Jared Soares The Roanoke Times

Salem High School teacher Ray Moore helps DeVonte Kasey-Terry with a test during his morning ninth-grade English class. Colleagues say Moore has an unshakable faith in his students' ability to improve themselves and their school.

Photos by Jared Soares The Roanoke Times

Salem High School student Clare Macdonald hugs ninth-grade English teacher Ray Moore during his lunch period Friday afternoon. The 60-year-old Moore has been diagnosed with cancer, and his students are rallying to his support.

A signed class photo illustrates the support students have been showing Salem High School teacher Ray Moore.

As Christmas Day came to an end, Ray Moore posted a grim but ultimately hopeful entry on his blog.

"I would like to request your prayers for my family," he wrote, shortly before midnight. "The short story is that I have invasive, high grade cancer.

"We are gathering our strength for the road ahead, but God is bigger than cancer, and we think it is important to enlist the prayer support that we believe can make the difference."

Doctors had weeks earlier discovered a tumor in the muscle wall of his bladder.

In the month since he revealed his illness Moore, who for nearly 40 years has taught English at Salem High School, found support from a variety of sources.

A few days after he announced his diagnosis, Kayla Kidd, a student of his, created a Facebook page, "Pray For Mr. Moore." It has since drawn 800 followers.

"I've never liked English and he's changed my mind about it all. I do so much better this year," said Kayla, a freshman. She said response to the page has been surprising: "I thought it'd be a lot, but I didn't figure it would be 800."

Meanwhile Moore, 60, has been hearing from current and former students, who have written, called or sought him out.

"There are some parents who I taught, and they're talking about their children, who I taught, too," he mused, before offering a rarely-voiced sentiment: "There's a lot of good in getting old."

Moore's daughter, Moriah, 28, said the situation is an example of bad news bringing out the best in people.

"For him, it's a blessing to realize he has impacted so many people's lives," she explained. "It's silly to say it took cancer for him to get to that point, but at the same time, because of cancer, people are coming back and telling him what an impact he had on their lives."

Moore knows the experience ahead will be a tough one. In the spring, the father of five is slated to undergo bladder replacement surgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, but first, he's opted to begin three months of chemotherapy today, a precaution he's taking because, he said, it will increase his chances of survival from 85 percent to 90 percent.

"He's being very aggressive about seeking out the right forms of treatment," said Salem High Principal John Hall.

"It plain sucks that he has to go through chemotherapy," Moriah Moore said, but added her father told her that it gives him the best chance of survival.

"This is another example of my dad's faith, and not just in a religious sense, but faith in people and their advice," she said.

Colleagues said he has a history of applying that same aggressive approach to his work.

"While many teachers aspire to one day teach the advanced courses for upperclassmen, Ray Moore has devoted his career to helping purposefully shape each entering freshman class," Superintendent Alan Seibert wrote in an e-mail.

"Ninth grade is the make-it-or-break-it year," explained Moore, who has taught freshman English since 1974. "Kids are young enough that shaping can be done. You can transform your school by transforming the freshmen. You can make your school better year by year.

"Many students don't realize how important they are."

Moore likes to amplify that sense of importance in unusual ways. He keeps his desk in the center of his classroom, among students rather than at the front, and he makes time outside the school day as well. Once, when the school newspaper was in financial danger of being eliminated, he orchestrated an unconventional fundraising project.

"He rallied a bunch of students together and they decided they were going to get a paper route and make money and keep it [the student newspaper] going," recalled Bryan Emerson, who taught at Salem for nine years.

"The students peeled off after a time. And there he is, delivering these hundreds of newspapers every day," Emerson said. "To me, that's Ray Moore."

Moore said he hopes that, as he fights the disease, he can somehow provide an example to students that extends beyond lessons in grammar and literature.

"My cancer diagnosis gives me a special opportunity because students are looking at me more closely now," he said. "The words they hear from me seem to have more reality and more relevance for them."

Emerson agreed: "I think that's what's rich in this. Even in this very precarious position he finds himself ... he's looking at it as a positive way to teach a life lesson to his kids."

"I ask him where he gets his energy," said Karen Barci, a teacher's aid for special education who has worked in the Salem school system for nearly 25 years. "I think it comes because he loves his students."

To view Moore's Facebook support page, visit: tinyurl.com/y8ppu8w