Restored Westinghouse Memorial Unveiled In Schenley Park

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Patty Steffey vividly recalls getting saddled with an unusual trash duty as a little girl in the 1930s.

Her father periodically would supply her and her siblings with garbage bags, then drive them from their Squirrel Hill home to the northwest corner of Schenley Park in Oakland.

Their mission: Clean up a then-newly installed memorial dedicated to the man her dad admired most, Pittsburgh industrial titan George Westinghouse.

“My father had to retire early due to illness, and just about the hardest thing for him was giving up working at Westinghouse,” said Steffey, 93. “As an employer, (Westinghouse) took care of his people, and he respected them.”

Thursday marked what would have been the 170th birthday of Westinghouse, the American inventor and entrepreneur whose achievements include inventing the air brake and building an energy empire that made him one of Thomas Edison's biggest rivals.

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy held a cake-cutting ceremony to celebrate the regional icon and unveil its $2.7 million restoration of the Westinghouse Memorial... Read the full article