On May 29, 2025, David Bear, President of The Westinghouse Legacy, spoke to attendees at the AYHP Club about George Westinghouse. Frank Kurtik, a follower of Pittsburgh history, attended the presentation and posted this report and photos on Facebook.
Frank Kurtik
This evening, I went to the Allegheny Harvard Yale Princeton Club to hear my friend David Bear give a presentation about George Westinghouse.
In years past when he was Travel Editor of the Post-Gazette, I enjoyed reading David’s writing and also enjoyed hearing his “Traveler’s Journal” on the radio. But it was Westinghouse that brought us together in person. While I have heard David speak about the brilliant inventor before, I always learn something new.
Back in the 1990s, when I worked in the U. S. Steel Building, I often walked down Stawberry Way to take advantage of the then HYP Club’s lecture series. I recall once going to hear Charlie Humphrey and at the end getting a Pittsburgh Fillmmakers T-shirt for answering a trivia question.
For David’s talk, there was a full audience that included Thomas Wilson in the row ahead of me. Afterwards I was chatting about industrial safety devices with a fellow audience member and it turned out to be Wes Posvar, son of the Pitt Chancellor back when I began working at the University.
Wes had a career with Mine Safety Appliance, where for a time he worked under the father of my friend Harley Trice. I had to trot out my well-worn quip that in Pittsburgh, there is only one degree of separation. On the subject of connections, years ago I met George Westinghouse IV when he was up here from Atlanta and also got to meet a great nephew of Nikolas Tesla.