A leader in the island’s labour movement and an influential figure in the Anglican church hailed from a botanical background that brought him to Bermuda in 1956 to help regrow forests devastated by the cedar-killing scale insect blight of the 1940s.

The Reverend Donald John “Don” Moore had a brief but momentous tenure from 1968 to 1970 as president of the Civil Service Association, the precursor to the Bermuda Public Services Union.

As church rector for St Mark’s in Smiths, Mr Moore steered the church through a difficult passage in its history — and channelled his love of nature into a garden oasis on its grounds.

Mr Moore led a multifaceted life distinguished by a phenomenal drive into his old age.

The Right Reverend Nicholas Dill, Anglican Bishop of Bermuda, said: “Like the Energiser Bunny, Don just kept on going — he was always willing to step up for anything, and always kept his hands in horticulture, including with the Heydon Trust.”

Bishop Dill added that Mr Moore became an “unofficial chaplain” at Westmeath Residential and Nursing Care Home in his final days.

Born in London, Mr Moore started out as a local journalist, then served in North Africa with the Royal Corps of Signals, a combat support arm of the British Army responsible for communications.

His fascination with the natural world took him to an apprenticeship in the North London Parks system, eventually qualifying him to work and train at the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

Mr Moore’s knack for horticulture brought him next to Bermuda, where the blight outbreak of the 1940s had wiped out the native cedar forest, leaving the island’s hillsides covered in skeletal trees and prompting the Department of Agriculture to hire him in 1956 as a reforestation officer.

He remained with the department for 15 years, pitching in with a green team that brought non-native trees to the island.

Another top role was that of superintendent of the Botanical Gardens in Paget — formerly the Agricultural Station — with responsibility for the merger between the gardens and the adjacent Camden Estate. He served on the Botanical Gardens Steering Committee until 2022.

Mr Moore is also credited with creating the department’s Tulo Valley Nursery and apprenticeship schemes.

A statement to The Royal Gazette from the former executive officers of the Bermuda Public Service Association called him “a central figure in Bermuda's public service and labour history”.

The group said his presidency of the CSA, marked by “conflict-free leadership”, was also “a significant era of professionalisation and growth”.

“Reverend Moore was historically credited for navigating complex labour developments without any recorded strikes. He prioritised a strategy of direct negotiation and policy influence rather than industrial action.”

Mr Moore’s leadership came at a time of membership growth for the union, when it began “expanding its reach beyond traditional government departments, notably including the first non-government group — nurses from the Bermuda Hospitals Board”.

“Reverend Moore resigned from his post in 1970 to pursue a career in business and eventually full-time pastoral ministry, though he remained a lifelong advocate for the union.”

In 1959, Mr Moore married Kathy Mortimer. He described meeting her as “the highlight of my whole life”.

The couple took on the family business, DE Mortimer & Co, from which Demco florist takes its name.

Mr Moore would describe his religious leanings as “wayward Methodist”, however his new wife was a member of the choir at St John’s Church Pembroke, leading him to what he called his “third career”.

Calling Kathy “the love of his life”, Bishop Dill said Mr Moore followed her to St John’s, where he served in the Sunday school programme

At the urging of the priest who married the couple, Mr Moore trained as an Anglican minister at Chichester Theological College in England.

He was ordained in Chichester Cathedral in 1987, serving initially in churches in Britain, before becoming priest in charge at Chapel of Ease on St David’s island, part of the church’s St George’s parish.

Inspired by the area’s deep connections with the ocean and fishing, he helped organise the Seafaring Sunday ceremonies, including the blessing of the boats.

After a tornado cut a line of devastation across part of St David’s in 1992, Mr Moore joined a relief committee for victims.

The couple travelled to the US, where Mr Moore served in the Diocese of Atlanta for three years until his wife’s health challenges brought them back to Bermuda. She died in 2006.

Mr Moore became a deeply respected figure at St Mark’s, where his “landscaping ministry”, in tandem with Colin Campbell of OBM Architectural Firm, resulted in its parklike garden rich with local flora.

He used his photographs of the island’s familiar flowers, trees and shrubs for Bermuda Flora from the Roadside in 2006 and, two years later, Bermuda Flora from the Roadside II.

Mr Moore dedicated his second work to his wife, who inspired it and typed up the copy, but did not survive to see it published.

• Donald John Moore, an Anglican minister, horticulturalist, author and union leader, was born on May 23, 1931. He died in 2026, aged 94