From the Valley Independent http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/news/s_506229.html

Memories of Mel Bassi

Saturday, May 5, 2007

To the Editor:

I'm thinking about you, Mr. Bassi.

I'm thinking back to when I was 22 years old and had just moved to Houston, Texas, because I couldn't get a job in Pittsburgh.

Somehow I landed haphazardly in a job that required cold calling financial institutions and trying to persuade them to buy investments. I had no experience with money unless you count the chuck-a-luck Wheel and over/under games at Monongahela carnivals.

I knew more about pop bottle returns than stocks and bonds. I had no real knowledge of banks. But I was from Donora. And you, thank God, were from Charleroi.

Months of cold calling had produced no leads and not a single account when I cold called you, Mr. Bassi. (I bet you knew right away that I never sold anything, didn't you?) I'll never forget that day. I presented a bond that I thought was a good investment and you just chuckled and said something like, "Really, Robert, do you think I'm going to spend my institution's money without ever meeting you? I'll tell you what, Robert, I'll tell you what I will do, because you are from Donora, and only because of that, if you come up to Pennsylvania, I might give you a chance. But you better have an old ID that proves that you're from Donora."

I arrived in your office like a lost puppy. I remember how you put your arm around me, insisted on still calling me Robert when everyone else called me Bob, told me how wonderful it was to meet me, how you were so curious about Houston, about my job, about my parents.

In the winter of 1981, you started doing business with me, and because of you, and another kind gentleman from Herminie, Pa., named Jim Lauffer, I began to gain confidence in my ability, better at discerning a good investment from an average one.

I'd call you on a Friday as if I had the deal of the century, a deal that might evaporate at any second, and mostly I remember your calm voice reassuring me, telling me not to panic -- "Robert, if we don't get this deal, there's always another one tomorrow" -- because you knew how to distinguish my hype from my hope.

You could have purchased investments from anyone in the country, but you never burst my bubble with that indomitable truth, never dampened my enthusiasm with the reality that I didn't possess tremendous skill.

You always made me feel better than I could ever be, because you loved the Valley, its people, and wanted me to succeed.

After a while, we became more than business acquaintances; we became friends. I remember lunches at Rego's, and your unbridled affinity for people, the constant interruptions as people would come over and say hi, or you visiting others at adjacent tables.

Eating lunch with you was like eating lunch with everyone in the place. I remember your passion for life, for Lillian, for your children, for Shakespeare, for Pitt, for Washington & Jefferson, forÉ

How many people did you give chances to, Mr. Bassi? How many people did you empower by treating them like they were the most special people on earth? How many people have you mentored?

I'm thinking about you, Mr. Bassi. I'm wondering how I will ever be able to repay you for giving a skinny kid from Donora a chance to make good in this world. I'm going to be thinking about you for a long, long time.

Robert Dzik, Houston, Texas