CENTER TWP — Growing up in Ford City, Dr. Joseph Gribik and his boyhood friends thought nothing of jumping off bridges into the Allegheny River.

That adventurous, daredevil attitude has remained throughout Gribik's life, and now the 63 year old is conditioning himself for a bigger leap — climbing K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

The 28,253 foot mountain in both Pakistan and China has been climbed before, but not in the winter. That is the feat Gribik and the team he has joined to serve as the team's doctor hope to accomplish in 2013.

“I could always be replaced by someone younger and in better shape, but I hope they'll let me go,” he said.

Gribik, who looks like a neat, hippie-ish person, wearing a Pitt T-shirt, jeans and white cotton socks, has had the opportunity to do many things, including coming back from the dead, and he doesn't plan on stopping now.

In early February, he just returned from England, where he was in the audience for a concert by the 1980s band Simply Red's last performance.

“It was a great time. I heard they were breaking up, and I thought I've got to see them before they do.”

The house he shares with his wife, Sue, is tucked back in the woods of Center Township.

Gribik graduated from Indiana (Pa.) University and got a job teaching physics at West Liberty State University in West Virginia in 1968 at age 20.

“The job only paid $6,000 with no benefits, but I was the youngest professor there,” he said.

Gribik moved on to work for Keystone Electric in Indiana as an electrical supervisor at the power plant there.

On a sunny day, it is easy to see the steam clouds from the plant to the east of Butler. And on occasion he had to climb the exhaust towers as a part of his job — 800 feet up a ladder attached the tower.

By this time, Gribik's older brother, Mike, had graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School and had moved on to Harvard University. Mike took Gribik under his wing and encouraged him to go to medical school.

“I was the oldest one in the class. I was 25, but I was the top student the whole way through school and won a prize for that called the Britton Prize, $5,000,” he said.

Gribik began his private practice in 1978 as an internist. His office was in a now gone building next to the American Legion 117 at the city side of the old Butler Viaduct. It was demolished to build the Gen. Butler Bridge in 2004.

As a doctor, Gribik served the Butler community for more than 30 years. In retirement, he said he believes in still “giving back.” He does that through a variety of volunteer posts, such as seeing patients with Dr. Kathryn Ryan and LIFE-Butler County.

LIFE stands for Living Independence for the Elderly, and the program is an alternative to nursing home care. It is designed to restore and preserve independence, helping eligible adults who are living at home manage their medical, functional and social needs.

Participants have a range of services available to them at no cost including: comprehensive medical care, adult day care, home support care, meals, recreational programs and transportation.

Gribik also volunteers at the Community Health Clinic of Butler County on East Butler Road and teaches at Seton Hill University in Greensburg and Butler County Community College.

But retirement also is time for the Gribiks to travel and to indulge themselves in a need for speed.

While Gribik has sold his motorcycle, he and his family used to go to Sturgis, S.D., for the annual national motorcycle rally there.

“One time we got a new Mercedes, right off the lot, and drove it out to the Bad Lands, S.D., up to North Dakota, over to Montana, back when Montana didn't have a speed limit, and we got that car up to 155 mph.

“We went down to Wyoming, Utah and Arizona for the Grand Canyon, taken the southern route home,” Gribik said of his trip with Sue. “When we got home, we had more than 7,000 miles on the car.”

The only blip on Gribik's radar came three years ago in April, when Gribik, a longtime marathon runner — he started with marathons instead of 5K or 10K races — need a heart valve replacement.

After the surgery, his heart wouldn't stop bleeding and he died on the table, Gribik said. He bled so much that all of his blood was replaced by donor blood. His surgeons had to reopen his chest in the recovery room to find what was bleeding.

But then his surgery site became infected and it took almost six months before the infection was cleared. He was weak and needed recuperation and physical rehabilitation.

“But now I feel good and it really feels good to feel healthy,” Gribik said.

Then about six months ago, while reading a magazine, he came across an article about K2 and decided to conquer that mountain.

“The thing about K2 is that it is farther north than Mount Everest, and so it's colder and harsher. It gets down to 41 below zero on the mountain,” Gribik said.

As the current physician for the 42-member team of world renowned mountain climbers, he expects to only reach Base Camp 3 at 23,000 feet in case someone gets ill or injured on their way to the summit. But Gribik would love to have a shot at the summit himself.

To make sure he's in good enough shape, the doctor spends at least an hour or two a day on his treadmill and recumbent exercise bike in his basement.

Meanwhile, he and the team are on standby, waiting for permits to clear the Pakistani government, and looking for sponsors — it costs about $11,000 per person to go on the trip.

“It's such an adrenaline rush to think about,” Gribik said.

<B>Age:</B> 63<B>Address: </B>Center Township<B>Family: </B>Wife, Sue; son, Joe; daughter, Libby; four grandsons<B>Employment: Retired private practice internist<B>Education</B>: Medical doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; bachelor’s degree from Indiana (Pa.) University<B>Interests:</B> He is training to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world.<B>Quote:</B> “I was the oldest one in the (medical) class. I was 25, but I was the top student the whole way through school and won a prize for that called the Britton Prize, $5,000.”