An advocate for students’ needs
BERNARD J. KOBOSKY | Jan. 31, 1932 — Aug. 26, 2018
Bernard J. Kobosky was a manof few words.
“He was probably one of the best listeners that I ever met,” said his friend, former U.S. District Judge Robert Cindrich. “He always made you feel like you were heard.”
A longtime executive at the University of Pittsburgh and later, UPMC, Mr. Kobosky, 86, of Shadyside, died Sunday from complications from several ailments he’d suffered with during the past several years.
Judge Cindrich, 75, of Jackson, Butler County, met Mr. Kobosky in the 1960s, when his younger brother, sports agent and former NFL player Ralph Cindrich, played foot ball at Pitt.
“Hewas always so gracious and proud of seeing local kids get to the University of Pittsburgh and seeing them do well,” said Judge Cindrich, who grew up in Independence, a rural community in Washington County.
Judge Cindrich and Mr. Kobosky became friends and joined forces about 10 years later, when the former served as outside counsel for the university. Mr. Kobosky served as the school’s vice chancellor ofpublic affairs.
“We worked together on various issues. It was a turbulent time,” Judge Cindrich said of the 1970s, when anti-Vietnam War protests by students were in full swing.
Whether it was the antiwar movement or civil rights activism during the previous decade, Mr. Kobosky always worked with students to be sure their voices were heard when he served as vice chancellor of student affairs, said hisson, Bernard Kobosky Jr.
“He was deeply, deeply, deeply involved,” said the younger Mr. Kobosky, 55, of Shadyside. “He was kind of like a peacemaker among student groups. He would actually sleep in his office at times. He understood what their cause was. He wanted them to demonstrate peacefully but still make their point.”
“He had this aura of kindness about him that was remarkable,” recalled Judge Cindrich. “I think his first love was the students.”
A native of Canonsburg, Mr. Kobosky graduated from then-Canonsburg High School in 1949, before earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education from Duquesne University.
After joining the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Duquesne, Mr. Kobosky served in the Air Force after graduation, as a first lieutenant at the Harmon Air Force Base in Newfoundland. He flew missions during the Cold War and was recognized once for intercepting a radar communication during mock exercises.
On Aug. 11, 1956, he married his high school sweetheart, Evelyn Koklich, who survives.
Mr. Kobosky taught history at Canonsburg and Mt. Lebanon high schools, and served as a guidance counselor, before accepting a post as assistant dean at Duquesne in 1961. By 1965, he was appointed dean of admissions.
But, it was his long career at Pitt that Mr. Kobosky will be most remembered for, said hisson.
“He bled blue and gold,” his son said. “He loved the Universityof Pittsburgh.”
In 1968, Mr. Kobosky was named director of admissions at the same time that the state began recognizing Pitt as a state-related university, rather than the private school it had previously been.
As tuition rates dropped, admissions soared, doubling during the first years of the new agreement.
Inhis 1974 dissertation for a doctorate degree in public administration at Pitt, Mr. Kobosky wrote about the dramatic shift, which resulted in half of the school’s annual operating budget coming from thestate by 1971.
“He was very good at politics of any kind. He really carried a big load for the university in Harrisburg at a time when that was critical,” said Mark Nordenberg, former Pitt chancellor.
“The university changed from private to state-related, which meant the university needed to be more attentive of the politics of Harrisburg, becausewe were now going to be partof it.”
But, the state-related growth also brought with it a need for dramatic expansion of the campus, which increased in size from 23 to 40 buildings and from 64 to 110 acres, between 1960 and 1980.
The rapid growth often rankled displaced residents in Oakland, but the university developed a relationship with the community through Mr. Kobosky’s efforts, colleagues and loved ones said.
“When the university infringed on neighborhoods in Oakland, he spent many nights there in social clubs and churches, getting to know community leaders,” his son recalled.
“He was widely recognized as a person who was as wellrespected and as well-connected as anyone in the community,” Mr. Nordenberg said.
“He genuinely believed that if you got people together and helped them understand each other, differences could be resolved.”
“Even when a meeting was contentious, he could always absorb everything that was being said,” Judge Cindrich said. “He was a liaison between the university and the local community. He was the face of the university.”
By the 1980s, university leaders were beginning to branch out, with plans to develop UPMC Health System as a funding source for its School of Health Sciences, Judge Cindrich said. In that, too, Mr. Kobosky was an invaluableally, he said.
“He became the liaison between the university and UPMC. In those early years, it was just formative. We were just trying to figure out how to do this thing,” said Judge Cindrich, who also worked alongside Mr. Kobosky as outside counsel to UPMC Health System when his friend left the university in 1988 for a role as senior consultant to the fledgling organization. Mr.Kobosky retired in 2003.
“He was very intimately involved in what was the creation of the UPMC Health System,” his son said. “There was this famous line about my dad: ‘See Bernie, he’ll get it done.’ And he certainly did. Hegot things done.”
And there was no detail too small for Mr. Kobosky’s attention, said Mr. Nordenberg, who recalled a time when Mr. Kobosky managed to reserve a parking lot for a wedding at the University Club during the same weekend as a home football game with Notre Dame.
“He somehow magically produced a parking lot in Oakland when there wasn’t parking for anyone,” Mr. Nordenberg remembered.
His father treated everyone with respect, his son said, no matter their walk in life.
“I could never repay him for the life lessons that he gave to me,” he said. “He was a brilliant man. He was a wonderful, generous philanthropic individual, he was a loving father and grandfather, and a loving husband to my mother. He really cared about people and he befriended everybody.”
Along with his wife and son, Mr. Kobosky is survived by a daughter, Janet M. Kobosky, of Bryn Mawr, a granddaughter and step granddaughter.
Friends will be received at John A. Freyvogel Sons Inc., 4900 Centre Avenue at Devonshire Street, on Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m. The funeral is planned for Thursday, with a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Paul Cathedral, at 10 a.m. Interment in Calvary Cemetery is private.
Remembrances may be made to: Family Hospice and Palliative Care, 50 Moffett Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15243 or Western Pennsylvania Golf Association Scholarship Fund, 930 N. Lincoln Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15233.