Steighner

Clair J. Steighner Sr., 92, of Herman died at 10:05 p.m. Wednesday at the Butler Memorial Hospital after a long illness.

Born in Butler, Jan. 12, 1915, he was the son of Joseph and Martha Wolfe Steighner.

He started Steighner Excavatingwith two dump trucks and a bulldozer in 1935. In December 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he purchased his first steam shovel and was hired to build the first runway at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport.

In 1975, his business became the Steighner Crane Service. The company did heavy lifting and moving of heavy equipment and did work for Armco, Pullman Standard, Spang, Airco and others companies in Butler and surrounding counties.

He worked at the Bantam Jeep Co. in the 1940s and helped build the first Jeep used by the Army during World War II. In the late 1940s and the 1950s, he contracted with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to do road and bridge work.

In the 1950s, he did demolition work which included tearing down the old St. Mary Church in Herman so the present church could be built. He also tore down the old St. Paul Rectory on McKean Street, which is where the church parking lot and rectory are located today.

When a large fire struck the Butler Hardware and the Brooks Shoe Store on Main Street, he removed the ruins. This is where Olsen & Association is located today.

Mr. Steighner was a member of St. Mary of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church in Herman.

Surviving are his wife, Alberta L. Kuhn Edwards Steighner, whom he married Dec. 20, 1991; three sons, Clair J. Steighner Jr. and his wife, Donna, of Butler Thomas M. Steighner and his wife, Rose, of Chicora and Robert C. Steighner and his friend, Lavern, of Herman; seven grandchildren, Tammy R. Steighner, Joanne M. Sheehan, John, Michelle and Jared Steighner, Robert C. Steighner Jr. and Amber Steighner-Goepfert and her husband, LeRoy; and five great-grandchildren, Daniel, Francis and Philip Sheehan, Abbegayle Steighner and Joshua Elliott.

He also is survived by a stepdaughter, Veronica Walker and her husband, Bradley, of Butler; two stepsons, Ralph Edwards and Dale Francis Edwards and his wife, Terry, all of Butler; and a sister, Sister M. Collett C.D.P. of Providence Heights, Pittsburgh.

His first wife, Helen Beilstein Steighner, whom he married July 31, 1937, died Aug. 10, 1982; and his second wife, Eileen Green Nebel Steighner, whom he married Nov 23, 1983, died July 27, 1990. He also was preceded in death by a great-grandson, Joseph Thomas Sheehan, who died Sept. 11, 2000; two sisters, Dorothy Karenbauer and Mary Lumley; and two brothers, Raymond and Robert Steighner.

<B>Steighner </B>— Friends of Clair J. Steighner Sr., who died Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007, will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday at the <B>STEIGHNER FUNERAL HOME</B>, 111 E. Slippery Rock St., Chicora.A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, Herman. The Rev. Marvin Justi, O.F.M., Cap., will officiate.Burial will be at the St. Mary Cemetery, Herman.Memorial donations may be made to St. Mary Assumption Elementary School, P.O. Box 21, Herman, PA 16039.