Babies are born and lives are saved every day at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. And every once in a while, love also is born here and goes on to last a lifetime. Such was the case for Agnes Moss of Murrysville and her lifelong love, the late Vassar “Pete” Moss, MD.
The love story begins in 1938, when Agnes, then an 18-year-old from West Deer, followed through on the dream her mother never fulfilled — to become a nurse and care for others. She was a member of the last nursing class to study at the Elizabeth Steel Magee School of Nursing before it merged with the University of Pittsburgh.
She remembers living at The Maples, the mansion that Magee founder Christopher Lyman Magee bequeathed to establish the hospital in 1911, and walking against the bitter winter wind to attend classes at Pitt.
Agnes was a 21-year-old nursing student at Magee when she met Pete in October 1941. He was an intern at the time. One of her girlfriends’ arranged a blind date for the pair to attend Agnes’ graduation dance. The rest is history.
At right: Agnes Moss clutches a portrait of her beloved "Pete" Moss in her Murrysville home. Although she has given many away to family and friends, her home still is filled with figurines representative of the care Pete provided to women and infants at Magee.
“He had to be a good dancer,” Agnes laughs. “If he couldn’t dance, I probably wouldn’t have talked to him again.”
Their courtship led to marriage in 1943, right before Pete was shipped off to the Pacific Theatre to serve as an army physician at the end of World War II. While he was away, Agnes settled into her nursing career at Magee, caring mostly for troubled young mothers.
When Pete returned from the war, he became a surgical resident and began a medical career that would span 40 years (including two as medical staff president) — every one of which he spent caring for the women and infants at Magee. He was beloved by his patients, peers, and co-workers. Their only complaint — that he actually spent too much time talking to his patients and slowed down the daily schedule. He was meticulous about getting to know the people he cared for and personalizing every visit.
 At left: Vassar "Pete" Moss, MD, pictured as an army physician during World War II, returned from the Pacific Theater to care for women and infants at Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital for the next four decades.
The couple raised three children in their Wilkinsburg home, at a time Agnes remembers, when the first stretches of I-376 opened and you could actually live that far away from Oakland and make it to work on time. Agnes stepped away from nursing to become a full-time mom, serving from time to time as a private duty nurse. Before he retired in 1988, Pete’s career came full circle, as he began training interns and residents as fresh-faced as he was in 1941.
Agnes and Pete shared the dance floor of life for more than 50 years before he passed away in 1995. She sold the house in Wilkinsburg to settle into something more manageable in Murrysville. Still, her home is full of figurines and photographs that beckon back to when she and Pete were part of the Magee community.
Then again, the Magee community is something you never really leave. The Mosses were charter members of The Maples Society founded in 1982, an outstanding philanthropic group of individuals who provide a unique source of funds to guarantee Magee’s future. Leaves on the bronze maple tree displayed in the hospital memorialize the Mosses’ financial support for nearly 30 years.
Agnes’ motivation is simple, she says. “I love Magee.”
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