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photo by: Craig Howell
Business Development Corp. Executive Director Marvin Six, in back, looks on as Richard Lucci of Steubenville opens a box containing a watch which had been set for his father, Rinaldo Lucci, upon his retirement from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in the 1980s. The watch was among a group discovered in a vault at the Beech Bottom Industrial Park, once known as Wheeling Corrugating.
WEIRTON — While the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle is known for its work in economic development, sometimes it also has an opportunity to reunite residents with long-lost family heirlooms.
That’s what happened Friday when representatives of the BDC presented Richard Lucci of Steubenville with a watch which was supposed to go to his father upon his retirement from Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in the 1980s.
Marvin Six, executive director of the BDC, explained the watch was among a lot of seven or eight discovered in a locked vault at the Beech Bottom Industrial Park which once was operated as Wheeling Corrugating, a division of Wheeling-Pitt.
“Two of them had names on them,” Six said.
One of those watches had been set for Rinaldo Joseph “Joe” Lucci, who worked as a crane operator for Wheeling-Pitt and retired in 1983. Rinaldo Lucci was born in 1922 in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, the son of Italian immigrants who would later locate to the Ohio Valley.
According to Rich, he would begin working at the mill in 1943 before joining the military during World War II and being stationed in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.
After the war, Rinaldo would return to the valley and continue his employment with Wheeling-Pitt, something Rich said ran in the family as both of his grandfathers, several uncles and his brother all were employed there.
Rich, himself, worked summers for the company, earning money to make his way through college and eventually become an educator.
“It brings back memories, that’s for sure,” Lucci said. “It brings back a lot of memories with the name and symbol of Wheeling-Pitt.”
Lucci admitted that at first, he thought the offer of the watch might have been a hoax, recalling originally being contacted by the BDC six months ago, but said he is glad to be able to have it with family now.
“I really appreciate it,” he said, noting he plans to pass it down through the family. “It’s a keepsake.”
Six noted he still is working to make connections in order to return another watch, which he said should have been presented to Paul Dallas Midcap of Valley Grove. Midcap died in 2012, and Six said he has been attempting to reach out to family members to arrange the reunion.
The BDC obtained the Beech Bottom property following the bankruptcy of RG Steel. In the years since, the agency has been working to redevelop the 60-acre site for new business opportunities. It now is the home of several businesses, including Jupiter Aluminum, with Pure Watercraft also set to operate out of the 480,000-square-foot building.
Six noted, in addition to the watches, the BDC has discovered numerous employee tags as well as hundreds of employee records. The paper records have been turned over to the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County for preservation and inclusion in its genealogy records.
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