FREEPORT – Libby Moore passed away on Sept. 24, 2020 at the age of 59, one year after her cancer diagnosis. She was born Dec. 24, 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, the older daughter of Alan L. and Charlotte (Ross) Hyde.

Libby spent her childhood in northeast Ohio cultivating a love of nature and a special fondness for the woodland wildflowers that grow so abundantly there. Her summers in Temagami, Ontario instilled an enduring commitment to the value of time spent outdoors camping and canoe tripping, a passion she loved to share with others through her participation as founding board member of the Red Canoe Foundation.

She graduated from Amherst College in 1983 and the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1987, where she met her future husband, Bob Moore. They settled in Freeport, married in 1987, and eventually started a family on a saltwater farm where they raised their three children to adulthood.

Libby worked as a municipal planning consultant and then as a forest ecologist at the University of Maine’s Holt Research Forest in Arrowsic before dedicating herself to parenting full time. During her years of raising her family, Libby developed her voice as a writer. Her blog, “The Coming Season”, chronicled her love of natural processes and linked the seasonal cycles in nature to the growth of her own family. She wrote a children’s book, “The River of Birds”, due to be published in spring, 2021.

In her 33 years in Freeport Libby became integrally linked to her communities of church, school, sports teams, and extended family. Libby’s goal was never to claim the spotlight, and famously (to her family) expressed the desire to simply “be regular”. That humility, coupled with a big heart and innate desire to be of service to others, made a lasting impression on the people she encountered. With Libby, you had her undivided, undistracted attention. She listened, and invariably would have helpful insights to offer. Libby leaned into that intuition, and grew deeper into her spirituality over time. As she delved into the ancient teachings of the world’s spiritual traditions she found commonalities that supported her own ethos of kindness to others, good works on behalf of those less fortunate, and the truth and gratitude of being well grounded in Nature. But she was also a doer and visionary, and that often did put her in the spotlight on the founding boards of Maine Interfaith Power and Light and the Red Canoe Foundation, co-leading creative and spiritual workshops with Opening Pathways, and her private reiki practice, Sunlight Reiki.

Libby faced her cancer journey bravely and with grace, and she brought her community along with her to realizing that her spirit will live on, even after death. As she writes in “The River of Birds”, “When a living thing dies, its body stops working. But its love is still here with us, in everything and everyone it has ever loved.”

Libby is survived by her husband Bob; their children, Josephine, Nina, and Willson; 10 nieces and nephews; her parents in Green Valley, Ariz.; sister, Pam W. Hyde and her husband Doug Brozovsky of Flagstaff, Ariz.; and cousins, Brit and Julie Hyde of Akron, Ohio, Nate and Sandy Hyde of Carefree, Ariz., and Greg and Fran Hyde of Charlotte, N.C. and their children. The family will plan a memorial service for a time when it is again safe to gather.

Libby would smile if any donations in her memory were made to the

Red Canoe Foundation.

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