Retired Teacher Takes History Center Role

New museum manager wants to increase hours, programs for kids

By Yousuf Lachhab Ibrahim
The Tube City Almanac
April 25, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

New museum manager Tim Kunes has moved from the classroom to the exhibit area at McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center. (Yousuf Ibrahim photo for Tube City Almanac)

Former social studies teacher Tim Kunes has left the classroom, but he hasn’t left education. In March, McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center hired Kunes as the new manager of its museum in Renziehausen Park.

According to board member Jennifer Vertullo, the center has been fully-board and volunteer-operated for several months, having been without staff since September 2024.

The center, which also provides genealogy and history resources for researchers, including a complete archive of the McKeesport Daily News on microfilm, is restaffing as it prepares for the grand opening of a newly constructed addition.

Kunes retired from education after 30 years of teaching in the McKeesport Area School District before applying to the open position. “I really did love teaching,” said the Geneva College graduate, “and I feel like I tried to make a lot of my classroom instruction dynamic and interactive.”

Exhibits at McKeesport Regional History & Heritage Center celebrate heroes and icons, such as pioneer woman airline pilot Helen Richey and Medal of Honor winner Mitchell Paige, as well as sporting and cultural events. (Yousuf Ibrahim photos for Tube City Almanac)

After three decades of teaching, however, he decided it was time for a change.

One of Kunes’ goals is to increase the number of days the museum is open from two to five. Currently, two large exhibits are under construction.

“We're hoping that within the next… Maybe six weeks, we can have a grand reopening.”

The new museum manager is excited to direct several new programs and displays, including some exhibits dedicated to the McKee family, the earliest white settlers of McKeesport, as well as Queen Aliquippa, who met with President George Washington in 1753, before the place had even acquired its name.

Kunes also hopes to expand the museum’s scope. “We're trying to not just make this a museum for McKeesport history. We're trying to make it regional, so we'll start to display things from other areas close to McKeesport, you know. Whether it's West Mifflin, or Homestead, or North Versailles, or Port Vue, or Liberty Borough.”

One of the main goals as well, is to develop events and activities that will encourage families to bring their children to the museum, and to encourage a passion for history in the youth of the area.

Kunes has a history of working with young people, not just with his time as a teacher, but also with his time as a part of Rotary International. In 2000, he chartered his school’s chapter of the Interact club, the youth version of Rotary International.

“I had that club for 23 years at McKeesport,” Kunes said, “We would plant flowers in Renzie (Renziehausen Park), we would work at soup kitchens, we'd go to nursing homes and play games with residents… The best part of my career circulated around not only having kids as students, but getting them to take part in my club because it meant we got to do a lot of cool stuff.”

Kunes’ current favourite display at the museum is the one dedicated to the late Colonel Mitchell Paige, who won the Medal of Honor for his service in World War II, specifically at the Battle of Guadalcanal.

In the ’90s, Paige became a model for an action figure that was a part of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe Classic Collection.

Paige was born in Charleroi, Washington County, to Serbian immigrant parents, and graduated from McKeesport High School before enlisting with the Marines.

“It's great history, you know? I love all of it because there’s such great stuff about our city. Like when I see the industry pictures, it makes me feel very proud. My father worked very hard. He died very young. He worked in the steel mill for 30 years. And he made a life doing that. And so I'm thankful that there was a job that could keep our family going, you know? I'm proud of that heritage.”

Yousuf Lachhab Ibrahim is a freelance writer from Pittsburgh and a Penn State University graduate. He won a Golden Quill award for his work at the Penn State Greater Allegheny Gazette.

Originally published April 25, 2025.

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