[PRCo] Re: Naming PAT

[Harold Geissenheimer]

Bob

Any story about Dave Brown?   Harold Norris?
 Dr McClelland was a good county commissioner
He supported transit as did Leonard Staissy who followed.

Were any stories by reporter Ralph Brehm?  He was friendly to Col Swift

Harold Geissenheimer

Bob Rathke wrote:

>I dug into my newspaper clippings from the 1960s, and found 20 clippings from the Pittsburgh Press relating to the "Name the new transit system" contest in the summer of 1964.  It was a big news story:
>The contest was announced on July 29, 1964, and closed on August 15.  Riders were asked to send in their suggested name and a tag line on a post card.  County Commissioner Dr. William McClelland was the head of the judging committee.
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>There were 3,500 entries in the contest, and the five most-submitted names were nearly a 5-way tie. PAT got 305 votes, and PAL (Port Authority Lines?) was close behind with 277.  But there was only one vote for PANTS (Port Authority New Transit System).  
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>The judges decided that PAT was the new name, and then they gave the prize to the person whose card had the earliest postmark.  That was Toni Stabile from Mt. Washington.  Her entry included the tag line, "Leave your car at home and go with PAT."  Her prizes were two one-year transit passes and a weekend at the Summit Hotel near Uniontown.
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>One of the articles pointed out that Toni was not related to John Stabile, the parking garage tycoon in Pittsburgh at that time.  It noted her tag line that encouraged people to leave their cars at home, and said that this was in opposition to John's business.
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>I have several hundred clippings from 1964, and many of them feature the stories of the people who owned the independent bus companies that were folded into PAT.  Lots of photos and names as they told their stories.
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>Bob 2/24/04
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