Moody, Richard

Richard Moody was born April 21, 1941 in Fleet, Hampshire, England.  He grew up there against the backdrop of the Second World War, and as a very young boy he has a few memories of the time, from the sound of the Luftwaffe bombers to a V-1 that failed to detonate.  His father was in the Royal Navy and was away much of the war, and after the war he was stationed in South Africa, taking his family with him.  Richard returned to England for boarding school and from the 1950s he recalls the ongoing rationing and the Great Smog.  Naval college followed, marking the beginning of Richard’s military career.  He began in the Fishery Protection Squadron, and then he received a special invitation to the Royal Yacht Britannia where he served as the Meteorologist and Ocean Navigator accompanying the Queen on a tour of the south Pacific from Fiji to Australia and New Zealand.  Flight training would come next for Richard, as he began piloting numerous types of aircraft with the start of the 1960s.  His initial aircraft carrier tours took him east of Suez, but he also did a stint with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam era – at the famed “Top Gun” school in California.  Richard met his wife during those fateful years in the U.S., and the two of them have charted a course that includes family and volunteerism.  Richard was pulled in the direction of Peace Activism in his post-military years, adopting foster children, working through several NGOs, and converting to the Quaker faith. Richard ended up with a 27-year career in the Royal Navy, with just as much time dedicated to his adopted causes since.  He was interviewed by Scott Masters in Mt. Laurel Twp., N.J. in July 2025.