Obituary
Much beloved by family and friends, Dr. Mary Lois Kelly O’Connor Munch died July 6 in Virginia after complications from a stroke. She was 92 years old.
The former Mary Lois Kelly, was born Oct. 25, 1929, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of the late Eugene and Jane Kelly, and grew up on Oneida Street in Mt. Washington. A 1947 graduate of the former St. Mary of the Mount School on Mount Washington, she was a 1951 graduate of Marywood College, now Marywood University, in Scranton. After earning her master’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh and marrying John G. O’Connor in 1954, she had two sons and taught nursing students for several years at Mercy Hospital before beginning medical school, at age 40, at Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
After graduating from medical school in 1974, she completed her internship and residency at Philadelphia’s Bryn Mawr Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh before returning to Mercy Hospital as director of employee health in the late 1970s. After being widowed in1979, she established a successful private practice at North Hills Passavant Hospital, which she ran from the1980s until she retired in 1994.
She married Earl Munch on May 4, 1991, and they were married for nearly 29 years until his death in 2020. The two enjoyed traveling, which they did extensively.
As a doctor, she was known for her compassionate care for her wide range of patients, often working long hours to visit those in the hospital. After retiring, she provided medical care as a volunteer at Native American reservations in the western U.S.
A North Hills resident most of her adult life, she was a long-time member and former president of the Pittsburgh Doll Club, and was known to friends and family for her extensive doll collection.
She is remembered for her loving support of family and friends, for such expressions as “your home should always be a safe place,” and for encouraging equal opportunities and equal pay for women.
She is survived by two sons: Dr. Robert (Dr. Sara Sutherland) O’Connor of Charlottesville, VA, and David (Dianne Martin) O’Connor of Millersville, PA; four grandchildren: Lorien (Ben Knight) Knight, Stephen O’Connor, Erin O’Connor and Carolyn O’Connor; two great-grandchildren, Harley Knight and Dennis Knight; and one nephew, Jeff Clark of Pittsburgh.
She was also preceded in death by her two siblings, brother John Kelly and sister Jeanne Cohan.
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