Kimball H. Moore; Former San Diego City Manager

Former city manager Kimball H. Moore, a political liberal who many credit with the successful redevelopment of San Diego’s downtown, has died of a stroke. He was 79.

Moore died Tuesday at UC San Diego Medical Center.

He served as city manager from 1971 to 1974, working with then-Mayor Pete Wilson.

“I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work closely with Kim to meet the challenges of a dynamically growing city and on redeveloping downtown,” Gov. Wilson said in a statement.

Moore’s administration also spearheaded the city’s low-income housing programs, the creation of a redevelopment agency, a police ambulance patrol, open space and parks efforts, environmental controls and federally funded Model Cities programs in minority communities.

In 1977, he was named head of an equal opportunity office for San Diego County to promote minority hiring.

City manager when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, Moore in the late 1980s served on the Metropolitan Sewer Task Force. He also stressed careful use of water resources as part of C3, a group devoted to addressing problems of growth during San Diego’s third century.

A native of Jacksonville, Ill., Moore grew up in Los Angeles and studied business at UCLA and later did graduate work at USC. He began working for San Diego in 1955 in its budget office after 14 years with the federal Public Housing Administration in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Diego.