Golden years
Robert Shuster, 90, stands by his door at Strabane Trails in South Strabane Township, which is decorated with napkins that feature cartoon characters and animals he has drawn on them.
Shuster draws on a napkin while sitting in the chair in his living room at Strabane Trails.
Shuster displays his favorite model boat, Nancy, that he built from balsa wood and painted. Shuster spent 42 years with the Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh and enjoys building replicas of the boats upon which he worked.
Shuster holds the Caregiver Champion Award he received in 2012 from UPMC Senior Services for helping Ken Mitchell, a fellow resident of Strabane Trails who was blind, after Mitchell’s wife died.
Shuster’s favorite character hangs on the door of his apartment at Strabane Trails.
Robert Shuster has no intention of slowing down.
At 90 years old, the Strabane Trails resident remains fairly independent and keeps rather busy, whether it’s drawing, singing, building model boats or helping others – even those of the four-legged variety.
“He’s phenomenal,” said Sandy Fender, his choir director at Abundant Life Baptist Church in Washington and close family friend. “I’ve known him for years. He was friends with my father.”
The admiration Shuster has for Fender is mutual, even though Fender takes no credit for Shuster’s well-being.
“The last 10 years have been really wonderful, thanks to her,” Shuster said. “I don’t know what I’d do without her. She saved my life a couple times. She is my golden angel.”
But Shuster does just fine on his own. He recently purchased a new car, financing it for seven years, and drives himself wherever he needs to go.
One of his favorite trips is to church, where he enjoys singing what he calls “older” songs. He recently sang a solo and received a standing ovation from the 200 people in attendance. One of them was Fender’s 12-year-old grandson, Jeffrey Reynolds, who assists Shuster from his car to the church every Sunday.
At Strabane Trails, however, Shuster is perhaps best known for his artwork. He enjoys drawing, particularly cartoon characters and animals, some of which are accompanied by very clever verses. And these days, most of his work is done on napkins. He previously used drawing pads, but Shuster went through them so fast that napkins became more cost-efficient. Besides, he likes to draw while he’s eating his meals in Strabane Trails’ main dining room, so napkins are more user-friendly as well.
And Shuster is a very good artist. He hangs his artwork on his door, and his neighbors will remove what they like so they can hang – and enjoy – them in their own apartments. There’s never a shortage of drawings because Shuster quickly replenishes them.
“I’ve had no formal training,” Shuster said. “I just picked it up as I went along.”
Although he began drawing in earnest just a few years ago, a fourth-grade pencil tablet that his sister, Shirley Heckman, found shows that Shuster liked to draw even as a youngster. Today, in addition to napkins, he also draws on Styrofoam cups.
Shuster was born Jan. 15, 1925, in a small town outside of Kittanning. He graduated from high school in 1943, and immediately began working on steam packet boats with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, traveling up and down the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers for 42 years. He was aiming for 50 years of service, but he retired from the river to care for his ailing wife, Louise. The couple were married for 50 years before Louise died in 2001.
“I’ve done an awful lot of traveling on the river and the road,” said Shuster, noting that early in his career, he’d often have to leave his home at 2:30 in the morning – just in case he got stuck behind a slow-moving truck on two-lane country roads. He previously lived in Burgettstown, Houston, Paris and Strabane, and he didn’t want to be late for work.
“I did enjoy my work,” he said. “We had to enjoy it. Back then, when they told you to do something, you did it.”
One of his first jobs involved going to Fairmont, W.Va., to load large boulders onto the boat and transport them to Freeport to build dams. He recalls making that trip several times.
“Working on the locks and dams is very dangerous work,” he said, adding that “I never fell in the river once.”
Navigating a 110-foot wide channel was difficult, particularly at night, when the tow was about 100 feet, he said, so it was extremely important to know the width and height of all bridges. “The river is very dangerous, especially when it rises,” he said.
Shuster took a two-year leave from the river to serve in the Army in Japan, but he prefers not to discuss his time in the military, saying, “So many boys lost their lives. I was fortunate.”
His time on the river has led to another passion: building replica boats. He makes the boats from balsa wood, then paints them. Each is named after one of the boats upon which he worked. They are not built to scale, but they certainly are fond reminders of his glory days.
“It’s just about what it looked like,” Shuster said. “I see it in my mind, cut it out and glue it together.”
Even his wardrobe is reminiscent of his time on the river, he said. He greeted his visitors dressed in a white shirt and dark pants, accenting the ensemble with a smart-looking bow tie.
“I sort of like being presentable, and I like bow ties,” Shuster said.
For a contest at Strabane Trails, he combined his love of the river and bow ties, gluing a small boat to one of his ties. He called it a “boat tie.”
After he retired from the river, Shuster worked at Thompson Hardware at Washington Mall, and then was transferred to the company’s Peters Township store. When that store was sold, he retired from the work force for good in 1986.
Shuster’s compassion for others is not in short supply, either. In fact, he was recognized in 2012 by UPMC Senior Services when he received its Caregiver Champion Award during a Celebrating Senior Champions event at the Omni William Penn Hotel in Pittsburgh.
He was honored for helping a fellow resident, Ken Mitchell, after Mitchell’s wife died. Mitchell was blind, and Shuster said he would take him outside in his wheelchair and spend time with him. Mitchell died on April 18, 2012.
“I was with him at the Donnell House. I held his hand,” Shuster said.
Shuster also has faithfully visited friends in nursing homes, taking them snacks or “whatever” he thought they might like, and when he was recuperating from gall bladder surgery at McMurray Hills Manor, he would lead church services. At Christmas time, he plays Santa Claus, elaborately dressed in an outfit he purchased. He’s never charged a fee for playing the jolly old soul, preferring the joy on the faces of young and old alike to monetary gain.
“He’s always thinking of others,” said Fender, who relies on Shuster to care for her two peekapoos when she is out of town.
Shuster is a member of American Legion 902 in Houston and VFW Post 553 of Strabane, and is a former chairman of the VFW’s local Poppy Day program. He has a son, two grandsons and four great-grandchildren.
“I’ve made a lot of good friends along the way,” Shuster said. “I have no regrets.”