Charles E. Moore (left) and Isiah “Ike” Jones, both deceased, were the parents of two Upstate employees who make an annual donation to the Cancer Center in their honor.
BY JIM HOWE
A desire to preserve their fathers’ memories and to help find a cure for the lung cancer that afflicted both men inspired two Upstate employees to make a memorial donation to the Upstate Cancer Center.
That’s why the names of Chevelle Jones-Moore and her husband, Brian E. Moore, can be seen among the hundreds listed on two wall displays on the center’s ground floor.
Chenille Jones-Moore and her husband, Brian Moore, the children of the men shown above, perceive smoking as a war and encourage people not to “voluntarily enlist.”
“Hopefully, our contributions would help, in the best-case scenario, toward finding a cure, but short of that goal, to develop new forms of treatment,” says Moore, a grants and contracts administrator with the Research Foundation for SUNY whose father, Charles E. Moore, was a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service in Cleveland, Ohio.
Charles Moore shared some things in common with Jones-Moore’s father, Isiah “Ike” Jones, a factory worker at Utica Radiator in Utica. Both served in the military (Jones served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked; Moore served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany during the Korean War). Both men grew up in the South and migrated to the North, and both were smokers who died six months apart, Jones in September 2000 at age 76, and Moore in March 2001 at age 67.
Jones-Moore, who meets many cancer patients in her job as a medical social worker, says that in addition to helping keep the memory of their fathers alive, the memorial reminds her and her husband to donate annually toward finding a cure and to spread the message of how “horrendous” smoking is.
The Moores say they perceive smoking as a war, the war zone being the human body. Chevelle warns future generations: “Do not voluntarily enlist.” The couple reminds us that there are people who have successfully survived this smoking war, thanks to oncology teams such as those at the Upstate Cancer Center.
The Moores consider themselves fortunate to have the opportunity to share their memories, but as Brian reflects, “Everyone listed on the memorial wall has a story.”
While the two memorial wall displays are now closed to new names, there are many other ways to make memorial donations to the Cancer Center, including an upcoming annual wall display, ceramic plaques in the center’s Healing Garden and various naming opportunities throughout the building. For details, contact the Foundation for Upstate at 315-464-4416
The memorial wall at the Cancer Center is a reminder that donors likes the Moores hope to keep up the fight against cancer. (PHOTO BY ROBERT MESCAVAGE)
This article appears in the winter 2016 issue of Cancer Care magazine.
