Nov 19, 2019 3 min read

When people reach triple digits, it’s customary to ask just what the secret is that has unlocked their longevity.

Is it some trick of diet or temperament? Durable genes, passed on by parents and grandparents who endured for a century or more?

Just a few hours before he joined the ranks of centenarians last Friday, Upper St. Clair resident Art Ellis explained that he hasn’t done anything out of the ordinary to reach 100, though he has avoided alcohol and tobacco throughout his long life.

“Maybe I missed a lot in life,” he said.

One of the things that has kept Ellis going in recent years is volunteer work – more specifically, his work as a volunteer at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Arden. One of the first volunteers to sign on at the museum when it opened in 1954, Ellis has fulfilled a number of roles. He was lauded for his decades of service by receiving the trolley museum’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

“Art is always willing to do the behind-the-scenes jobs that need to get done,” according to Scott Becker, the trolley museum’s executive director. Ellis is the museum’s “gizmologist,” according to Becker, with a knack for fixing things. When he comes up with a novel way of remedying a problem, it has come to be known as “a work of Art.”

Ellis’ fascination with trolleys and trains goes back to 1923, when he was a young boy growing up in Montpelier, Vt. He remembers taking a train from that city to nearby Barre with a favorite aunt and being enchanted by the experience. He can’t quite pinpoint why trolleys and trains gained such a foothold in his imagination, but he remembers, “I could look out the side window” and watch the scenery roll by.

Work as a tester for the Westinghouse Electrical Co. brought him to Pittsburgh, and one of his early adventures in the city was rescuing trolley operators when they were stranded as a result of the Thanksgiving week snowstorm in November 1950 that dumped a little more than 27 inches of snow on the region.

Ellis’ love for the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum has been passed on to his family. His son, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren all volunteer at the museum. He is expecting to be at the museum during its Santa Trolley event, which is scheduled for Nov. 29-30, Dec. 1, Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15.

“It helps me retain some purpose in life,” he said.