Class of ‘76 News: Moses receives Atwood Achievement Award from University of Rio Grande

Steve Moses, affectionately known to many as ‘Big Fig’, graduated from Oak Hill High School in 1976 where he was his senior class president; active in many extracurricular activities that included playing trombone in the Oak Hill High School Marching Oaks, along with the concert, stage and pep bands; served on the student council; a member of the Library Club where he once served as the Ohio Student Librarians Association’s publicity chairman; on the Oaks Window newspaper staff; and was the varsity basketball manager and competed on the basketball, golf and track teams.

Steve graduated from Rio Grande College, now The University of Rio Grande, and is now retired.

In November 2020, Steve received the 2020 Atwood Achievement Award from The University of Rio Grande. The Atwood Achievement Award recognizes alumni for personal achievement reflecting credit upon the University, including professional or civic accomplishments, and who have an interest in promoting the ideals and objectives of the institution.

This 1980 Rio Grande graduate spent the last 25+ years in the newspaper business, where he served as the Editor/Ad Rep for The Robeson Journal Newspaper – a weekly, independently owned newspaper in Lumberton, North Carolina.

But there is more to this story on Steve.

Rio Grande was close to home for Steve, and quite a legacy. Most of his family, including his well-known parents, had gone to college at Rio. Even his cousin, Peg Thomas, was a counselor, and so choosing this college made perfect sense. Once on campus, Steve found himself working on his major – Communications – and keeping up as team manager for the Junior Varsity Men’s Basketball team. He also played golf, was a member of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), and soon became involved in the school’s newspaper at the time, ‘Signals’. And if that wasn’t enough, Steve was helping pay his tuition by working part-time at the Bob Evans Restaurant.

After that job, Steve spent four years with the retail athletic chain, Foot Locker as a sales manager, working in stores in several states including Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

He met his wife, Mable, after leaving Foot Locker, and they moved back to Lumberton where Steve then spent eight years in the manufacturing business while pursuing his true calling – writing for a local newspaper.

Beginning as a stringer, where he served in many capacities including work as a stringer for The Associated Press.

But it’s all not all about his job. In his community, Steve has served in many civic roles. He is a member of the Robeson County Advisory Council with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, is an Associate Board Member of the Robeson Regional Agricultural Fair, and serves on the Robeson County Fair Board as historian. He has also served his community through roles in the Cliffwood Golf Association and has worked as an activist with the Palmer Prevention Drug Program. He also is an active member of Chestnut Street United Methodist Church and was named their Men’s Ministry “Man of the Year” in 2016.

Moses’s history with Rio also runs deep. His late parents, Roy and Josine Moses of Thurman, Ohio, who both taught in the Oak Hill Union Local School System, served on the Executive Committee for the University of Rio Grande’s ‘Lighting the Way’ Capitol Campaign, while he served as an alumni speaker for the campaign. Steve also was instrumental in writing a letter of recommendation to the College Basketball Hall of Fame Committee about Rio Grande Redmen’s basketball player, Clarence ‘Bevo’ Francis, who later was inducted. Bevo played alongside his Steve’s late’ father during the glorious 1952-54 basketball seasons.

Steve and his wife have been married for 34 years and have one son, Jon Brian They reside in Lumberton, North Carolina.