Reflections of April 19, 1995, from a former Assistant to the Mayor of OKC
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — It is a place to remember.
The grounds of the Murrah Memorial attract visitors from around the world.
To people like Rick Moore, this is sacred ground where horrific memories of that day rise to the surface every spring.
'When you come here,' he states, 'you realize something special happened here.'
'Something about the date has always triggered me,' he continues. 'I don't know why but when it gets to be April 19th, I know it.'
Rick was the Assistant to OKC Mayor Ron Norick in 1995, his eyes and ears and City Hall.
He recalls coming from the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, settling briefly in his office, then rushing to the Murrah Building as the 9 o'clock hour struck and shook the world.
'Did it change your life?,' we ask.
'Totally,' he replies. 'It's one of those things you don't realize until you think about it, until to see it, and talk about it. April 19th comes and it's like something in my heart.'
Moore practically lived here and at his office for weeks.
He stayed busy in the weeks and months after with good will tours across the United States.
Items he saved, then donated to the Memorial Museum, include t-shirts, VHS tapes, pins people gave him to wear.
There is one item he still keeps at his desk, a 'God Bless Oklahoma City' placard that used to grace billboards across the state in the aftermath of April 19th.
Moore says, 'It makes me think back to that time.'
The is one more reminder too, in the form of whiskers gone grey.
Recalling 1995, 'So one day I finally got to go home and kind of clean up and shower. My wife said, 'I like your beard.' And like any man understands, what my wife liked, stayed.'
From annual remembrance ceremonies to items placed on empty chairs as the Memorial took shape, time and decades have passed.
Rick Moore quit his job as Assistant to the Mayor in 1996, but he's still drawn here to the Survivor Tree.
He admits, 'I often pull in here to sit and just think.'
The good memories slowly outweigh the bad, like a scarred elm still growing and sprouting new leaves.
Moore went back to school and earned a PhD from Oklahoma State University at the age of 65.
He is currently the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Municipal Contractors Association located in Edmond.
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