Faces of the Valley: Lower Burrell welder, 90, has 'never worked a day in his life'

If it’s broken, Dale Wolfe tries to fix it.

That’s been the 90-year-old’s motto since 1952, when he started welding in the Lower Burrell and New Kensington areas.

“I’ve had a great life,” said Wolfe, who now works for his son Kevin at Wolfe Metal Fab Inc. in Braeburn Heights. “I’ve had everything I’ve ever wanted, and I never really wanted much.

“There has never, ever been a day where I said, ‘Boy, I hate that I have to go to work.’ I look forward to the next day.”

Wolfe, of New Kensington, grew up in a farmhouse along Leechburg Road in what was then Lower Burrell Township. His father, James, was an auto mechanic and welder — he owned Jim Wolfe Auto Mechanics on Leechburg Road in Lower Burrell. It was in the spot now occupied by Forza Motorcars.

The family decided to build a house across from their farmhouse, Wolfe recalled. When they were unable to find someone to build a railing, they decided to weld one themselves.

That turned out to be the talk of the town. When people would drive by, Wolfe said, they’d ask who did the family’s railing, because they wanted to buy one themselves.

Helping with that railing in 1946 gave an 11-year-old Wolfe his first shot at welding. He’d officially start working for his father in 1952.

“I love doing it,” he said. “I like putting metal together. I always enjoy it, and every time I make a weld, I try to make the next weld better.”

Growing up, Wolfe was a standout athlete at Ken Hi and graduated in 1952. He would go on to serve in the Army from 1957 to 1962.

He worked in a welding shop for the military, but that wasn’t by design.

Wolfe needed something fixed, and there was a backlog on projects and a lack of welders in the shop. When his superiors found out Wolfe had been welding since he was a young boy, they handed him a hood and a torch, and he started welding.

As it turned out, he was able to run the shop more efficiently and cheaply than how it had been running, he said.

In 1968, Wolfe would buy Wolfe Fab Metals and co-own it with his wife, Janet. They had been married for 45 years when she died in 2005.

“She was my everything,” he said.

In 1994, he expanded the business to include heavier metals and moved the shop from Leechburg Road to Greensburg Road, where McDermott Auto Sales currently sits.

That was their location until three years ago, when they moved to Burgley Avenue.

Over the years, Wolfe has seen quite the variety of work — from contracts with Alcoa and other construction companies, to residential railings, display signage and aluminum wind turbines.

He remembered a man from Springdale who would come into the store and remove his prosthetic leg and wait in the store until Wolfe was done grinding and welding it.

Another highlight, he said, was liquid crystal coasters he welded in the late 1960s. He would make drink coasters and weld liquid crystals so that the color would change if a hot or cold drink was placed on the coaster. He remembers them selling out faster than his employees could make them.

Even at 90, Wolfe works about five hours a day, he said.

“You can’t name the stuff we’ve done,” he said. “I always felt, I didn’t care if a guy came in with a rake, or shovel or whatever he needed welded, I would do it because it was important to that guy, and I’d fix it.”

Dale and Janet Wolfe raised three children: Kathy Hacker and Kevin and Keith Wolfe. Kevin took over the business when Dale turned 65, in 2000. Hacker is the director of nursing admissions at Community College of Allegheny County, and Keith Wolfe is superintendent of Lakeview School District in Mercer County.

“When I pass away, I want these kids to be happy. I don’t want them to be sad, because I couldn’t have lived a better life,” Dale Wolfe said. “My kids have all done real well.”

Kevin Wolfe, 60, of Lower Burrell said his father will sometimes call him at night thinking about the best way to complete a project. Kevin wouldn’t have that any other way.

“It’s cashing in on the years of experience he has,” said Kevin, who admires his father’s work ethic.

The children grew up in The 40 Acres — four residential streets bounded by Craigdell Road and Edward Street — and graduated from Valley High School.

The property was part of Wolfe’s family farm, and the streets are named as such. Richdale is named after his brother, J. Richard “Dick” Wolfe and himself, Dale; Virginia and Elcor are named after aunts; and Leslie is named after the Leslie family, because Wolfe’s mother was Genevieve Leslie Wolfe.

The family is very close, said Keith Wolfe, 56, of Harrisville. On the weekends, Dale Wolfe, his sons and grandchildren often go to their camp near the DuBois area.

Wolfe bought the camp years ago from the Berkey family. He met Harry D. Berkey in the Kiwanis Club in the 1970s and went to the camp to hunt with him and his son over the years.

“He was a real gentleman,” Wolfe said of Berkey, whom a New Kensington-Arnold elementary school is named after. “He became my second father.”

Wolfe is also active in his church, the Kiwanis Club and the Masonic Lodge. He has served on the Northern Westmoreland Career Center Advisory Board for decades and has accepted dozens of high school students to work with him for their cooperative learning experience.

“There are people who talk about how you should live your life, and then there are people who set the example,” Keith Wolfe said. “That’s pretty much how Dad has lived his life.”

Keith said the best advice he’s ever gotten from his father was: “Follow God’s plan because His plan is better than any one we could create.”

“He’s the only person I’ve ever heard say, he’s never worked a day in his life,” Keith said. “He enjoys what he does for work, and he doesn’t see it as work.”