U.S. Steel executive valued candor
He was a vice president for industrial powerhouse U.S. Steel Corp.
She was an environmentalist hell-bent on cleaning up Pittsburgh’s air.
And yet Earl W. Mallick and Michelle Madoff, the firebrand activist who became a longtime Pittsburgh City Council member, managed a forthright relationship as “sort-of buddies” in the mid-1970s.
“It sounded as if it was one of mutual respect,” said Mr. Mallick’sson, Craig Mallick of FranklinPark.
“I think he was happy about that — that he could have that kind of relationship with someone who many probably considered a foe of thecompany, of the industry.”
The elder Mr. Mallick’s candid streak encouraged his rapid ascent in the steel business, his son said, where the Pittsburgh native helped lead U.S. Steel for nearly three decades before his retirement in 1991. He was living in Fort Myers, Fla., when he died Wednesday at age 91.
Born in Mount Washington to Nora and Frederick Mallick, he grew up in Ambridge, enrolled in a Navy program and attended Northwestern University. He finished a degree in electrical engineering in 1946 and, to his father’s dismay, went on to earn a law degree at Harvard University.
Along the way, Mr. Mallick met Evelyn Hill of Emsworth through a wedding party.
They wed in 1950 — no thanks to his love for corny humor.
“He told these jokes — she just thought they were awful. She had very little interest” at first, Craig Mallick said.
“He tended to laugh the hardest at his own jokes. He was probably doing that, too. Things turned around later.”
The young couple lived in southwestern Pennsylvania, where Mr. Mallick joined Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel as a law clerk in 1949.
About six years later, the company transferred him to a former coal and iron division in Fairfield, Ala., and the family began a nearly two-decade stint in the South.
By 1964, U.S. Steel had appointed him vice presidentSouth.
He became entrenched in Birmingham amid the blossoming movement for civil rights.
The local Young Men’s Business Club named him Birmingham Man of the Year in 1967 for his community service.
“Mallick was willing to speak directly with civil rights leaders and took a more active role in facilitating the changes in the city,” Judith Stein wrote in her book, “Running Steel, Running America: Race, Economic Policy and the Decline of Liberalism.”
He and his family settled in Fox Chapel in 1972, when U.S. Steel put him in charge of environmental control.
The next few years proved difficult, as Mr. Mallick “didn’t always get along with executive management at the company, who could be kind of recalcitrant when it came to environmental issues,” Craig Mallick said.
The company did not comment Friday on the portrayal.
Another book, “The Corporation: A Centennial Biography of United States Steel Corporation, 19012001,” depicted Mr. Mallick as a human tennis ball — batted about by environmental interests and corporate headquarters.
“It’s not like he lashed out. He wasn’t tough on us. It was tough on us to see him like that,” Craig Mallick said.
He remembered his father, a devoted Presbyterian, as a tender touch, willing to wrap his handkerchief around cold glass bottles of Coca-Cola for his kids’ small hands.
“If he ever thought you needed something, there was no way he wasn’t going to find it,” daughter Joy Mallick of Fairfax, Va., wrote in a note.
“Once I made the mistake of saying, ‘Shoot — I forgot to buy the Special K,’ which was for a Christmas brunch recipe. There was no stopping him from going to find it. It was Christmas Eve, and stores were closed.
“And sure enough, he returned with it,” Ms. Mallick said.
His last chapter with U.S. Steel took him to Washington, D.C., in 1979 as chief lobbyist and vice president for public affairs.
Retirement found him and Mrs. Mallick on Hilton Head Island, S.C., where he won election as a town council member and indulged his love for magic in a regular children’s show.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by another son, Keith Mallick of Schererville, Ind., and six grandchildren.
His wife and a brother, Edgar Mallick, preceded him in death.
“Healways put everybody first,” Craig Mallick said.
“He felt a sense of responsibility to his community, to his family, to his country,” he said.