World War II hero was steel executive when Homestead Works closed

At age 19, Martin F. Costa, known as “Marty,” stood 6 feet 7 inches and was an easy target for German machine gunners — even if he hadn’t been carrying a wounded soldier “right down the middle of the battlefield.”

“He was a country boy with the heart of a giant,” said his son, also named Marty and also a resident of South Park.

The Army infantry rifleman was awarded a Purple Heart and Silver Star for attacking an enemy machine gun nest in May 1944 and carrying his comrade back to Allied lines despite having a serious stomach wound himself. The elder Mr. Costa later told his son that a German surgeon stitched him up while he was in captivity. But he would never say how he escaped, saying, “That generation doesn’t complain.”

Mr. Costa was born in Fredericktown, Washington County, to Italian immigrants from a town near Lake Como.

His father was a coal miner. He was drafted shortly after his high schoolgraduation.

After the war, Mr. Costa studied business at Penn State University under the GI Bill. He was recruited to play basketball, though he hadn’t played the game much. It showed.

“I embarrassed myself,” he said. “At a home game, people in the stands were laughing at me.”

Yet two years later, he set a record for points scored in one game at Rec Hall, Penn State’s home court until 1996.

In 1951, he married his college sweetheart, the former Aida Asquini. They raised their son Marty in Whitehall. They had been married67 years when the elder Mr. Costa died.

Mr. Costa’s strong work ethic carried him from steelworker to steel executive. He retired in the mid-1980s as divisional superintendent of steel production at U.S. Steel’s Homestead Works. His 35year career ended around the time the mill closed in 1986. William Serrin, author of the book “Homestead: The Glory and Tragedy of an American Steel Town,” interviewed him about the industry’s decline.

“We were loaded with people, too many people,” Mr. Costa says in the book. “It seemed like all they wanted to do was build plants, and it got to the point where it seemed like they didn’t know what to do with them, really.”

Mr. Costa said the happiest days ofhis life were when his son and two grandchildren were born. He was a loving father but a straight shooter, hisson said.

“He was the John Wayne type. He said what he thought and you could accept it or not. He didn’t care,” he said.

The younger Mr. Costa, who is also 6 feet 7, was cut from the Penn State basketball team as a freshman, so he transferred and played at Carnegie Mellon University. His proud parents came to every game, his father offering a mix of encouragement and advice. During a timeout at one close game, the former center broke the silence.

“From the top of the bleachers came his booming voice: ‘Would you please jump?!’” the younger Mr. Costa recalled.

Visitation for Mr. Costa will be from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Tuesday at Jefferson Memorial Funeral Home, 301 Curry Hollow Road, Pleasant Hills. A celebratory service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the funeral home chapel.