Honoring the Memory
of Those
We Love

Age 80, formerly of Dormont, on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.

Beloved son of the late Stanley and Helen (Urbanek) Trafalski; brother of the late Thomas (survived by Becky Riley) Trafalski; nephew of the late Walter (Emma) Urbanek, Josephine (Charles) Kostrzewa, Lillian (Anthony) Maist and Laura Urbanek; cousin of Valarie (the late Vince) Yoswick, Stanley (Susan) Urbanek, Donna (the late Hal) Stover and the late Leonard (survived by Adrienne) Maist and Janice Gorski and their families. Preceded in death by his good friend and "cousin" Lawrence (survived by Margie) Gorski.

He was born in 1946, at the beginning of the baby-boom; and lived in the Beechview section of Pittsburgh for a short time; and then his parents moved to Dormont Borough, where he grew up. He attended St. Bernard’s Elementary School, then South Hills Catholic (now Seton LaSalle) High School, and then attended the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Engineering, earning a BSEE (Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering) degree in 1968. While at Pitt, he was in the Army ROTC program; and upon graduation was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Corps. He was posted at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland, serving in the Army’s Materiel Test Directorate as a Materiel Test Director from 1968 to 1970.
At APG, he directed the acceptance testing of the “mini-gun” (a .30 caliber, electrically driven, five rotating barrel, high rate of fire machine gun) that was being installed in the chin turret of the then brand new Bell AH-1 “Cobra” Attack Helicopter. After serving two years of active duty at Aberdeen Proving Ground, he was discharged as a First Lieutenant. Upon discharge from the Army, he obtained a position in Westinghouse Electric’s Computer Systems Division (CSD), as a Field Engineer; and spent the next ten years installing and maintaining several types of Westinghouse’s industrial computer control systems in customer’s plant sites (mostly in electricity generating plants) … in 27 states and 14 countries. After ten years in Field Engineering, he was asked to move to CSD’s Development Engineering Department as a Supervisory Engineer to lead a project to develop the hardware and software for a test unit for a new line of control equipment. As part of that project, he received a patent disclosure for designing the printed circuit board that interfaced the new test unit to the control system’s processor. Upon completing that project, he became Engineer-in-Charge of the Software Validation Section of the Product Support Group, within Development Engineering, that tested new software prior to its release. And then later, he became the Manager of that Product Support Group. In that position, he was responsible for six sections: Software Validation, two Nuclear Software V & V (Verification and Validation) sections, Technical Writing, Legacy Software Maintenance, and the Software Library … involving a total of forty-four people in all.

Then in 1999, when Westinghouse’s Computer Systems Division (CSD) was bought by Emerson Electric, and renamed Emerson’s Power and Water Systems Co. (P&WS), he took the position of Quality Assurance Manager for P&WS, being responsible for both product quality and process quality (i.e., ensuring that the company’s procedures were compliant with the ISO-9001 Quality Standard). Three years later, he became Quality Assurance Manager for both P&WS and an Emerson sister company located in Austin, Texas … spending one week a month in the Austin facility.

After working for Westinghouse/Emerson for 34 years in the same division and at the same site in O’Hara Township, he retired (early) in 2005; but he was requested to stay on as a part time contract consultant … which he did. That lasted for two years; and then he really retired. In retirement, he travelled for pleasure to a number of locations in the US, including Florida, Texas, Colorado, Oregon, and two three-week trips to Hawaii (a favorite vacation destination of his) … making a total of five trips to Hawaii during his work and retirement years. He also enjoyed various hobbies throughout his (both work and retirement) years, including model railroading, photography, watching classic movies, listening to music, reading (magazines and books), and doing crossword puzzles. In 2022, after developing health problems, he moved from his long time home in Dormont to Asbury Heights, a Retirement Community in Mt. Lebanon; and finished his life there, enjoying the many amenities of Asbury, and living among a great group of people (both residents and staff) at Asbury. A special thanks to Dr. Shauna for her compassion and care.

Friends will be received at the John F. Slater Funeral Home, Inc., 4201 Brownsville Road, Brentwood 15227 on Thursday, June 4, 2026 from 4-8 p.m. Funeral prayer on Friday morning at 9:00. Mass of Christian Burial in St. Bernard Church at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, family suggests contributions to the American Kidney Foundation, 2403 Sidney Street, Suite 205, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 or the American Cancer Society, PO Box 862, Carnegie, PA 15106.