Steve Turchan
The following article about Steve Turchan (1909-1968) appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on July 2, 1967. “A Second Father To Trafford’s Boys” written by William Delahan:
If boys in Trafford selected their favorite male adult, it's certain that Steve Turchan would win hands down. Mr. Turchan, a moulder at Westinghouse East Pittsburgh Division, is in many organized activities for boys, including Cub Scouts and Little League. But this warmhearted, deceivingly gruff-looking grandfather's popularity with boys goes beyond the Scout meeting room and the baseball playing field. "Boys who know Steve think nothing of walking more than a mile to visit him at home," says Mayor John Zigarovich, of Trafford, who lives in Steve's neighborhood and knows him well. "They feel as welcome in his home as their own."
James Kelly, now an auto company supervisor at Louisville, KY, knows personally how deep Mr. Turchan's affections are for boys. He left home at 10 and turned himself over to the late Juvenile Court Judge Gustav L. Schramm. The judge talked with the boy and then phoned Steve.
"I have a boy with me who knows you and says he no longer has a home," said Judge Schramm. "I've investigated his background and if you take him in, he'll have the home he needs.'' Mr. and Mrs. Turchan had raised their children, two daughters, and quickly agreed to make a home for Jim, raising him as a son.
Steve's encouragement played a part in the decision of nearly half a dozen boys in the community to go to college. He is naturally closemouthed when asked about boys who were on the verge of going off the straight-and-narrow until their friends or parents got him to take them under his wing.
"Steve is a powerful influence for good with boys," emphasizes Mayor Zigarovich. "He reaches them when parents can't. Steve likes them and they like him.''
Talks Their Language: Just about all the free time the brawny Trafford man has goes into working with boys. He estimates that 20 hours of each week are boy-related. But his friends put the figure much higher. One reason he and boys get along so well is that they talk the same language. Steve, as a boy, devoted his time to baseball, football, fishing, and hunting. He and a long-time friend every year, over Labor Day and for two weeks in the summer, go up near Wellington, Ontario to fish. And he fishes in Western Pennsylvania, too, when the time allows it but usually with a boy or two along. Mr. Turchan was Little League baseball, single-handed, until the Trafford Baseball Association was organized. His past work received recognition recently when a plaque was presented to him at a banquet.
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| H.O.S. (Home Order Service) baseball Team circa 1967 called the Bucs, photo courtesy Steven Perovich. Back row (L-R) Coach Paul Hreha, Glenn Hreha, David Pocsatko, Steven Perovich, Joe Cymmerman, George Oreski, Tom Kelley, Tom Petrini, Coach Steve Perovich Front row (L-R) Eddie Ryan, Billy Rominger, Ricky Begali, Gary Gunter, Bill Humlan, Mike Ryan. |
"Some of the Little League burden is off Steve's shoulders as he's manager, this summer, of just one of the two Little League teams, the Mets, while William Higgs manages the other team, the Cubs,'' points out Mr. Zigarovich. "The baseball association's officers and board of directors are also available to lend a hand. The association is raising $3000, by selling stock at $1 a share, plus $2000 from the Community Chest and a pop bottle drive." But to Steve that just means more time he can spend on other activities with boys. He is Cubmaster of Pack 79, one of two in the borough, while Mr. Higgs is Cubmaster of the other one, Pack 152. Mr. Turchan became Cubmaster 10 years ago and, in the first year, the pack grew from 14 to 30 members. Just what the Cub Scouts think of Steve is visible as soon as you step into the basement of the Turchan house at Sixth and Homewood Streets. Cubs have regular projects, such as making ashtrays and bird feeders, but Steve's Cubs also, on their own, make things for their den's meeting place, the Turchan basement.
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| Turchan home at the corner of Sixth Street and Homewood Ave. This photo circa 1969. The photo appears in the Trafford Arcadia book: Arcadia Publishing - TRAFFORD: Images of America |
Provides Discipline: It's obvious that the affection they have toward Mr. Turchan prompted individual boys to design items like the attractively stained wooden holder for a clipboard. He commands respect from boys not because he's an easy mark, just the opposite. Whenever they notice his glasses are falling down on his nose, the boys know they better watch out. He's getting angry.
"Anytime one of them shows lack of respect for a dad or mother they hear from me," Steve says. "And I'm not interested in tattletales. I shut my ears when a boy tries to tell me something bad about another boy. I also put him in his place." Of course, all the boys want Steve to like them and know that bad behavior won't impress him in their favor. "Many things this wonderful man does for boys he won't talk about unless you ask him, like providing rods and reels for youngsters who don't have any," reports a mother who thinks Mr. Turchan is "just the greatest.”
"He does more than that. Steve regularly takes gangs of boys fishing." Of course, part of the time the fishing trips are sponsored by the Trafford Sportsmen's Club and the Grand Canyon Club, both of which back hunting and fishing activities for boys. And other trips are made with his Cub Scout pack. But many more are just sponsored by Steve Turchan. Through a relative he has access to 33 r.p.m. records and regularly provides them for record hops at Trafford High School, he keeps hundreds of the discs lining one wall of his basement to use when necessary. Steve also can furnish cartoons for children's parties from a similar source and, so, is very popular with mothers when it's birthday time. "People exaggerate what I'm doing,'' laughs Mr. Turchan. "Take the outfield fence we got for the baseball field. It was my Cub Scouts, not me, who raised $90 selling 400 dozen doughnuts to help buy the fence."
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| Steve Turchan played for the Trafford City Alumni semi-pro football team. |
Ball Field Fencer: But the four-foot-high, 300-foot-long fence blew down and Mr. Turchan was one of the leaders who went down and put it back up bracing it as firmly as possible. He also was among the many who worked to otherwise get the playing field in shape for this season. Den mothers aren't always easy to come by for Cub Scout packs and Mr. Turchan, who works the 11:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. trick, is available to substitute and does so on what amounts to a permanent basis. "That's right in line with the new Scouting emphasis on the importance of den fathers," he declares. Mr. and Mrs. Turchan live in the house where Mr. Turchan was born and grew up, with his parents, John and Mary Turchan. The store at the front of the house was run by Mr. Turchan's parents and his nephew operates it today. It is a popular spot for children to come for candy. "My parents were in business for 60 years," reports Mr. Turchan. "Recently, I found miners' buckets and picks under the house obviously put there years ago after they didn't sell." Mr. Turchan was just one in a family of three boys and 12 girls. As a boy, he swam in Sulfur Creek, which runs past the Westinghouse plant, and fished in "the old BY," the "B" being the railroad code name for a section of track and the "Y" for its shape. He graduated from Trafford High School in 1928.
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| Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph; Sept 6, 1943 Greater Pittsburgh Amateur Baseball Federation Champs 1943 |
"I played for a great amateur baseball club that competed one year at Youngstown in playoffs of the National Baseball Federation. Our team was in the Greater Pittsburgh Federation." He also played for a semi-pro football team, the Trafford Alumni, traveling out of state to such cities as Akron and Canton. But Mr. Turchan is looking ahead, not backward and its baseball that's on his mind at this time of year. His big dream, and that of the Trafford Baseball Association as well, is the coming of the day when the borough will have a complete baseball program.
Goal For Baseball: "That will mean a Little League for the youngsters age 8, 9, 10 and 11; Pony League to serve the 12 and 13-year-olds; Colt to consist of the 14 and 15-year-olds; and another league for older teenagers."
"This fellow is a really great guy" declares Fred Falco, assistant district commissioner for the Turtle Creek Valley communities in the East Boros Boy Scouts Council. "His pack, sponsored by St. Regis Church, is one of the best and he made it that way." Mr. Turchan isn't just popular with practically every boy in Trafford who knows him, but also among his grandchildren, he has 10, six boys and four girls. He does many things with them too. They are the children of his daughters, Mrs. Mary Rose Warren and Mrs. Louise Labik. Mrs. Labik is head maternity nurse at West Penn Hospital.
