A Good Dude with a Good Heart

He’s the first person to clean up around the workplace or volunteer for an extra shift, plus he’s not the type to complain or say anything negative. That’s just a glimpse of the good you’ll find in Mike Moore, according to his coworker Rob Sohmer.

“We know about him,” said Sohmer, the “we” being he and others working at Watco’s Cincinnati Marine Terminal in Ohio. “But it’s time somebody else does.”

Sohmer and Moore have worked together on the Ohio River for 10 years. “What we do here is we unload barges. I’m the crane operator; he’s the skid-steer operator down in the barge pushing salt.” Sohmer said that while Moore is waiting until it’s time to go into the barge hull, he takes the initiative to break up driftwood that tends to pile up around the barges. He does so using a 30-foot spike pole. The lengthy tool is hard to maneuver, but Moore will “be out there sweating…trying to free up logs. That’s just the kind of guy he is.”

He’s also the kind of guy who’d drive to Sohmer’s house on his day off to lend a hand with firewood. The two used a log-splitter on two trees about 60 and 75 feet tall. Says Sohmer: “He’s a really good dude. We live about an hour apart, but he was there. He helped me stack firewood all day long. He never complained.”

Sohmer calls Moore’s work ethic second to none. And it appears that Moore also might score highly when it comes to animal welfare. Every spring for nearly 10 years, a pair of Canadian geese has nested in the hull of an empty barge at the terminal. What must look to the parents like attractive lodging comes with a sad consequence: Their goslings become trapped with no way to forage, unable to climb the steep sides of the hull and too young to fly. Moore tries every year to get past the aggressive, protective parents to rescue the baby geese before their inevitable starvation. “He’s never been successful but tosses bread to them to try to draw them out.”

Sohmer calls Moore’s work ethic second to none. And it appears that Moore also might score highly when it comes to animal welfare.

Every spring for nearly 10 years, a pair of Canadian geese has nested in the hull of an empty barge at the terminal. What must look to the parents like attractive lodging comes with a sad consequence: Their goslings become trapped with no way to forage, unable to climb the steep sides of the hull and too young to fly. Moore tries every year to get past the aggressive, protective parents to rescue the baby geese before their inevitable starvation. “He’s never been successful but tosses bread to them to try to draw them out.”

Sohmer sums up Moore’s approach to his work and his friends, feathered or human.

“He’s got a good heart. He just tries to do good.”