I don’t have many photos of Dad at this young age. He appears happy, as do most of the people in this extended Moyer family portrait. The family was well-heeled and prospering at the time, but like everyone else, they had struggled during the Great Depression, knocking on doors and traveling house to house to find work. There was cause for celebration at this moment in history, hence this portrait.
The Moyer Brothers Construction Company was booming by the 1940s and 50s, building schools, hospitals, at least half of the toll booths along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and over a thousand gas stations east of the Mississippi. Aunt Katie insisted, more than once, that Dad was called the “little financial genius” of Altoona. His brother Jack was better with people, she said, but Dad was no slouch when it came to commanding attention, s…
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