thedrifter
03-14-08, 05:59 AM
Area man donates $25 million for medical care in Atlanta
Joseph Moss, a former pilot, has been in the stock market since 1945.
By Miguel Liscano , Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 14, 2008
In 1945, Joseph H. Moss returned from flying transports as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot in the Pacific to find that the military pay he'd saved added up to $3,000.
So he used $1,000 to buy a green Ford Club Coupe and, on the advice of an economics professor, invested the rest in the stock market.
He said he's used the stock market to build wealth ever since, including during nearly four decades as a pilot for Delta Air Lines.
Last week, Moss, who lives in the Westlake area, donated a little more than $25 million to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where he lived for about 50 years.
It was the largest single donation ever to the hospital from an individual, and more than eight times as large as the second biggest donation.
"I believe in what they're doing," Moss said, "particularly in the case of transplants."
The donation will pay for more transplant program staff and equipment and provide research to help children who need kidney, heart and liver transplants.
In 2004, Moss donated $50,000 to 12-year-old Edgar Gutierrez to pay for anti-rejection medication needed for a kidney transplant. Moss still keeps in touch with Edgar and last spoke with him about two weeks ago, he said.
Moss, who without being specific says he is an octogenarian, moved to the Austin area about a year and a half ago to be closer to his grandchildren. He lives in a western Travis County home with his wife, Nena, and spends half of his time at another home in New York City.
He was born in Hot Springs, Ark., the eldest of three children. He lived in cities across the country as his father switched railroad jobs.
He graduated from what was then Riverside High School in Fort Worth in 1940 and moved to Austin, where he learned to fly small planes through a civilian pilot training program.
"I fell in love with flying right then," Moss said.
He also enrolled at the University of Texas, where an economics professor named Dr. Peach explained the potential to make money in the stock market. Moss listened.
"There were probably 18 to 20 people in that class," Moss said. "And I've wondered if the others were equally impressed."
Before he could graduate, Moss volunteered for the military as a pilot and, after rising to the rank of captain, ended his time in the Marines in 1945.
The next year, he started flying for Delta, a job he loved that gave him chunks of time off to focus on the stock market.
"Hell, I'd still be there if they didn't make you retire at an early age," he said.
Moss did retire in 1982 and started focusing on investments.
He still gets free rides on Delta, he said. On one of those flights, Moss noticed a story in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Edgar, who was born with faulty kidneys.
Eason Jordan, chief news executive of CNN, donated $114,000 after reading the newspaper story.
"He needed a transplant," Moss said. "When the other fellow gave them the money for an operation, and I gave them the money for the drugs, they were able to proceed with it, provided they had a donor." But there wasn't a suitable donor for roughly a year.
"Suddenly, one morning ... they said they'd found a kidney," Moss said.
Fidelmar Gutierrez, Edgar's father, said that his son, now 16, has been feeling healthy since the kidney transplant.
"Up until now he's been doing great, thanks to God," he said.
Edgar's family moved back to their native state of Michoacán in June 2007 to be closer to aging relatives. The family now lives in the small town of Ciudad Hidalgo.
Thanks to Moss' donation, Edgar is receiving free immuno-suppressant drugs, but Fidelmar Gutierrez said that since January, Mexican customs officials haven't let them cross the border.
Nena Moss said she would attempt to straighten out the customs problem. They want Edgar to keep receiving his medicine, which prevents his body from rejecting the new organ.
"The whole family is pretty wonderful people, and pretty brave," she said.
Gutierrez said he is hugely thankful to Atlanta and all those who helped his son.
Moss "is a very good man," he said. "He does a lot of good works."
Moss, who said he's also donated millions to a couple of universities and a foundation that works for conservative causes, said he hoped his latest donation will help others like Edgar.
"I just decided this was the time," Moss said. "I'm able to do it, and I wanted to do it."
mliscano@statesman.com; 445-3629
Ellie
Joseph Moss, a former pilot, has been in the stock market since 1945.
By Miguel Liscano , Jeremy Schwartz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 14, 2008
In 1945, Joseph H. Moss returned from flying transports as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot in the Pacific to find that the military pay he'd saved added up to $3,000.
So he used $1,000 to buy a green Ford Club Coupe and, on the advice of an economics professor, invested the rest in the stock market.
He said he's used the stock market to build wealth ever since, including during nearly four decades as a pilot for Delta Air Lines.
Last week, Moss, who lives in the Westlake area, donated a little more than $25 million to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where he lived for about 50 years.
It was the largest single donation ever to the hospital from an individual, and more than eight times as large as the second biggest donation.
"I believe in what they're doing," Moss said, "particularly in the case of transplants."
The donation will pay for more transplant program staff and equipment and provide research to help children who need kidney, heart and liver transplants.
In 2004, Moss donated $50,000 to 12-year-old Edgar Gutierrez to pay for anti-rejection medication needed for a kidney transplant. Moss still keeps in touch with Edgar and last spoke with him about two weeks ago, he said.
Moss, who without being specific says he is an octogenarian, moved to the Austin area about a year and a half ago to be closer to his grandchildren. He lives in a western Travis County home with his wife, Nena, and spends half of his time at another home in New York City.
He was born in Hot Springs, Ark., the eldest of three children. He lived in cities across the country as his father switched railroad jobs.
He graduated from what was then Riverside High School in Fort Worth in 1940 and moved to Austin, where he learned to fly small planes through a civilian pilot training program.
"I fell in love with flying right then," Moss said.
He also enrolled at the University of Texas, where an economics professor named Dr. Peach explained the potential to make money in the stock market. Moss listened.
"There were probably 18 to 20 people in that class," Moss said. "And I've wondered if the others were equally impressed."
Before he could graduate, Moss volunteered for the military as a pilot and, after rising to the rank of captain, ended his time in the Marines in 1945.
The next year, he started flying for Delta, a job he loved that gave him chunks of time off to focus on the stock market.
"Hell, I'd still be there if they didn't make you retire at an early age," he said.
Moss did retire in 1982 and started focusing on investments.
He still gets free rides on Delta, he said. On one of those flights, Moss noticed a story in the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about Edgar, who was born with faulty kidneys.
Eason Jordan, chief news executive of CNN, donated $114,000 after reading the newspaper story.
"He needed a transplant," Moss said. "When the other fellow gave them the money for an operation, and I gave them the money for the drugs, they were able to proceed with it, provided they had a donor." But there wasn't a suitable donor for roughly a year.
"Suddenly, one morning ... they said they'd found a kidney," Moss said.
Fidelmar Gutierrez, Edgar's father, said that his son, now 16, has been feeling healthy since the kidney transplant.
"Up until now he's been doing great, thanks to God," he said.
Edgar's family moved back to their native state of Michoacán in June 2007 to be closer to aging relatives. The family now lives in the small town of Ciudad Hidalgo.
Thanks to Moss' donation, Edgar is receiving free immuno-suppressant drugs, but Fidelmar Gutierrez said that since January, Mexican customs officials haven't let them cross the border.
Nena Moss said she would attempt to straighten out the customs problem. They want Edgar to keep receiving his medicine, which prevents his body from rejecting the new organ.
"The whole family is pretty wonderful people, and pretty brave," she said.
Gutierrez said he is hugely thankful to Atlanta and all those who helped his son.
Moss "is a very good man," he said. "He does a lot of good works."
Moss, who said he's also donated millions to a couple of universities and a foundation that works for conservative causes, said he hoped his latest donation will help others like Edgar.
"I just decided this was the time," Moss said. "I'm able to do it, and I wanted to do it."
mliscano@statesman.com; 445-3629
Ellie