the direction of a car.
The 1948 hunter green Tucker sits at his Antique Car Museum, a project he says was born out of forced idleness after the government shut down one of his development projects.
Here, the machines aren't just a fascination for Moore; they're a symbol, steel and chrome monuments, to one man's passion for innovation and against what he views as his government's attempts to cripple him.
The struggle is embodied in the Tucker, one of Moore's most prized possessions.
He tells a story of the car's demise because the U.S. government and the Big Three Detroit automakers crushed an upstart's vision for a safer form of transportation.
And he hates for history to repeat itself.
"I don't despise government," insists the well-known Tallahassee entrepreneur. "What I do have a problem with is the bureaucrats that are extremists."
His determination to educate people on the impact of government on business inspired him in 1998 to give FSU $5 million to create the DeVoe L. Moore Center for the Study of Critical Issues in Economic Policy and Government.
"That school is not going to do DeVoe Moore any good," he said, "but hopefully it'll make the system better to help the youth that's coming up."
In the meantime, officials are touting his lead in giving
to athletes.
"We need people stepping up (to the plate), and obviously,
Devoe did," Waxman said. - Michelle Hayes
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