Oliver C Moles Jr.

Oliver Clinton Moles, Jr., an education research scientist and vital member of the Quaker community, passed away on September 29 at his home in Sandy Spring, MD of pancreatic cancer. He had lived in Maryland since the mid 1960s and was 89 years old.

Born in Akron, Ohio, Ollie attended Ohio Wesleyan University and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan where he trained in social psychology. Ollie was a researcher and project manager in family and education issues for federal poverty programs in the 1960s and later for the US Department of Education from 1973-2002. His areas of expertise included parent involvement in education, youth development, student conduct, and school safety/crime issues. Ollie edited the book Student Discipline Strategies: Research and Practice, co-edited Divorce and Separation: Causes, Contexts, and Consequences, drafted numerous reports and booklets, and testified before congress.

Ollie met his first wife, Patricia Fleigh, during college. Their shared affinity as advocates for social justice, civil rights, and anti-discrimination became a life-long pursuit. Married in 1957, the couple settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan where they started their family. Daughter Elizabeth (Betsy) was born in 1959. Son Stephen was born in 1963. In 1964, the family moved to the Washington metropolitan area. Pat passed away in 2011 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In 2015 Ollie married Janet Neva Riley, a long-time friend from the years their children grew up together. Ollie and Janet were warmly welcomed into their new home at Friends House retirement community in Sandy Spring, Maryland. Ollie was active in the community garden, leading Saturday games, croquet, and a book group on social issues (non-fiction).

Ollie was drawn to the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) practices of peace and justice and attended Ann Arbor Friends Meeting during graduate school. When the family moved to the DC area, he became a member of Langley Hill Friends Meeting where he was a Trustee and served on various committees addressing racism, incarceration, and religious education. In more recent years, he was a member of the governing board of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL).

After his retirement from the Federal Government, Ollie remained active professionally. Ollie co-founded a national coalition of education organizations on parent involvement in education. For the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), he led a team developing webinars on how scientists work with human rights issues. Ollie was a Fellow for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).

Ollie’s passion for travel was sparked by a college-years trip through Europe which crystallized his interest in causes of international understanding. This meshed with his enthusiasm for genealogy and maintaining close relations with kin. His quest for knowing and understanding his family roots led to an excursion through England to explore family sites in the Lake District, research family history, and visit historic Quaker sites.

Ollie’s other passion was choral music with early participation in a church choir, then college glee club, a Barbershop chorus, Masterworks chorus, and eventually singing with the National Philharmonic Chorale at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda, Maryland and performing with the chorale at Carnegie Hall. Our family tradition every Christmas season was watching Ollie and the chorale perform Handel’s Messiah.

Ollie was a warm and kind soul who had a gift for making and maintaining deep personal connections. His astounding memory for the details in the lives of those he knew enabled him to relate to each person on a deep and intimate level. Ollie left you feeling like a special person in his life because you were. Childhood friends of Steve and Betsy and young family members especially felt welcomed in the home and looked on Ollie as a second dad.

Ollie was preceded in death by his wife Patricia (Fleigh). He is survived by his wife Janet (Neva Riley); son Stephen Moles, daughter Betsy Moles, daughter-in-law Ruth Miller, and son-in-law Guy Tingos; grandson Isaac Moles; step-brother and his wife David and Pat Wood; nieces and nephews Peggy, Jon, Hugh, and Paticia Hart; and Janet’s children Jennifer, Pamela, and Rex Riley and their spouses and children.

A memorial meeting will be held on November 2, at 2:00 pm, at Sandy Spring Friends Meeting, in Sandy Spring, Maryland. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations can be made to the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Committee on National Legislation to honor Ollie’s lifelong commitment to peace and social action.