Wonderful Life: Mt. Pleasant, workers relish return of Robert Levin to family furniture business

Robert Levin might take issue with it, but longtime Mt. Pleasant Mayor Jerry Lucia says the scion of Levin’s furniture company is his small town’s answer to George Bailey.

Like the star of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Levin has stepped away from his own life — twice now — when the future of his family’s Mt. Pleasant-based namesake business was at risk.

When his older brother Howard died unexpectedly in 1992, Robert, who was working as a health care consultant in Washington, D.C., said he came home at the request of his aging parents, Sally and Leonard Levin, to run what had become a chain of furniture outlets.

He took over and made it shine, all the while working quietly to continue the Levins’ longstanding commitment to philanthropic efforts in community.

That generosity continued in 2017, when Robert, then 61, sold the business to Art Van Furniture. He shared profits from the sale, distributing generous bonuses to company employees, several of them said.

Thursday, as news of the pending Art Van bankruptcy broke, Levin held a joyous meeting with many of those same employees at the Monroeville store. There, he announced he is coming out of retirement to buy and once again operate the stores.

“God bless him. I hope he lives to be 100,” said Lucia, who also is the fire chief.

For the company’s 1,200 employees, Levin saved their jobs.

But for the place where it all began for the family a century ago, it meant a precious piece of the town’s history was preserved.

Lucia said the Levins, whose flagship store takes up half a block of downtown’s Main Street, have been an integral part of Mt. Pleasant for as long as anyone can remember.

The late Sally Levin served on the Mt. Pleasant School Board in the 1960s. She also was active outside the town, as a founding member of the Educational Foundation of Westmoreland County Community College, a life member of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art and a community adviser for the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

For decades, the arrival of the holiday season had children and adults in Mt. Pleasant eagerly anticipating the debut of the elaborately decorated and iconic Christmas windows at Levin’s.

Residents often were stunned by the family’s largesse, Lucia said.

Once, when the store was threatened by a fire that destroyed the building next door, but firefighters were able to save the Levins’ business, the family showed its gratitude by donating another building to the volunteer fire department.

It was a pattern of giving that put lights and basketball courts in the town’s parks and kept youth athletic teams afloat.

When they built the town’s first tennis court at their home, they welcomed local children.

And when Howard Levin died, they underwrote the construction of a local Little League field in his name.

Lucia recalled how 55 years ago, when he was first married “and didn’t have a penny in credit,” Sally Levin sent a salesperson to his apartment. They sold him all his appliances, a bedroom set, living room furniture, a washer and dryer and carpeting.

“They put it all on a tab, and we went in once a month and paid it off. They did that sort of thing for everyone,” Lucia said.

Stories abound of how during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Levins extended credit to farmers and accepted chickens, eggs and produce in trade for friends, neighbors and employees they considered family.

It was that family Robert protected when he sold the company, structuring the sale to ensure its management team and employees would keep their jobs.

Coming back

But Robert, who lives in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, was angry when he heard the company that bought Levin’s was in trouble and considering bankruptcy.

Almost immediately, he began talks to buy back the company, sealing the deal at 8 p.m. Wednesday, allowing about three dozen Levin and Wolf Furniture stores in Pennsylvania and Ohio to continue operating under his direction, pending court approval of the final sale.

Robert Levin’s wife, Dr. Kerry Bron, said her good-natured husband was furious when he learned that Art Van’s financial problems were impacting the business that still carried his family’s name.

“His family had run the company for 98 years, and it only took two years for this to happen,” Bron said. “He immediately thought about buying the company back. His biggest concern was for the employees who had worked there for years. He knew whole families.”

Employees at Levin’s locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio and Altoona-based Wolf Furniture learned Levin was returning in a conference call shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday.

Later that morning in Monroeville, a jubilant Levin greeted teary-eyed employees who lined up to hug him.

“It’s exciting. I never thought this would happen. But what the hell,” he told them. “The most important thing is we saved 1,200 jobs, and all customer deposits, payments and orders are safe.”

Back in Mt. Pleasant, where Sam Levin opened his first store in 1920, people were thrilled to learn his grandson was returning to run the business.

“This sounds like something he’d do,” Steve Samuels said.

The owner of The Hub, a local formal wear and dry cleaning shop on Main Street, said he grew up with Howard and Robert Levin and often played tennis at the family’s court. He said the Levins had a way of making everyone feel important.

“I know (Robert) very well. … I don’t think he could stand the thought of losing his family name that way,” Samuels said. “You were never a number if you worked for Robert. If you worked for the Levins, you were a person.”

Laurie Palmer, who has 32 years in sales at Levin’s Mt. Pleasant store, called Robert Levin’s return “the best surprise ever.”

“I’ve grown up with the Levin family. My father, Frank Colello, retired here after 40 years,” she said. “We had some awesome company picnics. They started at the Levin home and then, as the company got bigger, they moved to Cedar Creek Park.”

Robert Levin said that tradition will continue Friday with a reunion party for employees at the company’s Smithton warehouse.

He can’t wait to celebrate.