It’s remarkable and fills one with a sense of nostalgia to hear that a friend was born at the former St. Paul University Hospital. To claim that birthplace is a mark of a true North Texas native – and with the area’s current growth spurt, it seems all the more rare.

Steve and Jeanne Seitz in 1979 when they worked at St. Paul University Hospital

But ask Steve and Jeanne Seitz about their children, and they’ll proudly declare that all seven of them were born at St. Paul. Plus, they’ve both worked at the same place for 40 years.

You can’t have seven children born in the same hospital without at least one funny story.

In 1986 when I was pregnant with my fourth child, I went into labor two weeks early while working an evening shift, Mrs. Seitz said. I worked halfway through the shift before the labor pains became apparent, so at that point I called my doctor and Steve. I walked down to the labor room and had my baby girl three hours later. Steve then joked that I should think about going back to work, since I still had an hour left on my shift.

Jeanne Seitz in 1978

Steve and Jeanne Seitz met while attending high school in their native Wisconsin. After a long-distance courtship during their college years, they were engaged. In 1978, they followed the Daughters of Charity, a Roman Catholic order of nuns, to Dallas to work at St. Paul – Mr. Seitz as a laboratory intern (after completing his undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Dallas), and Mrs. Seitz as a Registered Nurse. They were married the next year. Today, Mr. Seitz is a Medical Technologist and Mrs. Seitz is an RN II, and they both still work for the same hospital – now moved to the William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital building.

Mrs. Seitz is certified in geriatrics and medical surgical nursing and just recently received her Bachelor of Science in nursing. She received a Strauss Award in 2004, was named to the DFW Great 100 Nurses in 2012, won the D Magazine Excellence in Nursing Award for General Practice in 2013, and received a PACT Platinum Award in 2015.

“Being a nurse is not just a job, it is a vocation,” she says. It’s being supportive when others are weakened by illness or stress, being there to listen and give hope. I really like talking with patients and making a difference in someone’s life.

Mr. Seitz has been a Medical Technologist his entire career, working in nearly every kind of core lab: hematology, chemistry, microbiology, coagulation, and now in blood banking. Despite their different careers, the two have collaborated often in nursing education, such as making presentations on specimen integrity to nurses when they first started drawing blood at St. Paul.

I think I understand the nursing point of view better than anyone else in the lab, and she understands the laboratory side of things better than most, Mr. Seitz says. I don’t get to see patients that often. What I like about medical technology is that it’s always progressing; we’re always learning new things. I like to keep up with the science as best I can.

The couple have seven children and 13 grandchildren. They have a shared interest in musical productions, both sing with their church choir, and for seven years assisted with productions with the Regal Opera Company in Bedford.