Sitting side by side, Harold McKamish with his arm around his wife, Daisy, the couple recalled the first time they met.

They were juniors at Penn Hills High School — seated next to each other in Spanish class.

The year prior, Daisy was chosen as sophomore queen. Each class had a queen.

“I thought, ‘She looks pretty,’ ” Harold said as he smiled at his wife. “She truly is the queen.”

“He said to me, ‘When are we going out?’ ” Daisy Naley, at the time, recalled about her beloved inside their apartment at Harmony at Harts Run in Indiana Township. “I thought to myself, ‘We will go out when you ask me.’ ”

It wasn’t long after that he asked her out. He said he had to wait until his friend and girlfriend were going out because Harold didn’t have a car.

Their first date was to the movies in East Liberty. They can’t remember the film.

But it was the beginning of many, many dates and was symbolic because their life has the makings of an inspiring love story.

The queen and her king celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary on Sept. 15.

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop | TribLive Daisy and Harold celebrated with some cake.   Courtesy of the McKamish family Daisy and Harold McKamish gather on their graduation day from Penn Hills High School.  

That milestone is so rare it is difficult to find any statistics.

The National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, citing2022 American Community Survey data, reports that just 7.7% of all current marriages have reached the 50-year milestone. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, were married for 77 years.

Harold and Daisy, who graduated from Penn Hills in 1948, married on Sept. 15, 1950, at Laketon Heights United Methodist Church in Penn Hills, followed by a reception of more than 100 guests at the Masonic Hall in Wilkinsburg.

Harold said he had $18 in his pocket that day.

He had made a hotel reservation for their wedding night in Downtown Pittsburgh and a honeymoon to the Poconos. He opened the wedding cards from their guests and had more than enough money to pay for the hotel and honeymoon, “with a little left over,” he said.

“We took the bus because we didn’t have a car,” he said.

What they’ve always had is each other.

Their married days began in an apartment in Wilkinsburg.

Harold, 95, and Daisy, 94, have four children: Darlene Tibbens, 74, of West Deer, David McKamish, 73, of Indiana Township, Diane Osborn, 69, of Columbus, Ohio, and Dennis McKamish, 65, of Hampton.

Courtesy of the McKamish family  

Their love for their children expanded to grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren for a total of 76. A 77th, a great-grandchild, is due in October.

More than 40 of those family members gathered on Sept. 14 at Dennis McKamish’s home for a celebratory brunch for the bride and groom after attending a service at Allison Park Church.

Harold said one of the most beautiful moments of that gathering was everyone singing “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad.”

Religion is in the fabric of their lives and is being passed down through the generations.

Applying faith every day is one of the many endearing qualities of her parents, Osborne said. She said they’ve shown her and her siblings how to be a good friend because her parents are “good friends to everyone.”

That was evident on Sept. 15 as residents at Harmony at Harts Run were treated to cake after lunch, courtesy of Harold and Daisy. Two Giant Eagle desserts — one decorated with a big heart with colorful flowers and “Happy 75th Anniversary” in red — the color of love.

A second cake was decorated with flowers in various bright hues. Many of the residents stopped by the couple’s table to congratulate them.

“Moving here was like moving into a new neighborhood,” Harold said. “We have met so many wonderful people. And we wanted to share some cake with our new neighbors.”

Before moving to Harmony at Harts Run, the couple lived part time in West Deer and Florida.

They raised their children in Dorseyville.

A sheet metal worker, Harold spent four years as an apprentice. He worked his way up to management positions with two companies before deciding to open his own business. He didn’t know the first thing about how to start a business but said “I knew it would work out.”

In January 1975, he founded McKamish Metals Inc., which was focused on high-quality sheet metal contracting. It began as a specialized trade business and has grown into a full-service mechanical contracting company, serving the Mid-Atlantic region.

The company, now known as McKamish Inc., is located in Lawrenceville, where it all started. It has grown to encompass 143,000 square feet. Their son, David McKamish, is CEO. He took over the business in 1983. One of the current projects is the new UPMC Presbyterian hospital.

David McKamish said his parents’ remarkable marriage is based on the importance of religion. He said his father always buys his mother an anniversary card and was a little upset when he couldn’t find one for a 75th anniversary.

“They have made an amazing commitment to each other,” David McKamish said. “My dad still calls my mom his bride.”

A pivotal moment in their life came when Daisy’s brother, Rick Naley, died in Vietnam in 1968. He was 21.

“My mother never got over that,” Daisy said.

The loss had a profound effect on Harold, who was working multiple jobs and wasn’t home much. Daisy was caring for the children. Harold said he began to rethink his priorities. After attending an event by evangelist Billy Graham in Pittsburgh, he and Daisy dedicated their life to Christ.

“God has a plan for our life,” Harold said. “It says that in the Scriptures.”

That plan may have been different had Harold, who served his time in the Marine Corps Reserve, decided to reenlist and go on to serve during the Korean War. He chose his love of Daisy over reenlisting. Had he reenlisted, Harold said, he likely would have been in a platoon where many of the men didn’t come home.

Once their children were adults, the couple moved to Arizona from 1983-86. Before they left, the president of Cornerstone Ministries told them God had something for them more than they ever could have imagined, Harold said.

“And God did,” Harold said.

On a church-sponsored trip to Mexico, the couple visited a place with retired Pastor Oliver Knell, where children were going through dumpsters looking for food. Harold and Daisy were inspired to start Caring Heart Ministry, an interdenominational nonprofit organization, which includes a boys home, a girls home, a soup kitchen, shut-in ministry and a blind center. Many years later, the couple met one of the blind children who was provided the help to get into college.

“I felt it in my heart to help,” Harold said as he teared up. “This was part of God’s plan.”

Courtesy of the McKamish family Wedding photograph of Daisy McKamish in 1950.  

Tibbens, who made her parents an anniversary dinner, said they are role models.

“They’ve set a pretty high standard,” she said.

It’s a standard built on vows they promised each other more than seven decades ago.

“We have a deep love for each other and for the Lord,” Daisy said.

“People often stop us and ask us our secret to being married so long,” Harold said. “It takes three — you, your spouse and the Lord. You will never find a lovelier, kinder lady. She is a blessing to me. I would not be who I am today without her. She will always be my bride.”

And he, her groom.

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