Scottdale area mail carrier was always on the go

For eight years, Harry Leighliter lived by the U.S. Postal Service creed, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.’’

Mr. Leighliter worked as a rural carrier in the Scottdale area, delivering mail to homes and businesses from his car.

“It was out in the country,” said his wife, Patty. “He seemed to enjoy it. He’d go in extra early. He enjoyed anything he did.”

Mr. Leighliter started out as a substitute carrier and then went full time when the woman who previously had the route got sick. He retired in 2000.

Harry R. “Blick” Leighliter of Mt. Pleasant died Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital. He was 88.

Born in Connellsville on May 30, 1931, he was the son of the late Harry and Blanche (Ritenour) Leighliter. He graduated from Connellsville High School in 1949 and enlisted in the Army. He served as a tank driver in the Korean War era and later served in the National Guard.

Mr. Leighliter worked for a number of local companies for more than 24 years before settling on the Postal Service. Upon his retirement, he took a part-time job as a crossing guard at Ramsay Elementary School in the Mt. Pleasant Area School District.

“He loved those kids to death,” his wife said. “He’d agitate them, and they’d agitate him right back.”

Mr. Leighliter was known as a joker and the “life of the party,” she said. He regularly saw former students who remembered him from his crossing guard days.

“At Christmastime, he’d get so many presents,” she said.

Mr. Leighliter loved to travel and to vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He also went on cruises with his wife and took vacations in North Carolina.

“He didn’t like to be stationary. He had to be on the move all the time,” Mrs. Leighliter said, noting that the two of them went somewhere every day.

Mrs. Leighliter described him as a loving husband, father and grandfather. “We came first in his life,” she said.

He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Patricia A. (Givinski) Leighliter; his son, Richard Leighliter and his wife, Crystal, of Scottdale; his daughters, Pamela Pirtle and her husband, Les, of St. Louis, Mo., and Rita Daugherty of Miami, Okla.; seven grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and two sisters.

Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Galone-Caruso Funeral Home, 204 Eagle St., Mt. Pleasant. Military honors will be accorded at the funeral home by the Armbrust Veterans Association.