Boys' Club founder loved children
Samuel LaRosa was stricken with polio when he was a boy. Day after day, he would sit at the front window and watch as neighborhood children played on a ball field across the street.
The disease forced Mr. LaRosa to miss out on many childhood activities, but it fostered in him a desire to help young people.
Mr. LaRosa, of McKeesport, founder and former president and executive director of the Boys' & Girls' Club of McKeesport, died Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003. He was 90.
"He was just drawn to sports and to helping young boys that didn't have any guidance," said his daughter, Antonia Michel. "He just wanted to have a place where kids could come together, under supervision, and have something to do."
For Mr. LaRosa, the club -- known today as the LaRosa Boys' & Girls' Club in his honor -- was the fulfillment of a lifetime of work and dedication to the youth of the McKeesport community.
Mr. LaRosa grew up in McKeesport and graduated from McKeesport High School. During high school, he helped coach basketball and track and served as scoutmaster for the Fifth Avenue School Boy Scout Troop. After high school, he attended classes for two years at Penn State University.
After college, he took a job with Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh. When he wasn't at his job, Mr. LaRosa continued his work with young people. In 1945, he organized the McKeesport Boys' Club.
The group was incorporated three years later and was the only club in McKeesport registered and chartered with the Boys' Club of America. At the same time he was helping his youth group to grow, Mr. LaRosa founded the first Little League and Pony League teams in the community.
"He was always a man ahead of his time," Michel said. "He knew what the youth of McKeesport needed, and he provided it for them."
In the early years the organization had no place to call home, so Mr. LaRosa would use public fields in the summer and rely on local groups to let them use their buildings in the winter.
In 1957, through the help of local businesses, the Boys' Club was finally able to build a permanent residence. That same year, Mr. LaRosa was named executive director of the organization and would hold the position until his retirement.
"He was just never thinking of himself and always thinking of others," Michel said. "There are so many young men whose lives he has touched. He was their backbone and their staunchest supporter."
Mr. LaRosa is survived by his wife, Della; a daughter, Antonia Michel, of Manor, Westmoreland County; a son, Samuel J., of McKeesport; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from noon to 9 p.m. Sunday at Willig Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 220 Ninth Ave., McKeesport. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Patrick Church, McKeesport. Burial will follow in Penn-Lincoln Memorial Park, North Huntingdon.
Memorial contributions may be made to the LaRosa Boys' & Girls' Club, 901 Ravine St., McKeesport, PA 15132 or to the Kane Regional Center-McKeesport, 100 Ninth St., McKeesport, PA 15132.
