Director of redevelopment authority

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Richard P. Drnevich started small.

Long before his long career transforming Pittsburgh block-by-block as director of the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County, he busied himself on small but complicated projects on the hill behind his family’s North Versailles home.

He was only about 6 and couldn’t yet spell “golf” when the future architect and urban planner set his mind to building a miniature course for his brothers and sisters to play “guff,” according to the sign he made for it.

His siblings can’t remember a time when Richard, the fourth of 10 children, wasn’t building something — usually for the benefit of others.

“He thrived in that arena,” Ron Drnevich said of his brother, who died Monday at St. Clair Hospital after a brief illness. He was 72.

“He was always full of ideas. He went to school for architecture and urban planning.

Those two things made a real good fit for the kind of work that the Redevelopment Authority got involved in.”

A lifelong bachelor, Mr. Drnevich enjoyed entertaining, whether at small dinner parties or at the annual Christmas gathering. There he had presents for everyone despite the large family’s traditional grab bag, which required bringing only a single gift.

He was a self-taught chef and could produce more food out of his small kitchen than his brother could believe — hams, turkeys, perfectly seasoned seafood and more.

For the last two years, the walls of his small twobedroom seemed to stretch to accommodate the 50 guests, including siblings from across the country.

He had to move there two years ago when, after a series of joint replacements, he could no longer navigate the stairs in the Wilkinsburg home he designed and his father, contractor Louis Drnevich, built.

“It was like no other house you’ve ever been in,” Ron Drnevich said. “There were different windows in different places and I never thought about it until he told me that wherever there’s a window you want to put it where

there’s something to see, so his house had so many different windows in different directions.”

Richard Drnevich had no children of his own, but he relished the moments spent with his 42 nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.

“He was devilish. He liked to tease and watch the chuckles,” Ron Drnevich said.

In his work life, he helped improve many parts of Pittsburgh by weatherizing homes and rehabilitating areas of the city, but rehabilitating buildings was less important to him than neighborhoods.

His life’s work was about helping people, his brother said.

For him, the work was about building neighborhoods, not buildings.

“He could see the good where others might not, and he had a positive attitude that would make a difference in other people’s lives. … The development process was about making people happy,” Ron Drnevich said. “He was a caring person and not selffocused.”

A funeral Mass will be at noon Monday at SS. Simon and Jude Church, 1607 Greentree Road, Scott.