Sam Zurzolo has accomplished much in his 86 years of life. Even after leaving the Butler Township Board of Commissioners, he said his work is far from over.

“I’m not going away. I have to work. I have to do something,” he said.

Zurzolo is a native resident of Butler County who rose to the rank of sergeant major during his 30-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps. He then moved into various municipal roles, including Butler Township commissioner and planning commission member.

He also accrued countless volunteer hours working on different projects with various organizations over 35 years. For this, he has garnered numerous awards, including the 2017 Distinguished Service Award and 2010 Butler County Veteran of the Year.

Now, since he wasn’t sworn back into office at the township at the start of the year after losing a reelection bid to the township board in November, he said he plans to rededicate his time to volunteer work.

Zurzolo was born and raised in a small mining community off Oneida Valley Road. After his coal miner father became permanently disabled from the job, Zurzolo and the rest of his family made ends meet however possible.

He recalled moments of catching fish, helping water and tend the family garden and picking wild berries for his mom to bake into pies.

“We lived mostly off homemade stuff because when we were kids, we had our own garden,” he said.

To help raise money, he started collecting fishing worms at night and selling them to local fishermen. The business became so lucrative that after a few years, fishermen began to come to Zurzolo’s home to purchase them.

“I had my own wooden stand and the night crawlers were 25 cents a dozen, red worms were 15 cents a dozen. I’d always run out. I always gave the buyers a baker’s dozen,” he said.

Zurzolo also proudly touted his perfect attendance and generally good grades during his years in school.

After graduation, he enlisted in the Marines, where he said he had a rough time getting through boot camp and his early years. He recalled his time at Parris Island, where he said his drill sergeant beat him.

“Matter of fact, they carried me out of his room one time, he beat me so bad. I never turned him in, but I said, ‘I’ll get you someday,’ and I did,” Zurzolo said.

After boot camp, he jumped from post to post, including Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and ultimately Kansas City before being released from active duty.

After a few years working for businesses including George Schenck and Co., he returned to the Marines in 1965. While he was based out of New Castle, he said he routinely traveled throughout the Butler area for casualty calls.

“I probably did 300 or 400 casualty calls out of New Castle. It wasn’t all KIAs, but I did them for a lot of people I knew,” he explained.

In 1980, he went to recruiter school in San Diego and began recruiting shortly thereafter. He said in his second year, his region was recognized as the top recruiter in the nation.

“I put more people in the Marine Corps than anyone in the nation … In one month, I’d put 35 or 40 people in myself,” he said.

During this time, he also began to establish the Toys for Tots program throughout Butler and Lawrence counties.

“I had toy routes all the way back over New Castle. I had more toys in my car than I had recruiters,” he said.

During his service, he earned a number of awards and medals, including the Meritorious Service Medal, the National Service Medal with Star and the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal with three stars.

Zurzolo was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1990 after he came down with a litany of liver problems that almost killed him. After recovering, he said he became even more committed to giving back to the world around him and the community he was born and raised in.

The first major project Zurzolo recalls volunteering for is driving a truck during the construction of the LifeSteps building. He also installed sidewalks for the building and many others across the decades.

He continued volunteering for other projects, such as the construction of American Legion posts 778 and 117. He said he spent seven years contributing to Post 778’s construction.

“I’d be able to run bulldozers at 2 or 3 o’clock (in the morning). People never complained that I ran bulldozers because they knew it was all volunteer work,” Zurzolo said. “I saved the Legion thousands and thousands of dollars.”

Some of the work Zurzolo is proudest of is the two playground projects he volunteered toward: constructing Alameda Park’s Purple Playground and renovating Institute Hill Playground.

“I remember the day of a Memorial Day parade, instead of going to the parade, I used my high lift to move a bunch of dirt. I felt the playground was more important,” he said about his time working on the Purple Playground.

A lot of the work, including the playgrounds, was done while Zurzolo still worked his day job as maintenance manager for Oxford Development.

Zurzolo later joined the Butler Township Planning Commission before first taking office as township commissioner in 2006. He served four nonconsecutive terms as commissioner before losing his seat, but he continues to serve on the planning commission until at least the end of his term in 2029.

“I put my whole heart into that,” he said. “But with the system, I’m not going to spend a lot of money to buy a job. I’m a volunteer.”

One of Zurzolo’s biggest inspirations for his volunteer work was Abie Abraham, a fellow veteran who dedicated over 38,000 volunteer hours to the VA Butler Healthcare System after his military service. Before his death in 2012, Abraham told Zurzolo something that would stick with him for the rest of his life.

“He came to me one day and he said, ‘You got to do two things. You have to take care of the kids and take care of the veterans.’ And I try to uphold that,” he said.

Alongside U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, he helped push to name the new VA Butler Health Care building the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Clinic by reaching out through his VA and Marine connections.

Throughout his years, Zurzolo said he has a lot to be proud of. He said he was proudest of his ability to reach the rank of sergeant major and reaching master Mason at Butler Lodge No. 272.

But he said that wasn’t the reason he does the work.

“I did it from the heart. I did all of this stuff not for the publicity. My publicity is with the good Lord who gave me life back in 1990,” he said.