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- [S927] Obituary.
Growing up as the son of a television repairman had its perks, David Kushner said.
"Our friends were lucky to have one TV," he said. "We had one in each room of the house."
Kushner said his father, John, had a technical know-how that made him able to fix anything.
John Robert Kushner, formerly of Brentwood, died Thursday, March 25, 2004, in Rolling Hills Manor, Baldwin Township. He was 78.
Mr. Kushner was born in 1926 in Homestead and graduated from Homestead High School, where he played on a state champion boys' volleyball team.
During World War II, Mr. Kushner served in the Navy and patrolled the East Coast on patrol torpedo boats -- small, quick vessels that carried a crew of about a dozen.
He was retired from the U.S. Steel Homestead Works, where he worked as a mechanic.
Mr. Kushner married Laura Ann Wyborski in 1955 and they had four children: David, Joseph, Nancy and Robert.
Laura Kushner died of stomach cancer in 1963, when David was 4 years old. He said his father "crawled into bed with us and had to tell us our mother had passed away."
Mr. Kushner married Clara Mae Trimbur in 1965 and they had one daughter, Linda.
Nancy Kushner said her father and stepmother were fine dancers. "When they were on the dance floor, they'd draw crowds," she said.
Clara Kushner died in 1995.
David Kushner said his father was an avid swimmer and diver. He was a lifeguard at the old Kennywood Park pool and, as his initiation ritual, had to dive off the roof of the two-story bathhouse over a 15-foot patio and into the pool.
Mr. Kushner learned to swim at the pool at the Carnegie Library of Homestead, and although none of his children inherited his skill at diving, they followed him to the pool in Munhall.
"That's where I learned to swim," David Kushner said.
Mr. Kushner would put on impromptu diving exhibitions, often at Mineral Beach in Washington County.
David Kushner said his father was a handyman around the house. "We might not have had the most expensive house, but it was always nice and well-kept," he said.
Kushner said neither he nor his siblings have their father's technical aptitude. "I have problems changing a light bulb," he said.
In addition to his five children, Mr. Kushner is survived by a brother, Michael, and six grandchildren.
There will be a prayer service at 9:30 a.m. today at John F. Slater Funeral Home in Brentwood, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:30 a.m. in St. Winifred Church in Mt. Lebanon.
Vince Guerrieri
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1926 - 2004 (78 years)