Donora Lumber Co. president
MICHAEL CHROMULAK | Nov. 13, 1929 — April 7, 2015
If you ever rode the Jack Rabbit or the Thunderbolt at Kennywood or watched a home run disappear over the fence at Three Rivers Stadium, you might want to tip your hat to Michael Chromulak.
Known to many as “Mr. Donora Lumber,” Mr. Chromulak supplied lumber for the fence at the now-gone stadium and for the wooden coasters at the amusement park during a career that spanned more than 60 years.
“He became synonymous with that business,” said his daughter Cathy Ann Chromulak Rumsey. “He was very well known throughout the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh.”
Mr. Chromulak started working at Donora Lumber Co. at age 18 after graduating from Donora High School in 1947 and eventually became its president. He spent his entire career with the lumber company until his retirement at age 80. He died Tuesday at Heartland Hospice in Jefferson Hills after suffering a stroke. He was 85.
Michael T. Chromulak was born in Donora on Nov. 13, 1929, and lived his entire life in the town until he moved to his daughter’s home in the Meadow Lands five years ago.
At Donora Lumber, he served both residential and commercial customers and even supplied some of the lumber used in the construction of the World Trade Center in New York, according to his daughter.
After retiring, he supervised the construction of executive-type homes for prominent business people.
At his core, Mr. Chromulak “really sort of embodied the spirit of the blue collar Monongahela Valley work ethic,” said David Jardini, a friend who came to know the man in his later years.
Gregarious and outgoing, Mr. Chromulak was a people person who made friends easily, his daughter said. “People liked him, from the leaders of industry to the common man,” she said.
Mr. Chromulak proved to be as adept in civic life as he was in the lumber yard. He served as a member of the Donora school board and then the Ringgold school board for nearly 30 years and was a member of the Mon Valley Area Vocational-Technical school board for 13 years. He also served on the Washington-Greene-Fayette Counties Intermediate Unit I school board.
“I think my father saw education as a means by which people could improve themselves and have a better life and that it was absolutely necessary for every child to have every advantage they could in the education process,” Mrs. Chromulak Rumsey said.
Among many other volunteer endeavors, Mr. Chromulak spent more than 15 years on the Washington County Industrial Development Authority board and served as chairman of the Washington County Transportation Authority, where he campaigned to improve public transit.
In those roles and others, he worked hard to try to revive and improve the economic climate in the Mon Valley, said Washington County Commissioner Harlan Shober, a friend.
“He liked to serve the community, to give back to the community,” Mr. Shober said.
An avid sports fan who had Steelers, Pirates and Pitt basketball season tickets, Mr. Chromulak’s most enduring sports fix involved the Indianapolis 500, which he first saw with a group of friends when he was 19 years old.
Except for two years in the service with the U.S. Army medical corps during the Korean War, he made an annual pilgrimage to the race right up until the last time in 2012.
Mr. Chromulak was a member of the St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church in Donora, where he served as an usher and an officer. He also provided assistance and advice to many churches of all denominations on building and remodeling programs.
He is survived by his daughter.
Friends will be received from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. today at the Anthony L. Massafra Funeral Home Cremation Service Inc., 40 Second Street Extension, Donora. Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Church. Interment will be in St. Michael Cemetery, Donora.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius, 3605 Perrysville Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15214 or www.bcs.edu/make-a-difference.