In 1987, Bob Tudi loaded a toolbox onto the back of a less-than-new pickup truck and began offering his services to repair folks’ air conditioners, furnaces and, really, whatever he could fix for them to turn a dollar.
It seems to have worked out. That endeavor became Tudi Mechanical Systems, a thriving heating, cooling and plumbing company based in McKees Rocks, and, eventually in Tampa, Fla., as well.
Full disclosure: I love Bob, his wife Marilee, their family and their business. For the past several months my own son, Samuel, a plumber, has been working for their local operations.
Samuel probably barely remembers the first time Tudi Mechanical helped out Faithbridge Community Church. He was probably 8 years old when Bob, his sons and several others lugged a heavy, brand-new boiler down into the basement of our old church building on Broadway in McKees Rocks.
Bob had sourced it from Weil-McClain, the manufacturer in Illinois. He’d called to ask if they had any half decent used or refurbished ones to help out a little church in the town where Tudi Mechanical was based, and the manufacturer said, “Bob, if this is something you care about, we’ll give you a new one to put in the church.”
And so it was. Our old leaky boiler was hefted out, and the new one installed. Perhaps Bob’s sons wished they were somewhere else, but if they did, it never showed. The work was done, Bob ruined a nice shirt trying to bring an old, rusty auxiliary part back to life, bought lunch for all involved and said, “Glad to do it,” as I expressed gratitude and we shook hands at the end of the afternoon.
This would be a great tale of a grand gesture in and of itself, but it’s a smidgen of the generosity and love this great company has showered the region around Pittsburgh with over the last three decades.
More than 350 furnaces have been sourced and installed for families in need, starting with one heartbreaking scene moving an employee to go into the office and share the troubled feeling weighing him down over a family who couldn’t afford to replace a dangerous furnace with a cracked heat exchanger.
“What do you want to do?” Bob asked.
“I want them to have heat and not die from carbon monoxide.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“I want to get them a furnace.”
“OK, order it, and we’ll get ‘er installed.”
And that was it. The first of many, many stories of elderly widows, cancer-fighting veterans, single mothers struggling to keep a family afloat and hundreds of other stories that prompted sacrifice and love, and truly sometimes saved lives.
Each January, Tudi Mechanical Systems sets aside a Saturday morning to gather employees, their families, vendors and other volunteers for a kickoff breakfast, then loads folks into vehicles to head out and install multiple furnaces, for free, for folks in need.
It’s a sight to see: hundreds gathered under a heated tent near the McKees Rocks Bridge, laughing, sharing and ramping up to go do some good in the world.
Watching an army of happy volunteers marching off, their breath-mist puffing around their heads as they gear up to get after it on a weekend morning instead of sleeping in, well, it’s something to see.
Up until Christmas Eve, you can nominate a family in need of help. Tell their story in an email and send it to heatfortheneedy@tudi.com. I’ve done so myself in years past, and after the Heat for the Needy crew gathered to discuss possible candidates for help, folks in rough situations were helped.
Tudi Mechanical Systems has been a terrific success as a business over the years, but, as Bob himself has said many times, he doesn’t think their success is only due to good business practices and hard work — it’s intimately tied to the heart beating below the company’s surface, the one that manifests most brightly on a cold January Saturday each year.
The Rev. James Hogan is a native of Stowe Township and serves as pastor of Faithbridge Community Church.
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