Robert J. Maher
Bethel Park

Robert J. Maher, 80, died at home in Bethel Park Monday, Nov. 3, 2008, from complications due to congestive heart failure. He is survived by his wife, Harriet J. (Griswold) Maher; his daughter, Jane and her husband, Robert Cobbett, and their sons, Nathan and Samuel, of Bethel Park; his son, John and his wife, Marty, and their son, Jason, and daughter, Christine, and two great-grandchildren, Ben and Jacob, of Essex Junction, Vt.; and his son, Timothy and his wife, Susanne Althoff, of Somerville, Mass. He also leaves a brother, James and his wife, Lucy, and their daughter, Cathy, of Los Angeles. Robert grew up in Utica, N.Y. Seeing how hard his father labored as a mechanic and a machinist, and his mother as a homemaker on the farm, working a plow horse and canning produce,
he was determined to improve himself through education. He joined the Army in 1946 and served in the occupation forces in Japan. After the Army he attended Union College, where he met his wife, Harriet. They had a wonderful marriage for 55 years. After earning his BA in economics at Union, he got a job with Alcoa. He worked for Alcoa in Buffalo, N.Y., Springfield, Mass., and Boston before settling in Pittsburgh in 1958. In the 1970s, he earned his MBA at the University of Pittsburgh. In the early 1980s, he left Alcoa and worked for a management search company and later served as CEO of a software company. But what he loved to do most was help people. He was an active volunteer with Carnegie Mellon University, where he mentored students who served as technology consultants for nonprofits. He was a member of the Executive Service Corps of Western PA and acted as a board trustee for the Bethel Park Public Library. He also served as a mentor to his children and grandchildren, dispensing career guidance and life lessons with devotion and optimism. Wanting to raise his children in an open-minded atmosphere, he was one of the founding members, in 1965, of Sunnyhill, Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills. The church would be an important part of his life and a source of many close friendships for the rest of his years. Robert embraced new technologies, sometimes to the surprise of younger people. He was an avid computer and e-mail user, and preferred looking to the future over dwelling on the past. When he did tell stories about growing up in the Depression or life in the Army, his stories always had a moral: that tough times were always relative, or that you should never judge others based on religion or race. The memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 at Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills. Arrangements entrusted to the LEO J. HENNEY FUNERAL HOME, Carnegie. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations to Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills, 1240 Washington Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15228, or to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, Attn.: Fundraising, 1 North Linden St., Duquesne, PA 15110.

Unitarian Universalist Church ."