Former teacher always had his own style

On his first morning in the Army, Samuel Kaufman of Dormont fell in with 199 other new soldiers, all wearing white T-shirts and shorts.

The New Kensington native was wearing blue pajamas.

"He kind of always had his own style about him," Steve Kaufman of Castle Shannon said of his father.

Samuel Kaufman died Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008, of lung cancer. He was 75.

He taught social studies at Baldwin High School for 26 years, retiring in 1990. He enjoyed spending his retirement traveling with his wife, Meg, a former teacher at Hillsdale Elementary in the Keystone Oaks School District.

Mr. Kaufman's favorite destinations, his son said, were Colonial Williamsburg, Va., -- particularly Chowning's Tavern -- and Chautauqua, N.Y. Lake Chautauqua reminded him of boyhood trips to see his mother's family in Mauston, Wis.

"He really liked lakes because of growing up near the lakes in Wisconsin," his son said.

Mr. Kaufman and Demas McVay of Aurora, Ohio, were on the swim team together at Washington & Jefferson College and became lifelong friends.

"They just didn't come any better," McVay said of his friend.

They stayed in touch and visited each other frequently over the years. McVay said he only missed the Kaufmans' wedding because he was at sea on a destroyer at the time.

He was "a lot of fun, a good conversationalist," McVay said. "He appreciated the small things in life."

Steve Kaufman said his father was a quiet family man who played baseball and rode bikes with him and his brother, Jim, when they were growing up.

"He was a dad who always just took a great interest in my brother and me," he said.

Mr. Kaufman graduated from Washington & Jefferson in 1955 with a degree in economics and joined the Army. After about a year of active service, he served in the Reserves for 28 years, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was an instructor in the Army's Command and General Staff School, which trains midcareer officers moving into command positions.

He met Margaret Floyd on a blind date while he was at Washington & Jefferson and she was attending Chatham College. They married in 1957.

Mr. Kaufman worked as an insurance salesman for a few years until his wife, who was already a teacher, persuaded him to go back to school. He earned a master's degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh and started teaching at Baldwin High School.

"He was kind of a private person, but very interested in what was going on in the world," his son said.

Mr. Kaufman was the son of the late Albert and Ardis Kaufman, who were both physicians with practices in New Kensington.

In addition to his son Steve, he is survived by his wife, Margaret Kaufman of Dormont; son James of Whitehall; sister, Carol Briggs, of Pleasanton, Calif.; and four grandchildren.

Friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. today at Laughlin Memorial Chapel, 222 Washington Road, Mt. Lebanon. A funeral service will be conducted at 10 a.m. Friday in the Church of the Advent, Brookline, with burial to follow at Deer Creek Cemetery, Harmar.