listing/roster of Charleroi, Pennsylvania High School Graduates/Alumni


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    THE 50's
      Geraldine Marr, '56
      Kaye Eisenhower, '52
      Joseph Kormuth, '57
      Neil Lucas, '51
      Joseph Miller, '56
      David W. Jones, Sr., '57
      John (Jack) Stech, '51
      Bill & Joann Hagerty, '51
      Jack Fegela, '58
      Art Strelick, '59
      Roger Hough, '56
      Jack Young, '52

Grower enjoying the fruits of his labor... By Dorothy Yagodich, for THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW, August 2, 1998
Joseph Kormuth considers El Nino a friend.

While many people have suffered devastating effects from the weather phenomenon, Kormuth said El Nino brought a warm spring, free of frost, and a warm, rainy summer to this area.

"We've had success with apricots like we never had before," said the Twilight Borough chemist who considers fruit growing his second hobby. He has more than 80 fruit and nut trees scattered about his 22 acres of land.

Kormuth planned his orchard with a variety of trees so that some would bear fruit early in the season and others would carry the harvest into the fall.

Four trees of Queen Anne cherries, a large white variety, produced fruit on May 29.

"It's unbelievable to have any kind of fruit ripen that early," Kormuth said. The crop lasted two weeks and the family "engorged on the crop."

Two apricot trees, repening in the first week of July, were a rare treat. The trees, planted in the early 1980's, have provided a show of glorious white blossoms each spring, but are "so sensitive to frost." This year, Kormuth said, they were "full of apricots. People have been known to have apricots (in this area) but it's rare."

Plums provided a similar story. Mature yellow plum trees were laden with the juicy, sweet, fruit; the purple damson plum trees are also producing. These are the plums Kormuth's Croatian relatives turn into a potent brandy called slivovitz.

A 10-year-old Shiro plum, "that's a Japanese plum," deep reddish-purple in color also ripened in July.

"Everything is two weeks early this year," Kormuth said.

Another variety of red plums is ripening now and raccoons are helping with the harvest. "They come in at night and take a bite and keep going," Kormuth reported.

With a wide variety of peaches in the orchard, Kormuth began the harvest early.

Some of his peach varieties have been started from seed. Kormuth has 20 seed-grown peach trees, with some reaching maturity. "I've been really lucky with seed-grown trees."

Kormuth said his Charleroi friend Sam Kolich had given him 10 seed-grown trees.

Two years ago, all the fruit was lost to frost. That's changed this year with El Nino, the unusual warming of southeastern Pacific Ocean waters that affects weather patterns worldwide.

Still ripening are the Alberta peaches and the freestone varieties from seed-grown trees.

Fuzzless peaches, as nectarines are sometimes called, are found in Kormuth's orchard. Deep ruby red in color, ripening nectarines hang from the tree in clusters and are being picked now.

Kormuth's fruit can often be found at The Big Apple, a local market. Excess crops, beyond what his family can use, have been marketed for the first time this year.

Already harvested are the crop of July apples; with 25 apple varieties in the orchard, Kormuth expects the harvest to continue into fall. Red and golden Delicious, Cortland, Jonagold, Ida Red, Northern Spy, Winesap and Criterion are just a few of the better-known varieties of apples that Kormuth keeps. Also found are several lesser knowns such as Arkansas Black, Wolf River, "an antique apple that I planted two years ago," and Red Gold, "a cross between red and gold delicious," he explained.

For fall harvest, Kormuth keeps several varieties of pears, including Seckel and Bosc.

Nut trees also produce a crop in the fall. In addition to several black walnut trees native to the property, Kormuth planted six chestnut trees and 10 Carpathian walnuts. Kormuth said the Carpathian are from a strain developed by a priest in the Carpathian Mountains in Slovakia. Since Carpathian nut trees are "sensitive to the wind", he planted them facing south and over the hill, away from windy conditions.

Kormuth has high fences around every one of the trees to protect them from deer and other wildlife. Kormuth watched as a young doe nibbled grass and fruit that had dropped to the ground. "She comes often and I don't bother her, since she always eats from the ground. She doesn't bother the trees."

Young grape vines climb up an arbor, and in the vegetable garden, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, beans, kohlrabi, red and white cabbage and Swiss chard thrive. The Swiss chard came from seed sent by Kormuth's cousin in Slovakia.

Kormuth has been to Europe 25 times, "mostly on business and only a few times with my own money." He has also been to Japan, Korea and Brazil and will return to Japan in the near future.

A job as a chemist at Waltz Mills for Westinghouse Electric Corp. has given Kormuth opportunity to travel. He was with Westinghouse just three months, when he was sent to Japan to work at a nuclear power generating plant.

After graduating from Washington & Jefferson College in 1961, Kormuth began his career "at the world's first nuclear power station at Shippingport in Beaver county."

Kormuth comes by his interest in the land naturally. His great-grandparents both came from farm families. "I know fruit trees are big in both Croatia and Slovakia," he remarked.

When his grandfather lived at the corner of Fifth and Oakland in Charleroi, "he had a vegetable garden and fruit trees. In the grassy strip between the curb and sidewalk, his grandfather planted fruit trees. Imagine doing that today." Kormuth said on every spare inch of ground, "they would plant something."

Kormuth is following in his ancestor's footsteps. After acquiring his 22 acres from a friend of his father's in 1977, Kormuth took three years to hack away the overgrowth of vines and brush, rather than bulldozing offensive overgrowth and destroying the native trees. In 1980, he and wife Zorica, a native of Croatia, built thier home where they now live with thier 10 year old daughter, Karen. Outdoors are a dozen English setters, "my first hobby," he said.

Besides planting trees as his forebearers did, Kormuth keeps an important tradition begun by his grandfather. "My grandfather had a homemade wine that he put on the dining room table every Christmas." Kormuth treasures the Santa Claus decanter that his grandfather used. And every Christmas Kormuth brings out the decanter filled with wine to share with his family.

Dorothy Zippay Yagodich, CHS Class of 1952, is a freelance journalist and photographer.