Real estate executive known for caring touch

Dec. 3, 1939 - March 17, 2017

Samuel Forbes Rockwell was a successful Pittsburgh-area real estate executive who loved skiing, tennis, biking and squash but made his mark on the world in the lives he touched in simple ways, his family said.

Mr. Rockwell, 77, died Friday at UPMC Presbyterian from injuries he received in a fall down cellar steps several days earlier at his Upper St. Clair home.

Mr. Rockwell was born in Haverhill, Mass., and moved to Pittsburgh to become executive vice president at Dollar Bank.

He then worked at senior housing project manager National Development Corp., based in Oakland, before starting his own real estate management firm, Colebrook Management Inc., while in his early 50s and at a time when two of his children were in college.

He continued to run Shadyside-based Colebrook up until the time of his death.

Mr. Rockwell was remembered for his love of the outdoors, his involvement with the Apartment Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, Arthritis Foundation and other charitable organizations.

But his son Sam Rockwell remembered the ways his father touched the lives of people around him in small ways that had a big impact.

He’d regularly call family members who were having a difficult time, offering encouragement and words of caring, Sam Rockwell said.

The little things he did, adopting people into his weekly routine and the guidance and love he shared, ultimately changed the lives he touched.

“He saw value in what others might have missed,” daughter-in-law Anne Rockwell wrote in collecting thoughts for a eulogy. “He saw needs in unusual places and did what he could to fill in the gaps.”

And it wasn’t just family members. In recent years, Mr. Rockwell befriended retired dentist Albert Gosnell, who lived in a nursing home. Every Monday afternoon, Sam Rockwell said his father would visit Mr. Gosnell, who died in January at age 96.

“He paid as much attention to the locker room attendants as the CEO he just met at lunch,” Sam Rockwell said. “He was a loving father, mentor, the perfect grandfather.”

Mr. Rockwell is survived by wife Mary Rockwell of Upper St. Clair; daughters Rebecca Washabaugh of Canonsburg, and Elizabeth Fecko of Sewickley; and son Samuel, of Fox Chapel. He is also survived by eight grandchildren and one greatgrandchid.

Viewing is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday and from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Beinhauers, 2828 Washington Road, McMurray, before a celebration of life service Friday at 3 p.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2040 Washington Road, Upper St. Clair.