Actress Mary Tyler Moore, who died January 25, left a lasting legacy to Shepherd University. In 1995, Moore donated her great, great, great grandfather’s home—the Conrad Shindler House—to the Shepherd University Foundation to serve as the home of the Civil War center. In May 1996, she presented a key to the house at a ceremony renaming the Center the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War, in honor of her father.
Moore was Shepherd’s commencement speaker in 1996 and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree. Also receiving an honorary degree during the same commencement ceremony was Shepherd’s President Dr. Mary J.C. Hendrix (Hendrix was then the head of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Iowa College of Medicine).
Mary Tyler Moore at the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War in 1996.