Late Petrolia man touched many lives through boxing
BUTLER TWP — When it came to boxing, Steve Six packed a punch.
He punched up people's lives, as well.
The Petrolia resident died Sept. 28 at 62. Through his work at his Specialty Outreach Services at the Butler Cubs Hall, Six's impact on others' lives will go on for years.
Six was involved in boxing at the Butler Cubs for 33 years. He was a member of the Cubs boxing team and retired at 35 as the No. 2 ranked amateur heavyweight in Western Pennsylvania.
He coached, trained and managed fighters long after his fighting career ended. While working with boxers in the ring, he also began molding people outside of it.
“Dad pretty much began his own ministry,” Six's daughter, Stephani Piper, said. “He believed it was his calling. He always put others before himself.”
“Other than his own family, he put Specialty Outreach Services above everything,” she said.
Six was executive director and founder of the nondenominational ministry. Troubled youths on probation were sent to him for counseling and physical exercise.
“He probably helped more than 500 kids on probation. Count everyone who walked through the door, and he helped 1,500 or so,” Piper said.
Piper, now a family counselor for Holy Family Community Services, began working with her father when she was 16 and did so for 11 years.
“I started going to the gym with him when I was 4,” she said. “He wound up setting me up with my husband.”
That would be Toby Piper, who was sent to see Six through the juvenile probation system at 17. He was still being counseled by Six at 28, years after his court-required time with Six had expired.
Once Six befriended you, he didn't let go.“Steve knew how to steer kids in the right direction and keep them out of trouble,” Cubs boxing trainer Don Spinetti said. “When they were in the gym, they were off the streets.”“He knew what to say to them, how to reach them. He'd be working with six kids or more at a time ... You'd lose count after a while,” Spinetti said.Now 36, Ryan Napier was one of those kids. He was 14 when his juvenile probation required him to spend four hours a night, five nights a week with Six at the Cubs Hall.“I hated Steve at first. I felt like he targeted me,” Napier said. “I disliked him for a long time. Once I realized he really cared, that all changed.”“He wasn't targeting me. He was instilling discipline. He visited me in jail. He wrote to me. He prayed with me,” Napier said.“We became friends for life, right up until he died,” Napier added.Napier played on a Cubs Hall basketball team during his time there.“Steve kept us physically active,” he said. “There were probably 20 to 25 kids he was working with at the time I was there.”“I was required to stay in the program for a year. I wound up staying for two and a half. It was good for me,” he said.Jim Fair, Six's nephew, described his own life as “out of control” when he was younger.“I liked to be physical with people, and I was into drinking,” Fair said. “My life was spiraling in a bad way.”“I considered myself a tough guy. Steve and I went in the backyard, put on the boxing gloves, and he tried to teach me a lesson,” Fair said.Six repeatedly knocked Fair to the ground, imploring him to stay down and allow Six to help him up.Fair repeatedly refused.
“I was getting angry, told him no way, he'd have to kill me,” Fair said. “He just kept knocking me down. He could have knocked me unconscious if he wanted to, but the message was that it was OK to stay down and ask for help, admit you can't handle a situation on your own.”“Years later, I figured out that message. I got help for my alcoholism and my attitude,” Fair said.Fair will turn 55 this month. He is sober, happily married and works as a personal trainer.“Steve never quit on me. The man was selfless,” Fair said. “Now I help anybody any way I can ... because of him.”K.P. Peth, now 33, had 70 amateur fights while under Six's tutelage from 1993 through 2008. Peth now runs his own gym, the Positive Mental Attitude Center, in downtown Butler.“I knew Steve since I was 10 years old,” Peth said. “He was like a father figure to me. Part of the idea behind my opening this gym was to keep alive what he got started.”“We've developed a brother and sisterhood here, just like he had. Steve made me want to work with kids. He was there for me for everything,” he said.One of Six's more skilled boxers was Jimmy Cress. Now 26, he met Six at 13 and won 24 of 30 amateur fights.Cress is a roofer today and has toyed with the idea of turning pro in boxing.“I never lost touch with him,” Cress said of Six. “He knew when to give tough love, when to talk, how to counsel.”“He was even my legal guardian for a while. The guy genuinely cared. I was lost as a kid. I don't know where I'd be today without his program. I truly don't,” he said.Six was the first boxing trainer for Billy Wolfe, who compiled a 56-6 amateur record through the Cubs program.“He was in my corner for 90 percent of my fights,” Wolfe said. “Better yet, he was a guy I could always count on.”“I was a wild man when I was younger. That's just how I was. Steve made me control it. He gets you in the ring and channels aggression. He turned my life around,” he said.He did the same for Manuela Ross, who was referred to him when she was 16 through a crisis counseling center.Six got her involved in boxing, physical workouts, and talked to her about life and how to face it.“My world was a mess and he cleaned it up,” Ross said. “I was doing some bad things and was angry in so many ways ... He got me in the ring and wanted me to hit him.”“My anger wasn't with him. I kept telling him no, I wouldn't hit him. He began throwing everything that happened to me back in my face until I got so mad I started hitting him,” she said.“Steve said afterward it was important that I got the aggression out — better on him than somebody else,” she added. “I knew the man for 20 years. He said I was one of his girls. He made it clear I was always welcome to stop by and talk. He became like a father to me.”
At times, Six kept his ministry going financially by not accepting pay himself to ensure his staff got paid.“He spent so many hours, so many nights in there, keeping kids off streets and bettering lives,” Piper said. “He'd work without pay, sometimes take money out of his own pocket if he had to. He wanted to make a difference.”And he did.“Steve Six was just an amazing man,” Ross said. “The legacy he left behind is even more amazing.”When Six saw a broken life, he fixed it.“That's who he was,” Piper said.
