Gertrude Evelyn (Dinty) Moore graduated from the Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression (MES) in 1921. According to his Ph.D. thesis on the school for the State University of New York at Buffalo, John Byl stated “MES played a critical role in the development of women’s physical education in Canada–there was no other school in Canada that provided as comprehensive a program in Physical Education as did MES”.

Serving on the staff of MES for several years, Miss Moore moved to Vancouver in 1927 to become the Director of Physical Education for the Vancouver Y.W.C.A. Following a brief return to Toronto to become Director of Recreation for Women at the T. Eaton Co., she joined University of British Columbia as their first Director of Physical Education for Women in 1935. In her 1990 book It’s Up to You; Women at UBC in the early years, Lee Stewart stated that Gertrude Moore and her male counterpart, Maury Can Vliet, “laid the foundations for a degree program in Physical education at UBC that commenced in 1946”.

Her keen interest in outdoor physical education for children and camping (fostered by years as a camp counselor in Ontario) inspired her founding of the British Columbia Camping Association in 1939. In a tribute to Miss Moore in the December 1954 issue, Canadian Camping magazine stated: “we salute Miss Moore for the contribution she has made to Canadian youth in the east as well as the west, in educational circles and in the world of camping”.

Gertrude Evelyn Moore passed away on December 9, 1969 in Victoria, BC.