James R. Jarosz

    James Russell Jarosz, 76, who lived most of his life in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, died  December 20, 2025, at Carnegie Park Post Acute, a rehabilitation facility in Scott Township, where he had resided since February after suffering a falling injury.

    He was born June 23, 1949, in Cleveland, Ohio, the oldest of three children of Raymond and Audrey (Kothera) Jarosz. After his mother’s death in 1964, the family moved to the Pittsburgh area.

    Jim graduated from Mount Lebanon High School in 1967 and later earned an associate degree at Allegheny Community College. He worked as a compiler of corporate reports for Alcoa, and later Bayer, the pharmaceuticals company.

    He visited Europe about a dozen times from the 1970s to the 1990s, and he also made a trip to Japan in 1995. Despite his fondness for travel, however, he never learned to drive a car. Many people in Mount Lebanon knew him for the great distances he walked from his home on North Meadowcroft Avenue, often carrying various bags. He appeared to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Mount Lebanon’s street grid and was a decades-long frequent user of the Pittsburgh Regional Transit system.

    He was passionately interested in sports – mostly baseball, both playing it and following the Pittsburgh Pirates. Music also fascinated him – mostly 1960s and 1970s pop and rock music, and particularly the Beatles, many of whose songs he learned to play on his many guitars. Puns and other forms of wordplay often found their way into his conversation. He was generous to his friends.

    Jim’s survivors include his daughter, Katelin Q. Jarosz, of Mount Lebanon; his former wife, Mary Giegel, also of Mount Lebanon; brother Joel and his wife, Diana, of Irwin, and son Jaret and daughter Lily; and sister Valerie and her husband, Howard, of Washington state.

    The family thanks the Carnegie Park staff for its attentive care of Jim during the 10 months he lived there. No funeral service is planned. Burial of Jim’s ashes is expected to take place later at the family’s convenience.

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