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By STAFF
WEST PALM BEACH (FBW)-Doris Moody, wife of Palm Beach Atlantic University founding president, Jess Moody, died Feb. 12.
William M.B. Fleming Jr., current president of PBA, said her commitment to Christian young people is “legendary.”
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| Doris and Jess Moody in front of the bronze likeness of Moody dedicated in 2011 at Palm Beach Atlantic University. PBA Photo |
“We will greatly miss this PBA saint,” he said.
The funeral is set for Monday, Feb. 18, at First Baptist Church in West Palm Beach, where Jess Moody served as pastor. Following the service, the funeral processional will circle PBA’s campus and then travel to Woodlawn Cemetery for the burial.
Doris Moody was born March 7, 1928, in Fort Worth, Texas. Her family attended Riverside Baptist Church in Fort Worth and in the fall of 1945 she enrolled at Baylor University in preparation for church youth work and met her husband there. They were married in 1949 and had two children, Patrick and Martha.
At Texas Baptist College, she worked for three summers as a counselor in the student department. Later, when her husband served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Owensboro, Ky., she worked behind the camera on a show called “Contact.” She also wrote for various Southern Baptist publications.
The Moodys moved to West Palm Beach in 1961 when Dr. Moody became pastor of First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach. The college opened its doors seven years later.
Doris Moody was a fixture on the college campus in its early days. In her work as the first dean of women, a job for which she was not paid, she was frequently seen carrying a clipboard as she attended to her duties, which involved serving as a mentor and confidante for the college’s female students.
According to the book “Guided by God’s Hand: PBA’s First 35 Years,” Moody was instrumental in helping to secure additional campus housing for female students in the form of a boarding house. The next year, she helped the college find another building that now houses honors students.
PBA’s Workship program, which requires all full-time undergraduate students to volunteer at least 45 hours annually, is often attributed to Jess Moody. However, in a commencement speech in 2010, he credited his wife with coming up with the idea.
To date, PBA students have contributed more than 2.5 million hours of community service through the Workship program.
Doris Moody also was instrumental in organizing an ad hoc alumni association in the years before the official one was established under PBA’s fourth president, Claude Rhea, according to Don Harp, the PBA’s first alumni director and a close friend of the Moodys.
“She would answer calls day and night. She was just very observant of things,” Harp said. “She was just a warm spirit.”
After Jess Moody stepped down as president of the college in 1972 the Moodys eventually left Florida and moved to California where Jess Moody became pastor of First Baptist Church in Van Nuys. The church later moved to Porter Ranch and became Shepherd of the Hills Church.
The Moodys are residents of West Palm Beach and Glorieta, N.M., where they have spent nearly every summer since 1953. The Moody Chapel at the LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center in Glorieta, N.M., is named in honor of Jess and Doris Moody for their service to thousands of visitors over the years.
Moody is survived by her husband and two children, Patrick Moody (wife, Amy) of Palm Beach Gardens, and Martha Moody of Santa Fe, N.M.; and three grandchildren, Christopher Stephen Moody (Washington, D.C.), Sean Adam Moody (Palm Beach Gardens), and Jessica Amelia Moody (Palm Beach Gardens).
In lieu of flowers, the Moody family encourages friends to give to the PBA Alumni Association in Doris Moody's name.
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