Connie Jean (McClure) Moraff

On Thursday October 20, 2022, Connie Jean (McClure) Moraff, wife of Howard Moraff for 47 wonderful years, and Grandma to nine grandchildren, took leave of this world. She was 87.

Born in McDermott, Ohio, the youngest and last surviving of 8 siblings, Connie graduated Valedictorian from McDermott High School and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University. She then descended upon Washington, DC where she held successive posts as a management analyst with the Defense Language Institute, the Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the Maritime Administration. During those years Connie took up folk dancing, horseback riding, world travel, and small plane flying, receiving her FAA pilot's license at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Connie met Howard Moraff at a folk dance in Washington in 1972, while he was on loan to the National Science Foundation from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Connie and Howard added small boat sailing, travel for family visits, and volksmarching to their growing array of hobbies. After marrying in Washington and honeymooning with a grand tour of the Soviet Union, they moved to Ithaca, New York in 1975 where Howard continued his career at Cornell and Connie took a Federal position at the Seneca Army Depot. Connie soon obtained a Masters degree in Library and Information Science from Syracuse University, and was employed at the Ithaca College Library. When Howard was invited to come to Merck & Company in New Jersey to computerize their research labs, Connie took a position in the Cranford New Jersey Public Library. By 1984, The couple were back in Washington, DC, with Howard serving again as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, and Connie serving as librarian at the Naval Historical Center, and later as Head of Cataloging for the US Information Agency, from which she retired in 1995. Connie and Howard returned in 2000 to Ithaca, where they took up renovation of their lake house, and resumed their sailing activities and family travel. By 2014, they were traveling frequently to Boston to be with family. They soon moved into a newly constructed apartment at Kendal at Ithaca, where they made lots of new friends and reconnected with some old ones, while participating in the broad array of available activities. When Connie grew to need more care than Howard could provide, she moved to Kendal's skilled nursing unit, where Howard visited her daily and the couple took part in the many activities offered there. Connie always loved animals and over her years in Kendal's Health Center, she accumulated an impressive array of stuffed bears, cats, dogs, and a number of other critters, which gave her great comfort and pleasure. Connie is in heaven now. She is probably reorganizing their operations and teaching them how to folk dance, and how to use the internet.

In lieu of flowers, charitable contributions to Kendal at Ithaca are suggested.