Paul Kengor: Remembering true civic leaders — Jim Roddey and Andy Russell

In early 1995, my wife and I, recently married, were looking to come back to Pittsburgh. We were working and living in the Washington, D.C., area. There were appealing things about the area, but it undeniably felt like the proverbial “rat race” to us. It got worse when our house was robbed. The faceless thieves even burned our little dog with cigarettes. When we got home, the dog was shaking, quivering.

That was a somewhat traumatizing moment when Susan and I said to each other, “Enough, let’s go home.”

We had met at Pitt as undergrads. In D.C., I got my master’s degree. Now, we both applied back to our alma mater — Susan to the master’s program in exercise physiology and I to the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs. I also applied for jobs.

I sent my résumé to as many people as I could, from former employers to various names in politics, media, public policy. I sent open letters asking about positions, leads, networking. I didn’t get many responses, but one especially stood out.

That response was from Jim Roddey.

A North Carolina native, Roddy had moved to Pittsburgh in the late 1970s and embraced the city and never left. He had become a local community leader. I had never met him. Thus, it was a nice surprise when I received an encouraging letter from him giving me some names and leads. He asked me to telephone him. When we finished, I thanked him profusely for going out of his way to help a 28-year-old looking for a job. He replied, “I’m happy to. We need young people like you to come back to Pittsburgh and be part of this community, rather than leaving it.”

That said a lot about Jim Roddey. When he later became the county’s first chief executive, I knew that Allegheny County genuinely had someone who cared about the community.

I’m sharing this now as a tribute to Roddey, who died last week at age 91. Read any obituary of Roddey, and you’ll see two words repeatedly applied: “civic leader.” Allegheny County Republican Chairman Sam DeMarco said of Roddey: “he established himself as a civic leader unlike any other.”

He really did.

Ironically, another such civic leader died the week before Roddey, at age 82. He was Andy Russell.

Russell, of course, was a great Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, a perennial Pro Bowl selection who rarely missed a game in his 12-year NFL career. But there was much more to Russell. When he retired from football in 1976, he embraced the community, of which he (like Roddey) was not a native (he was born in Detroit).

I was only 10 years old when Russell retired, too young to have fully experienced his playing days. I came to know Russell from his omnipresent community service. He was constantly involved, with groups like Big Brothers and Sisters, Children’s Hospital, the Mel Blount Youth Home, the American Heart Association, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall (like Jim Roddey, he was a military veteran). The list is long. It includes his own charitable foundation.

In all, here were two men who truly loved and served their adopted city and community. They made our place better. May we remember their names and service, and may we endeavor to serve and better our community as they both did.