Robert Moran (shipbuilder)

Robert Moran (January 26, 1857—March 27, 1943) was a prominent Seattle shipbuilder who served as the city's mayor from 1888 to 1890.

A native of New York City, Moran was 18 when, in 1875, he arrived penniless in Seattle, a frontier outpost in the Pacific Northwest, which had been settled less than a quarter-century before, in November 1851, and only incorporated between 1865 and 1869. Through hard work he earned enough money to send for his family and, by 1882, he and his brothers started a marine repair business at Yesler's wharf. The Moran Brothers Company prospered during the Klondike Gold Rush when, among other projects, they built a fleet of 12 175-foot paddlewheel riverboats, which were successfully delivered to the Yukon River.

In 1888, only thirteen years after his impoverished arrival in town, 31-year-old Robert Moran was elected the Republican mayor of Seattle. [Dave Wilma, [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2788 Voters elect businessman Robert Moran as mayor of the City of Seattle on July 9, 1888] , HistoryLink. Accessed 9 November 2007.] In those early years, the town's mayors were elected in July for a one-year term. Near the end of his service, on June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle Fire destroyed most of the central business district. Moran's leadership in coordinating the recovery activities won him a second term in the following month's election. Through the period of his mayoralty, he was instrumental in the successful rebuilding of businesses. His political connections were also very helpful in securing government contracts for his shipbuilding company.

Following his mayoral service, Robert Moran devoted all his efforts to his shipbuilding business and, in 1904, climaxed his career with his shipyard's launch of the USS "Nebraska", Washington State's only battleship.When Robert Moran, the mayor of Seattle and shipbuilder, was told in 1905 he had one year to live, he built a house on Orcas Island in the San Juans that most only dream about. That house is now the Rosario Resort. Moran outlived his doctors' prediction and went on to live another 38 years in this pristine natural setting. Two years later, he sold the shipbuilding company for an undisclosed price between US$2.5 and 3.5 million [" [http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F05E6DF113EE733A2575BC1A9659C946797D6CF&oref=slogin Moran Ship Plant Sold] ", "New York Times", March 18, 1906. Accessed 9 November 2007.] and spent the remainder of his long life in retirement on Puget Sound's Orcas Island, where he constructed a mansion surrounded by 7800 acres of land. The Moran Mansion is now the centerpiece of the Rosario Resort.

Robert Moran was born before the start of the Civil War and he died on Orcas Island two months after his 86th birthday, while the United States was at a midpoint in World War II, with his former shipbuilding concern producing more ships in 1943 than could have been imagined sixty years earlier, at its founding.

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External links

* [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2789 Washington State History: a biographical sketch of Robert Moran]