For nearly 50 years, Moore’s Drugs served the people of Kokomo from its location on West Markland Avenue. Don Moore It was known nationally for innovation and efficiency that impacted the retail pharmacy industry across the country. Locally, it was known for kindness, compassion and community service. And its mission, approach and success can all be attributed to one man – pharmacist and risk-taker Don Moore.

Don Moore was born in French Lick on St. Patrick’s Day 1931 into a Southern Indiana farm family. With an opportunity to buy a dairy farm in Kendallville, the Moores moved to the other end of the state. There he met Naomi Strawser, the high school sweetheart he would marry in 1950, the woman who would travel the world with him and support his many interests throughout his life. Together, their family grew to three daughters and, by today, nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

After earning a Pharmacy degree from Purdue University, Don managed Muir’s Drugs in Marion and Muncie from 1953 to 1955. With what must have been a strong sense of adventure and a good dose of self-confidence, at the age of 25 with a wife and three daughters, Don jumped when given the opportunity to open a new Rexall drugstore in Kokomo in 1955 and, along with the store, his status grew.

Don was extremely proud that Moore’s was one of the first pharmacies in Indiana to computerize their prescriptions, and he educated other pharmacists across the country to implement computerization. Moore’s became a leader in home infusions during the AIDS crisis, mixing IV medication for home health care nurses to administer.

Don was president of Moore Drug Store Inc. until he retired in 2001. He considered the people that he came into contact with over those 45-plus years to be friends and family rather than customers and employees and he was known for making sure all neighborhood children had the medicine they needed, no matter their parents’ ability to pay.

Don served as president of the Howard County Pharmaceutical Association, the Indiana Pharmacists Association, the National Association of Community Pharmacists and the National Home Infusion Association; served on the Purdue University President’s Council and advisory panels for the Purdue pharmacy program, Eli Lilly, Upjohn, the Indiana Pharmacist Education Foundation, and Howard Community Hospital, among others. Memberships included Rotary International, Elks Lodge, Moose Lodge, American Legion and First Christian Church, Kokomo. Don’s list of honors and awards was long and included the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Purdue University, the John W. Dargavel Medal (the highest award given by the National Community Pharmacists Association Foundation, and the state of Indiana’s Sagamore of the Wabash.

Moore’s pharmacy business became a CVS store when Don retired in 2001, the era of independent, locally owned drugstores in Kokomo all but history (Herbst Pharmacy being the exception). Daughter Janet Moore and granddaughter Sarah Cotner have continued the family’s service to the community through Moore’s Home Health & Medical Supply at 608 W. Markland Ave.

Don passed away in 2012, Naomi in 2013. They are remembered through the Don and Naomi Moore Endowed Scholarship for Community Pharmacy at Purdue. Don Moore -- whose Hoosier roots go back eight generations -- became a change leader with a heart, committed to modernization in support of efficiency and economics while never losing his belief in the importance of the local community.