Published: November 01, 2009 09:26 am      

Retiree driving force behind planned mentoring program

JOHNSTOWN — In the woods near Steve Purich’s home in Upper Yoder Township, a massive rocky outcropping rises 30 feet from the ground.

It’s not the boulders that most impress the 68-year-old retiree.

It’s the single tree that grows from the top, seemingly with no soil to support it.

For Purich, it’s a perfect metaphor.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from or what your background is,” he said. “You can still find a way.”

As Purich helps launch a mentoring program for troubled and disadvantaged kids in the Greater Johnstown area, he could offer his own improbable success story as proof of that tree’s symbolism.

As World War II was raging in 1944, Purich was a 3-year-old living with his parents and sister in Yugoslavia.

Communism was spreading through the country, and his father, Radisa Purich – a priest – was declared an enemy of the state.

“He was arrested, and they were going to execute him,” Purich said. “He escaped, but we didn’t know if he was dead or alive for four years.”

The elder Purich ended up in Austria and eventually made his way to America. He finally was able to bring his family to the United States when Purich was 15.

“I was scared to death,” he recalled. “I didn’t want to go.”

Purich never had seen a television or a phone, and he could not speak a word of English to his classmates at Johnstown’s junior high school.

Playing team sports, he says, was a big factor in helping him learn the language and adjust to a new culture.

He graduated in 1960.

But life still did not come easy for Purich. He was an admittedly poor student who didn’t finish college, then kicked around various odd jobs.

He tried the insurance business, which initially did not go well. But Purich couldn’t bring himself to sign a resignation letter and move on.

“I didn’t resign because I didn’t want to fail,” Purich said.

So he began to research and develop his own business plan, “paying money I didn’t have” to attend workshops while deflecting the advice of those who said he should quit and get a job in Johnstown’s steel mills.

The hard work paid off, little by little. Insurance evolved into wealth management, with an emphasis on estate planning and charitable giving. Purich & Associates opened offices in Johnstown, Philadelphia and North Carolina.

Purich retired three years ago, and it is apparent that life has been good. He and his wife own 10 secluded acres in Upper Yoder, and they enjoy spending time with three children and four grandchildren.

But even though he is “living the American dream,” it’s apparent that Purich is not yet fully satisfied.

“I was lucky. I was fortunate. I did the right things,” Purich said. “But the question I have is, am I being useful?”

Hence the mentoring

program, which is designed

– through interaction with committed adults – to break what Purich has called a “cycle of poverty and desperation” among area youths.

It’s a big undertaking. But whenever Purich gets discouraged, he looks to a sign posted in a rustic cabin that serves as his office – not far from that symbolic tree.

“Some people come into our lives and quickly go,” the sign says. “Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same.”

“I have a lot of footprints on my heart,” Purich said. “All I’m trying to do is leave some footprints of my own.”