In 1989, a bright-eyed Wally Moore drove into Austin with his wife Polly. The young couple planned on spending a few years in Texas before heading back home to Kentucky. They were looking forward to a couple of good years in a city they liked.

“We loved the natural beauty of the area – the water, the hills and the wooded areas,” Moore said. “We were young, and it seemed everybody here was young and well-educated. Everybody seemed to be a part of things, the kinds of things that were directing the country.”

A full 21 years and two very Texan children later, Moore is still in Austin. He sits at the helm of the Eanes Education Foundation after spending most of the 1990s helping the local public television station power its way into national prominence.

A lot of people in the Eanes community are glad Moore’s stay in Austin turned out to be a little longer than expected. Some will be happy to tell you that we are lucky to have him around.

“Wally Moore is enthusiasm, integrity, passion, energy and ambition all rolled up into one neat big package,” said Paul Stone, Eanes school board president. “I have known Wally for years and have admired his love and skills as a husband, father, friend, volunteer and leader of the Eanes Education Foundation.”

When the Moores hit Austin, Polly was headed to a new job with Bank of America. Wally was looking for something a little different. He had already developed a healthy taste for community service as the board president for the Western Kentucky University Alumni Association and Big Brothers Big Sisters in Boling Green. He wanted to find something new that fed the urge to make a difference in the community around him.

“I was looking for that right cause,” he said. “I wanted to work in nonprofit development and fundraising.”

Moore found a perfect fit in 1982 at KLRU, the Austin Public Broadcast System affiliate. Initially hired to develop fundraising for the station’s most popular programs, he quickly moved up the ranks to become the Vice President of Development.

“I loved the cause, the people and the volunteers – we did good work,” Moore said, smiling.

Even now, his passion for public television is hard to miss.

“It is such an interesting medium of life-long learning for all ages,” he said. “KLRU was the source for so much in-depth television journalism on all kinds of things, from technology and science to cooking and children’s shows. In the 1990s, PBS was the real source for all that.”

Moore loved his seven-year tenure at KLRU. He liked the connection with people in the Austin community and the programming, including the developing legend, Austin City Limits. But, by the late 1990s, his job had grown into long hours and nights and weekends spent at special events. He and Polly stopped to take a look at how they were raising their children. They decided they wanted more focus on family.

“We drew straws to see which of us would stay home with the kids, and I drew the lucky straw,” he said.

Does Moore think the 10-year furlough from the working world paid off for his family?

“I know it made a difference,” he said. “We are all really happy that we were in a position to be able to make that choice.”

Suddenly at home with a two-year old and an eight-year old, Moore began to get involved with his community on a much more personal level.

“I turned my attention to things that were important to me and to our family,” he said.

One of those things was the local Eanes school district. In 2003, EEF asked him to join the board. True to his nature, Moore began to take on more responsibility. He became executive director of the organization in 2009.

“As my kids got older, I began to think of going back to work,” Moore said. “That coincided with the foundation being between directors. I took the job, and so far so good.”

In his volunteer and professional work with EEF, he has seen the organization’s grant to the local Eanes Independent School District grow from less than $100,000 to a high of $900,000.

For Moore, raising private funding to support the school district is a labor of love.

“This is an incredible school district that we have the ability to partner with and enhance in our own way,” he said. “EISD has such a fantastic track record of success, but it faces lots of challenges all the time. A lot of those challenges are related to money and funding. The more EEF can do to rally community support that leads to financial support, the better the district can position itself for the future.”

Quickly, he engrained himself even further into the community. People knew his face, and they knew he was trying hard to help the school district.

“When you talk with Wally, you feel that he is listening intently and values your thoughts and opinions,” Karl Waggoner, West Ridge Middle School principal said. “He knows a great deal about our Eanes community, along with it’s rich history, and is constantly seeking ways to make it better for our kids.”

Moore has great plans for EEF and for the school district it supports. He believes the EISD reputation for high-performance continues to attract parents to the area, keeping housing and property values at a premium. That should be important to the 72 percent of homeowners in the area who no longer have children in public schools, he said.

“A high-performing district fuels the engine for real estate,” Moore said. “It keeps it strong. That is the common denominator for all of us who live in the district, whether we have kids in local schools or not. We always want perception of the school district to be outstanding. It is such a great legacy.”