Mirror photo by Patt Keith / Joan Kowalski of Gallitzin sits with the book “Charlie Schwab: President of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel,” in which one of her poems is featured.

Several Cambria County residents are being recognized for their contributions to a new biography about industrial titan Charles Schwab written by North Carolina author William R. Huber.

Huber’s biography offers a more personal insight into the Williamsburg-born Schwab, whose family moved to Loretto, the place he considered his hometown and where he spent his summers. It’s Huber’s fourth biography, with previous works on George Westinghouse, Robert and John Pitcairne and Adolph Sutro. Huber, who spent his childhood in Johnstown, said the local sources helped bring Schwab to life.

“If you’re writing a biography you can do all the research but if you don’t get to know people who knew your subject then it’s a very dry book. You have to have a personal interest and I meet people who are also interested,” he explained in a telephone interview.

Frank Seymour, 82, of Loretto and Joan Kowalski, 91, of Gallitzin assisted Huber with his research for his book “Charlie Schwab: President of Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel” (McFarland & Company, 314 pp; Oct. 24, 2024; $39.95).

Fransiscan Brother Shamus McGrenra provided tours of Schwab’s summer home Immergrun II, now known as Alvernia Hall. Also, Huber recognizes in his acknowledgments his childhood friend Robin Eichleay, whose great-grandfather’s company moved two of Schwab’s houses to make way for his mansion.

Huber found Kowalski’s poem “Dreams of Immergrun” while conducting research at the Saint Francis University library. He describes the poem as “a poignant two-verse piece about the splendor and demise of the Schwab estate.”

Kowalski self-published the poem and others in 1988. She was inspired to write after attending Fatima devotions in the expansive gardens on the mansion grounds.

“I had no idea my book was even there,” Kowalski said. “I have no idea how he found it.”

After finding the poem, Huber wrote to Kowalski with low expectations and he was “thrilled” when she responded.

“She was most gracious and gave me permission to use it. After 30 years, the gardens have changed a lot so I asked her to update the poem and she did. She wrote another verse,” Huber said.

The poem appears in Chapter 29 of Huber’s book. Kowalski said she received an advance copy and read it cover to cover.

“I had read about (Schwab) before — about his business stuff before. But this had a lot of personal stuff and it was great,” Kowalski said, adding she knew he had donated the money to build The Basilica of St. Michael the Archangel in Loretto. But she hadn’t known that Schwab had many other homes built or that he was a gambler.

A local historian, Seymour is Schwab’s first cousin twice removed and has an extensive collection of information and memorabilia.

“Frank knows everything about him,” Huber said, noting that Seymour worked for three summers in the greenhouses and on the mansion grounds in the early 1970s. Seymour’s parents lived across the road from Schwab’s parents and Seymour and his wife, Betty, reside in the home inhabited by a girl he describes as Schwab’s first romantic “infatuation.”

Seymour assisted Huber with the editing of his manuscript and made other introductions, including to Ann Dougherty of Connecticut, Schwab’s grandniece, and to John Kimble, who allowed Huber to tour another part of the estate that is not open to the public.

He did “a great job in his research,” Seymour said, although admitting that Huber “didn’t use a lot of the stuff I had because he had already planned his chapters.”

Schwab, Seymour said, “was loved by some people, and some people were beholden to him. It depended on who you talked to. He didn’t spend a lot of time (in Loretto) and he didn’t mingle a lot with people here.”

Seymour said Huber “took a chance” by including information about Schwab’s affairs. “I cautioned against including it because some of the people are still living and are going to be offended.”

Overall, he gives Huber’s book “a 9 or a 10” because Huber did “a very good job for the general reader.”

Mirror Staff Writer Patt Keith is at 814-949-7030.