Gurnie M. Moss
1884 – 1972

Inducted June 9, 1978

Gurnie Moss was a teacher, coach and school administrator who at age 25 decided that he wanted to publish a weekly newspaper. So he bought the Whitefish Pilot on Oct. 1, 1919, and served as its editor and publisher for exactly 40 years.

Moss was born Feb. 1, 1884, in Forest City, Mo. A recipient of several college scholarships, he earned a degree in science from Drake University and a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He did graduate work in education at Columbia University.

After teaching at the Culver Military Academy, Moss moved to Great Falls to become a high school teacher and football coach. He later was superintendent of schools at Valier.

He was elected in 1925 to the Montana House of Representatives, where he served for 14 years and was named minority leader. He then served 12 years in the Montana Senate, where he was majority leader and president pro tempore. He is remembered for his influential role in bills on highway construction and school finance.

During his first term in the House, he participated in the impeachment of his friend, Secretary of State Charles T. Stewart. Moss observed: “You’ve got to have honesty in public office.”

Moss served as president of the Montana Press Association in 1922 and in 1924 became a member of the executive committee of the National Editorial Association. In 1952 he declined an invitation to become president of the NEA because he thought his duties as a state legislator were more important.

Moss encouraged Mel Ruder to start the Hungry Horse News in Columbia Falls. “Somebody is going to start a newspaper in Columbia Falls,” he told Ruder, “and it might as well be you.” Ruder won a Pulitzer Prize in 1964 for his stories and photos of the floods in Northwest Montana.

Moss’ news editor from November 1950 to March 1953 was Dorothy M. Johnson, who achieved national stature as a novelist and short-story writer.

In November 1972, a month and a half before his death at age 88, Moss insisted on being taken from his nursing home to the polls, noting that his first presidential vote was for William Howard Taft. Moss died Dec. 26, 1972.

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