Christine Nichole Moore

Christine (Fisher) Moore died April 9, 2021, in Portland, Oregon from a pulmonary embolism shortly after her 48th birthday.  She lived her life with purpose, humility, empathy, humor, and love.       

 

Christine was born in California but it wasn’t long before her family moved to Kodiak Island, Alaska where they welcomed the addition of her sister, Heather. When Christine was four, her family settled in what she always considered her first home—Bozeman, Montana. There she joined a community of immediate and extended family, growing up among multiple cousins and aunts and uncles, and relishing in Montana summers playing kick the can and picking raspberries at her grandparents’ house.  At Bozeman Junior High Christine formed friendships that remained extraordinarily important to her throughout her life, including many that became a surrogate family during adulthood in Portland.   

 

Christine spent her last three years of high school in Las Vegas, graduating from Bonanza High School in 1991. There she developed and exhibited the qualities that exemplified her successful career as an attorney.  Christine went from a child who had often been in trouble in elementary school for talking too much to an accomplished orator--joining the speech and debate team as a sophomore, collecting many accolades, including a trip to Nationals her senior year. And as she grew into a young adult, her ability to draw people in with her personality bloomed; she connected with multiple peer groups, including  cheerleaders, debate “nerds”, athletes, and student leadership.

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She attended the University of Southern California on a speech and debate scholarship, joining a sorority, serving as a seat filler at the Oscars, experiencing the 1993 riots and the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and earning a degree in broadcast journalism.  After graduating in 1995, she returned to Bozeman where she sewed backpacks, explored the outdoors, and lived in a half-finished basement accessible only by a trapdoor.  Eventually, family and adventure led her to the Reno/Tahoe area where she cultivated her  environmental ethic while working for Patagonia, culminating in a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  

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In 1999, Christine made a last minute and life-changing decision to attend law school in Portland instead of Missoula, Montana. Not only did that decision set the path for her law career, but also for her future family. Christine met Colm at Lewis and Clark Law School, and, after graduating in 2002, they moved to Lake Tahoe.  From there they explored the Eastern Sierras and Christine served as a judicial law clerk to Justice Miriam Shearing, the first woman on the Nevada Supreme Court.  After clerking, Christine served as a Washoe County deputy public defender because she felt it was the right thing to do.   In 2004, Christine and Colm married in Tahoe at a picturesque and laughter-filled wedding that only ended when her father paid the DJ to stop playing. 

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In 2005, Christine and Colm settled in Southeast Portland and, after clerking for Justice Robert “Skip” Durham at the Oregon Supreme Court, Christine settled into a long and successful career as a plaintiff's-side civil litigator.  Her intelligence, perseverance, and grace made her an asset to every client as well as her colleagues. She took on leadership positions, mentored new lawyers and law students, and offered counsel to other women attorneys that were trying to achieve the elusivity of “work-life” balance. 

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Most important to Christine was family.  Bran arrived in 2009, followed by Lyra in 2011.  Her children brought Christine the utmost joy.  They were her number one priority and she had a natural, playful and patient parenting style that allowed Lyra and Bran to blossom into two creative and caring individuals whom she always spoke of with love and pride.  She also fostered a curiosity about the world in them, teaching them empathy for other living beings and showing them the world through travel, documentaries, and sometimes a “cute” or “funny” animal videos on Youtube.  

 

We can trace Christine’s path on a timeline, but the essence of her being lies in the connections she made on that path. Ask any family, friend, or acquaintance to share something about her and the first words you will hear are “her infectious laugh”. The pervasive thread that runs through all of Christine’s communities is that laugh and her ability to draw people in, by bringing a sense of humor and a splash of color to the room. Christine balanced work and family, weaving her strength into both of those communities. She was passionate about her convictions and not afraid to share them, whether it was marching with women, advocating for the environment, defending victims’ rights, or bringing another four-legged friend into the household. She brought people together in a way that fostered a sense of realness, of comfort, not pretense or drama.

 

Her skill in the textile crafts of knitting and weaving are tangibly seen in the artwork lovingly hung on walls, the blankets adorning couches, the socks on our feet, and the hats on our heads. On a deeper level, her ability to weave different threads has been present in the days since her passing, as all of Christine’s communities have joined together in mutual grief, and celebration, of her life.

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She is survived by Colm, her husband, her children Brannon and Lyra, parents Mary Fisher and Robert (Robin) Fisher, sister Heather Fisher, father-in-law Hugh Moore, brother-in-law Conor(Shannon) Moore,  niece and nephews Sierra Fisher-Dykman, Luc Hallberg, and James Moore, and many loving aunts, uncles, and cousins. 

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In lieu of flowers, please send any donations to:

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

 

A private memorial will be held at the Portland Rhododendron Garden on Sunday, May 30th from 3-7 p.m.