Master herbalist Michael Roland Shaw Moore, a former Santa Fe resident, died last week in Tucson, Ariz., from the complications of kidney disease.

Known as the "godfather of American herbalism," Moore, 68, wrote a half-dozen books about herbs and trained hundreds of people in their medicinal uses.

"He's going to have a lasting and significant impact on the whole direction of American herbalism," said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council in Austin, Texas. "Hundreds of people who have studied with him have started small businesses and schools, and have gone on to become herbalists."

"He was a musician and a composer and he kind of saw herbs in a similar way," said Buffy Siebel, who studied with him and is now manager of Herbs Etc. on Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe. "Each plant had its place and had its beauty and had its use. ... Every single plant, he would dote on it like it was the only plant in the world."

"He fell in love with plant medicine and he pursued it his whole life," said his widow, Donna Chesner, administrator of his Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in Bisbee, Ariz. "He pursued the old masters of the eclectic traditions in America and he made many outstanding contributions to the modern herbalism based on his own creativity, his own reading of the old texts and his own practice through many, many years of having a store."

Born Jan. 9, 1941, in Bellingham, Wash., Moore grew up Los Angeles, studied music at the California Institute of Arts, became interested in herbalism and ran several herb shops in Southern California.

In 1970, he moved his herb shop from Topanga Canyon, Calif., to Taos, where he called it Herbs Etc., and brought the business to Santa Fe the next year.

Siebel said that although Moore already knew about herbs before coming to New Mexico, he learned more from New Mexican Hispanics and began harvesting local herbs so he could supply them in the off-season. "Michael taught through metaphor in a way that really made you understand the concept about how the body worked and how the body responded to different plants and how plants worked," she said. "He was just a brilliant teacher."

Blumenthal recalled that he was living in a commune near Peñasco about 1971 when he walked into Herbs Etc. on Aztec Street to find out about medicinal plants, and struck up a lifelong friendship with Moore. "He would speak in a stream of consciousness," he said. "He gave his classes sitting almost Buddha-like. He was kind of like a biker Buddha — big beard, long hair, kind of a paunch, T-shirt, always with the black vest."

In the mid-1980s, Moore sold Herbs Etc. to an employee, Daniel Gagnon, who still owns the store, so he could concentrate on teaching. He moved from Santa Fe to Bisbee, then to Silver City, where he met Chesner. Together, they lived in Albuquerque, then returned to Bisbee, where they continued to reside until his death on Friday.

Chesner said Moore taught until 2006, when "his health did not allow him to teach anymore, so he spent years working on a home-study course — filming his entire 500-hour course (that) was reduced down to a DVD. ... He, of course, was extremely well-known in his field, so he fielded many calls and mentored many students."

A three-day conference to memorialize Moore is planned April 17-19 in Truth or Consequences, with students, teachers, users and growers celebrating Moore's accomplishments and the many lives he has touched. For more information, see www.swsbm.com/homepage.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.