Westinghouse Presentation at Allegheny Harvard Yale Princeton Club

On May 29, 2025, David Bear, President of The Westinghouse Legacy, spoke to attendees at the AYHP Club about George Westinghouse. Frank Kurtik, a follower of Pittsburgh history, attended the presentation and posted this report and photos on Facebook.

Frank Kurtik

This evening, I went to the Allegheny Harvard Yale Princeton Club to hear my friend David Bear give a presentation about George Westinghouse.

In years past when he was Travel Editor of the Post-Gazette, I enjoyed reading David’s writing and also enjoyed hearing his “Traveler’s Journal” on the radio. But it was Westinghouse that brought us together in person. While I have heard David speak about the brilliant inventor before, I always learn something new.

Back in the 1990s, when I worked in the U. S. Steel Building, I often walked down Stawberry Way to take advantage of the then HYP Club’s lecture series. I recall once going to hear Charlie Humphrey and at the end getting a Pittsburgh Fillmmakers T-shirt for answering a trivia question.

For David’s talk, there was a full audience that included Thomas Wilson in the row ahead of me. Afterwards I was chatting about industrial safety devices with a fellow audience member and it turned out to be Wes Posvar, son of the Pitt Chancellor back when I began working at the University.

Wes had a career with Mine Safety Appliance, where for a time he worked under the father of my friend Harley Trice. I had to trot out my well-worn quip that in Pittsburgh, there is only one degree of separation. On the subject of connections, years ago I met George Westinghouse IV when he was up here from Atlanta and also got to meet a great nephew of Nikolas Tesla.