Leo Robert West

Leo R West of Penn Hills, beloved father, husband, grandfather, teacher, and mentor to many, passed away peacefully on October 23. Born on June 5, 1928, in Irwin, Pennsylvania, to George and Marie West, Leo was the oldest of 8. He attended Immaculate Conception Parochial School in Irwin, then attended St. Vincent Preparatory School and St. Vincent College, graduating in 1951 with a degree in history. Soon after, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed in Saltzburg, Austria, serving his country in the post-World War II European occupation forces for two years as a Signal Corps teletype repair technician. His time in Austria solidified his love of skiing and started his life-long interest in technology. And also beer.

After returning to the states, he felt his Army vocabulary was not quite classroom-ready, so he took a job at Saint Vincent as the building manager of the brand new Sportsman Hall, later Kennedy Hall and now the Carey Student Center. Soon, though, he found his way to his vocation, becoming a Social Studies teacher at Park Terrace, later East Allegheny High School. By this time, he was an avid skier. It was at the Westmorland Ski Club that he met his future wife, Jean Striegel. They married in 1964 and continued their adventures skiing in the Pennsylvania mountains and travelling the country. They had three children, who still blame them for instilling in them an irrational and expensive love of skiing and travel. He was also a ski instructor at Boyce Park in Allegheny County, introducing countless more young people to the outdoors and the joys of winter sport.

Leo earned his Masters of Education in World Cultures from the University of Pittsburgh, and he also co-owned Burke Glenn pool club on William Penn Highway in Monroeville for a number of years, further indoctrinating the county’s youth into summer outdoor activities, like swimming, golf, and go-carts.

Leo was always busy with professional activities – he held leadership positions in the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies and the Middle States Council for the Social Studies, edited their journals and newsletters, and led many training sessions at the state and national conventions. He was a past president of his local teacher’s union, a board member of the Western Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, a past president of the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, a past president of the Pennsylvania Ski Federation as well as a board member of the Pennsylvania Ski Hall of Fame and was the chair of the Social Studies Department at East Allegheny High School.

But he was never too busy for his family, teaching them a variety of important skills like how to clean out the gutters and how to parallel park as well as taking them on adventures to local lakes and ski areas and frequent trips to California to visit his parents, younger siblings, and his adored and adoring nieces and nephews. He also volunteered at St. Bartholomew Church in Penn Hills, helping with the annual festival and eventually helmed

the Penny Pitch booth, teaching his sons a very valuable lesson in the value of a penny (not much). Leo was always an early adopter of new technologies, teaching himself to use a personal computer in the early 1980s, and he was the first in the family to use Uber when he stopped driving at age 90.

Leo touched many lives through skiing, teaching, and volunteering. He was recognized in many ways for his service: he was given service awards by the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies and the National Council for Social Studies, was named an Alumnus of Distinction at Saint Vincent College, as well as being inducted into the Saint Vincent Athletic Hall of Fame and the Prep Hall of Fame. His family was always amazed at how many former students would walk up to say hello at the Monroeville Mall. After his retirement in 1994, he taught Labor History at Robert Morris University and did consulting work with various organizations developing what we would now call virtual learning. After Jean passed away in 2010, Leo stayed active in the social studies organizations, the Westmoreland Ski Club, and the Pennsylvania Ski Hall of Fame. He continued to travel to meetings and to see family across the country.

Leo is pre-deceased by his wife of 45 years, Jean West (Striegel), and is survived by daughter Patricia Brough (George) of Wake Forest, NC, sons Robert of Finleyville, PA, and Kevin (Amy) of Washington, DC; three grandchildren - Winston West of Washington DC, and Peter and Lucas Rorick of Mechanicville, NY, as well as their father Chuck Rorick; his sister Susie McNally of Milford, CA, and many, many beloved nieces and nephews and grand nieces and nephews. Leo liked nothing better than to be with family and friends, probably with a beer, and chat long into the evening. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Library of Accessible Media for Pennsylvanians.