Co-workers want friend remembered for more than suicide

David Bryan Moore seemed happy with his quiet life as a single man, said two former co-workers who called him friend.

But he was unemployed when he died.

After thinking about it, the two friends are speculating that could be why he shot himself in the parking lot in front of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign. Especially since there didn't appear to be other underlying reasons. He didn't appear to have drug, alcohol or gambling addictions or health problems.

Moore left one job, lost another and couldn't get unemployment benefits.

"Maybe he got depressed after he couldn't get unemployment," said Rick Way, who worked with Moore at the Levi Strauss distribution plant in Henderson. Moore worked at the plant from 1995 until 2007, when he took a buyout.

According to Way, his friend was "a great guy, very intelligent, always analyzing stuff. He was different, but I never got the sense he was lonely."

Way and a second friend, a middle-aged woman who asked not to be identified by name, described Moore as a hard worker, never late for work, always well-dressed and well-behaved. Moore wasn't tall, about 5 foot 6 or 7 inches, maybe 150 pounds, smart, funny, observant, with a sarcastic sense of humor.

"Suicide doesn't sound like him," said Way, who was shocked at Moore's death Aug. 5.

Yet both said Moore shared little of his personal life with them.

"The closest he came was telling me that he never wanted kids, because he'd be a terrible father," the woman remembered.

"Dave talked constantly about conspiracies, either against him personally or by management in general against the employees. He saw conspiracies everywhere. He always had a theory that human resources was out to get him, that management in general was out to get the employees in general. It was hard to get him off that subject."

She said he went into debt taking computer classes in order to get a better job in the Levi computer department, but then didn't get the job.

She said Moore probably earned $10 to $12 an hour and was excited about taking a buyout in 2007 after 12 years with the company.

"Dave was looking forward to doing something new and different. I can't believe he didn't go on to something extraordinary. He had the skills. He had the intelligence. He should have gone on to something terrific."

He got a job as a commercial truck driver and then lost that job. That's when he stopped returning calls from his family.

The two friends didn't see Moore after he left the plant. But about six months ago, Way bumped into Moore at a Best Buy. Moore was unhappy he hadn't been able to receive unemployment benefits after losing his trucking job, Way said. "He said he'd applied for a new job at CityCenter. He didn't seem depressed. He seemed normal."

Linda Flatt of the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention advised against jumping to conclusions that the recession will result in more suicides. Suicide prevention experts say it will be another two or three years before the numbers will prove or disprove any correlation between losing a job and suicide, because the latest figures available are from 2006.

Although there was a slight increase in suicides during the Great Depression, there's no clear correlation in subsequent recessions.

Moore's two friends don't want him to be remembered as an anonymous, isolated man who killed himself in front of a historic and cheerful welcoming sign on the Las Vegas Strip.

"He was a good person. He was a good worker. He made a difference. He did his job," the woman said. "Dave never made my job harder."

On Labor Day, this seems a true compliment from one worker to another, one we can all understand and appreciate, a co-worker who doesn't make your job any harder.

Moore had expectations of better job opportunities when he left Levi Strauss. But two years later, he was 48, the country was in a recession and unemployment in Las Vegas was more than 13 percent, and his expectations didn't match his reality.

For Moore and everyone like him, being good at one job won't necessarily guarantee you'll get or keep another job.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.