In 1950, Katherine wed again, to Cyrus "Red" Moores, a photographer with the Corpus Christi Caller newspaper, and her sons were given their stepfather's name.

Red Moores, by then in insurance, moved the family to Houston, Texas, in 1960, and John spent his high school years there.

In 1994, Moores purchased the San Diego Padres professional baseball team from Tom Werner.

In 2009, he began the process of incrementally selling the Padres to a group of twelve investors, headed by Jeff Moorad (former sports agent and CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks) for about $500 million.

[4][5] The deal fell through in 2012, and Moores instead sold the team for $800 million to a group led by Ron Fowler.

Most recently, Moores is a member of the board of trustees for the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley.

[10] The center is focused on finding solutions to address the crisis of extreme poverty and disease in the developing world.