Category: News || By Submitted and Staff Report

Editor's Note: The author of this article has a conflict of interest; he is a U.S. Steel stockholder.

A former McKeesporter was elected to the board of directors of U.S. Steel on Friday.

The Pittsburgh-based steelmaker announced that Robert J. Stevens (left), retired executive chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp., will serve on the company's board from Jan. 1 until the next annual meeting of stockholders, to be held in April.

Also elected to the board was Patricia Diaz Dennis, retired as senior vice president and assistant general counsel of AT&T and a former official in the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman said.

A summa cum laude graduate of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, Stevens is the son of a steelworker and a veteran Marine who earned master's degrees from Polytechnic University of New York and Columbia University.

His career at Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor, included service as chief operating officer, chief financial officer and head of strategic planning.

In 2012, Stevens was appointed by President Obama to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations.

In addition to Edgar Thomson Works, a basic steelmaking plant in Braddock; Irvin Works, a rolling mill in West Mifflin; and the Clairton coke plant, U.S. Steel owns a electric-resistance weld pipe mill in McKeesport --- one of the last remaining remnants of the former National Tube Co.

But in August, U.S. Steel closed the ERW mill at the foot of Market Street indefinitely, putting nearly 200 people out of work. U.S. Steel said that subsidized foreign steel companies, primarily in Asia, are dumping steel pipe on the U.S. market at below cost. No timetable has been set for if, or when, the McKeesport plant might re-open.

(Lockheed Martin photo)