Mendel Kimelman
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Mandel Kimelman (c.1853-1926) immigrated to the United States from Vienna, Austria, and settled in McKeesport, Pa., about 1894. He had three daughters and six sons.
His daughter Peppa Kimmelman (1871-1959) married Meyer Buck. They had three children, William, David and Rose, before Meyer died in an accident in 1907. The family owned Buck’s Grocery at the corner of Pacific Avenue and Ann Street in McKeesport.
William L. Buck (1896-1974) was a truck driver in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I and responsible for driving troops and supplies to the front lines. He went into realty after the war and amassed large land holdings in the city. In 1956, he donated 10 acres, in memory of his father, for the Penn State University campus in McKeesport. In 1967, he donated another 100 acres adjacent to Renziehausen Park, which enabled the school to expand. The school dedicated the Buck Union Building in honor of Peppa Buck in 1962 and, after demolishing the building in 2002, dedicated the William L. Buck Family Green outside the new student community center.
William Buck maintained other business interests in McKeesport, as well. He was president of the Tube City Brewing Company in the 1950s, at the time that the brewery closed. He was also an avid fisherman and caught a seven-and-a-half foot, 58-pound white marlin spearfish while fishing off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland, in July 1939.
In April 1969, thieves broke into Buck’s house in the middle of the night. “They had me tied up before I was awake,” Buck later told a newspaper, “and then they went about their work.” After the men left, Buck loosened the tape around his feet slightly and hopped across the room, then he used his mouth to flick the light switch on and off. When that failed to attract any attention, he managed to crank open a window and call for help.
Rose Buck (c.1902-1964) earned a degree from Syracuse University in 1925 before returning to McKeesport. She married a lawyer named Joseph Neuman in 1926. He died less than six months after their wedding. Rose married Herbert Frank (d.1946) in 1930. Rose and Herbert Frank had two daughters, Stephanie and Ann.
Herbert Frank was drafted into the Quartermaster Corps during World War I but received a medical discharge shortly after the Armistice. Frank later spent three years as the chairman of City Draft Board No. 14 in Pittsburgh before resigning after a dispute with other board members over deferments. He also served on a local Price Control Board.
