Devoted firefighter, Greensburg business owner, family man escaped WWII captors in bold move

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series about Westmoreland County residents who have been honored as Hometown Heroes. The program honors local military and non- military heroes by displaying photos on decorative banners in area communities.

Joseph S. Schworer Jr.

Hempfield

1916-2002

Joseph Schworer considered himself lucky to be alive after his service with the Army in World War II.

He staged a successful escape from German captors while another man who made a similar attempt didn’t survive.

The initiative and determination that served Schworer well during that harrowing episode also was a benefit in his native town of Greensburg, where he became a leader in both business and recreational pursuits.

Brenda Schworer remembers her late father as “a down-to-earth generous guy, hard-working and loyal.”

Armed with just a high school education, he nevertheless “had a lot of smarts and was very willing to share his point of view,” she said.

It wasn’t until later in his life that he was willing to talk about his time in the Army, from 1941 to 1945, when he rose from private to sergeant based on his skills as an auto mechanic. Joining the Allied invasion of occupied France three days after the initial D-Day landings, Joseph Schworer spent the following months in the roles of mechanic and driver for his unit.

But, during the Battle of the Bulge, the Germans’ last, desperate offensive, he joined the ranks of the foot soldiers. “At that point, all specialists became infantrymen,” his daughter said.

His platoon was decimated in a German artillery barrage, and he was one of the few survivors taken prisoner. He didn’t remain captive for long.

As he was being marched to the rear with a group of other prisoners, Schworer saw a man in front of him drop to the ground and roll down a hill. He took a chance and did the same, escaping into the woods while being fired upon by the Germans, his daughter said.

“In that split-second, I can’t even imagine what it was like for him,” she said. “There was no room for error.

“He lay still, playing dead. When it was dark, he went over to the other soldier that had done the same and saw that the man had been shot and was dead. His family was notified that he was missing in action, but by that time he had already escaped.”

Wandering through the woods by night for several days, Schworer made it back behind the U.S. lines and many years later also shared his wartime experience with his daughter’s husband, Buck Papas.

“He was borderline frostbitten and hadn’t eaten for days, so he had to go into a field hospital,” Papas said. But soon, “He was reunited with his unit and went back to being a mechanic and truck driver.”

Business success, community service

The drive that allowed Schworer to outwit his German foes was reflected in his civilian life — in his dedication to the business he co-owned for nearly 40 years, Commercial Printing Co. on Greensburg’s Beaver Street, and to the North Hempfield Volunteer Fire Department, where he was a life member.

According to his daughter, Schworer frequently worked late hours at his business.

“We were always the last family in our neighborhood to eat dinner,” she said. “Even though his employees were long gone, if a printing press broke down, he would try to repair it himself. Or a funeral director would call up and say, ‘We need some holy cards to be run.’ Everybody needed printing done.”

She recalled her father leaving in the middle of the night to battle fires or rush to car crash scenes with the North Hempfield department. “We lived the farthest away from the fire station and couldn’t hear the whistle, so they would call him on the phone,” she said. “Every light would be turned on in the house and he would be looking for his keys and his glasses.”

Schworer also helped with running bingo games and booking rentals at the fire hall and, when he was no longer able to serve on the front lines of firefighting, he helped control traffic at emergency scenes.

A member of Jeannette’s Sacred Heart Church, Schworer belonged to that city’s Elks club. He also found time to stay active with the Greensburg VFW, Knights of Columbus and AMVETS organizations.

Much time also was spent at home, where he and his late wife, Louise, devoted more than 50 years to the care of an older daughter, Susan, who had cerebral palsy and died in 2006.

“That is for me the prime example of what it means to be a family man,” said Schworer’s grandson, August Papas.

When Schworer retired from his printing company, he was far from idle. He served two terms as president of the McKenna Senior Center in Greensburg and was influential in the success of Westmoreland County’s Senior Games.

He loved to dance and to play an array of sports and games, including golf, croquet and bocce, and encouraged others to do the same, Brenda Schworer said.

A niece, Bette Miles-Holleman, said, “He made sure that I learned the rules and skills of playing bocce and taught me the basic box step. He always made me feel welcome and part of the conversation.”

“He taught himself bridge when he was in his 70s so he could play with the other people at the senior center,” said Brenda Schworer. “He believed in getting people involved.”