Jim Calvin's roots are planted deep. His family moved to McKeesport back in the 1850s, and, to this day, Calvin lives in the family home with his 76-year-old father.
Growing up in a house with so much personal history may have been what inspired Calvin's early interest in the subject.
"I always used to read up on things," said Calvin. "I considered being a teacher once, but I figured I wouldn't be any good at it."
While he does not earn his living teaching, teaching has become a very large part of what Calvin does in his capacity as a supervisor at Elizabeth Hotta, which manufactures equipment used by the pharmaceutical industry.
When Maryann Huk decided four years ago to start the McKeesport Historical Society, Calvin was the first person to contact her about joining. She characterizes his involvement as invaluable to the society's success.
"I wouldn't know where I was going," said Huk. "You've got to have someone there who is well versed in the history of the town."
Calvin's historical knowledge about McKeesport has grown slowly over the course of the last 15 years. Once an avid antiques collector, he came to the realization somewhere along the way that he just had "too much junk."
By that time, Calvin already had a number of items relating to his hometown. He decided to limit his collection to antiques with historical significance to McKeesport.
Highlights of his collection include a petition from 1850 to open the first bank in the town, several city view photographs dating back to the 1800s, and some $5 bills from 1920, when it was still called McKees Port.
A world traveler who counts Paris, Amsterdam, Spain and Puerto Rico among the places he has seen, Calvin's devotion to his hometown is undeniable - though he underplays it with wisecracks.
After joking that it is "bad luck" that keeps him planted in McKeesport, and playfully suggesting that the whole place be bulldozed, Calvin confessed that his failure to leave the town has had more to do with his affinity for it than with luck.
"I like the hills," he said. "Plus, all my friends are there."
Aside from his collection, Calvin's tireless community involvement is evidenced in a variety of roles. He is president and commander of American Legion Post 361; a member of the city board for human relations; and co-chair, with Cliff Flagel, of McKeesport's annual Flag Day celebration.
Though his role in the Historical Society makes him an advocate for the preservation of old things, Calvin also hopes to see some new developments that could put the town back on its feet.
He has photographed and documented, with mixed emotions, a number of old houses that have been lost as entire city blocks were torn down and turned into farmland.
"Hopefully it will be like the Phoenix and something will rise out of the ashes," said Calvin of the ailing steel town.
Like many his age, Calvin returned home to western Pennsylvania from his Air Force post in Alaska during the mid-1980s to find that many of his peers were gone.
Young people were moving to the south in droves to find work after the steel mills closed.
Because he has witnessed the town's decline first-hand, Calvin is willing and able to talk at length about what he feels needs to be done to revitalize it.
With scarcely a pause for breath, he comments on his dislike for the Regional Industrial Development Corp. industrial park, which he says contributes to the depressed look of the town; his desire to see something positive done with the old mill property - perhaps something like the Waterfront in Homestead; and about how he thinks some night clubs and restaurants at the Marina in McKeesport could help draw people to the community.
Huk said such passionate discourse is typical of Calvin.
"Jim is intense," she said. "At the first meeting (of the Historical Society) he just started rattling ideas off in a stream of consciousness. You're almost spellbound at the wealth of knowledge."
