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Dr. Paul K. Mooring, 83

Paul K. Mooring, M.D., 83, died at his home on Swan Lake, Mont., on June 13, 2007. A memorial service is planned for a later date.

Paul K. Mooring was born Sept. 16, 1923, in Houston, Texas, and raised in Stuttgart, Ark.

He served in the United States Navy Medical Corps from 1941-46. After World War II, he attended the University of California, Berkeley and completed an undergraduate degree at New York University. A graduate of Columbia Medical School, Dr. Mooring interned at Bellevue Hospital, and did his residence at Babies Hospital at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Board certified in Pediatric Cardiology, he moved to Omaha in 1962, where he was Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center until his retirement in 1986.

He served as president of both the Douglas County and Nebraska Heart Associations and for many years served on Nebraska Services for Crippled Children. Dr. Mooring was also an associate editor at MD Magazine.

Dr. Mooring raised cattle and created a wildlife sanctuary on his farm in Fort Calhoun before retiring to Montana. An avid reader and gardener, he spent his time clearing land, developing an azalea and rhododendron garden, and observing the wildlife on Swan Lake.

He was much loved by his patients, friends and family. He made a difference in the lives of many and will be surely missed.

He is survived by his wife, LaVon; and his daughters and son-in-law, Karen Wennerstrom of Seattle, Wash., and Tanya and Tim Emmerich of Fort Calhoun; and a brother, Dana, of Conway, Ark.

Memorials are suggested to the Henry Doorly Zoo or Doctors Without Borders.

Omaha World Herald 25 June 2007

Pediatric cardiology pioneer Mooring dies

(By Maggie Creamer World-Herald Staffwriter)

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A garden filled with rhododendrons and azaleas sprang to life after Paul and LaVon Mooring had cleared the land at Swan Lake, Mont., with a small tractor, tilled the rocky soil and planted the flowers that bloomed in record numbers this year.

“He just was very inventive, and he always had a lot of fun creating things and thinking of new ideas,” his wife said.

Dr. Paul Mooring, longtime director of pediatric cardiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, died June 13 at his home in Swan Lake. He was 83.

Mooring served in the Navy Medical Corps from 1941 to 1946. After the war, he decided he wanted to be a doctor and graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Mooring married LaVon in 1960 in New York City. Two years later, they moved to Omaha. At the time, he was the only pediatric cardiologist in Nebraska.

He “fell in love” with Omaha because of its wide-open spaces, LaVon Mooring said. The couple lived on a farm in Fort Calhoun, Neb., that had cattle, horses, peacocks and a three-story aviary that mainly housed finches.

When the Moorings retired, they donated many of the animals and plants they had raised to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo.

At the NU Medical Center, Mooring helped develop and direct the pediatric cardiology program for 20 years.

He was president of the Nebraska Heart Association, conducted clinics throughout the state for the Medically Handicapped Children’s Program and served on the Nebraska Committee for Medically Handicapped Children.

In his alter years, he taught other doctors about pediatrics and cardiology, often in rural areas.

In 1986, he retired to Swan Lake, where he lived in the woods and enjoyed watching the animals in the area, including loons, bears and hummingbirds.

The Moorings’ children are Karen Wennerstrom of Seattle and Tanya Emmerich of Fort Calhoun. Other surviving family members include a brother, Dana Mooring of Conway, Ark.

A memorial service will be held later in Swan Lake.

~~~ Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair Public Library at Blair, Nebraska.~~~