Notes:
Data source is the 1990 book, "Moomaw-Mumma-Mumaw-Mumaugh Genealogy" compiled by Robert Austin Moomaw (deceased).
*********** From Robert Moomaw's 1990 Book - page 100 *******************
Dr. Donn D. Moomaw is most probably the best known Moomaw living today. Since December 1964, he has been the Senior Minister of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles. President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy attend this church. Dr. Moomaw offered the prayer for the inauguration of President Reagan in 1980 and 1984. The Associated Press had an article and a picture of Donn Moomaw and President Reagan on January 23, 1989, stating that the Reagans had returned to Los Angeles, and had attended the Bel Air Presbyterian Church,h e previous day.
Donn Moomaw first gained nation-wide attention as All-American Lineman at UCLA in the years 1950 1951, and 1952. The UCLA Campus magazine said "Donn Moomaw is UCLA's best honored football player in history." He made "All-Pro Canada" in 1954 after playing for Toronto, Canada in the Canadian professional football league. In 1973, Donn was inducted into the National College Football Players Hall of Fame.
Donn was one of the official group organizing the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and serves on its Board of Directors. He was on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1972-1975, and 1982-1985. In 1957, he was honored as one of the five outstanding men in California by the Junior Chamber of Commerce. He was honored in 1977 by the International Churchman's Sports Hall of Fame, Inc.
Donn's grandfather, John C. Moomaw, was born in 1870 at Lawrence, KS, and moved to Bandon, OR, where Donn's father, Harold Amos Moomaw, was born November 21, 1900. His grandfather owned two stern wheeler river boats which carried goods up and down the Coquille River. In 1912 John Moomaw saw where better roads and newer trucks would some day replace the river boat so he sold his boats and bought a farm in Hubbard, Oregon. He set up a one-man saw mill on his farm and until 1946, when the mill burned down, served the beautiful Willamette Valley. He and wife Carrie continued to live and work the farm until he died of heart attack.
Harold A. Moomaw, Donn's father, graduated from Oregon State in 1921, and in 1926, settled in Santa Ana, CA. He taught school in Santa Ana for many years, and is presently in a nursing home.
Donn and his wife, the former Carol Basler, have five children Dann, Michelle, Carrie, Nancy and Jonn.
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UCLA Athletic and College Football Hall of Famer Donn Moomaw, the first two-time All-American in program history, passed away Monday in Pasadena, Calif. He was 93.
Moomaw was a two-way star for the Bruins from 1950-52, arriving on campus as an end before being shifted to center and linebacker by head coach Henry "Red" Sanders. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound standout immediately found a home on defense, twice earning team MVP honors and garnering Lineman of the Year accolades as a senior. Considered one of the best linebackers in UCLA history, Moomaw's No. 80 is retired by the program.
His decorated senior season accompanied one of the best by a Bruin team, as the 1952 group went 8-1 and reached the Pacific Coast Conference championship game. Two years later, UCLA won its first national championship. Moomaw in 1952 played what Sanders called "the greatest game I ever saw a linebacker play," as the visiting Bruins held Alan Ameche and Wisconsin to just 48 rushing yards on Oct. 25. The Badgers entered play that day averaging 240 yards per game on the ground. Moomaw, a co-captain, finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting and was a consensus All-American.
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Injuries in 1951 limited him to the All-America second team, but he was deemed an All-Conference first-teamer for the second of three consecutive years. In UCLA's season finale at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Moomaw had an interception return for a touchdown to help the Bruins upset crosstown rival USC 21-7.
Moomaw also collected accolades off the field for his academic prowess. He earned a spot on the CoSIDA Academic All-America® First Team in 1952 and was inducted into the organization's first hall-of-fame class in 1988. Also a charter member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame (1984), he joined the College Football Hall of Fame in 1973.
Santa Ana, Calif. native Moomaw was a first-round draft pick of the NFL's Los Angeles Rams in 1953, but his time at the next level was abbreviated due to his pursuits of a career in the ministry. He would graduate from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1957 with a bachelor's degree in divinity and in 1968 added a doctor of divinity from Sterling College. Moomaw played parts of two seasons in the CFL while attending Princeton Seminary.
He was senior pastor at Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles from 1964-1993 and during this time met Ronald Reagan. Moomaw offered invocations at Reagan's 1967 and 1971 inaugurations as governor of California, as well as his 1981 and 1985 inaugurations as president of the United States. Moomaw served on the California State Board of Education from 1968-1972.
He and his wife, the late Carol Moomaw, were the parents to sons Dann Moomaw and Jonn Moomaw and daughters Nancy Goodwin, Michelle Le Beau and Carrie Brakebush, and grandparents to 10. Donn Moomaw had one brother, Dick Moomaw, and one sister, Jane Elson. There are no service plans at this time.