Scott Ludwick

Scott Ludwick, 65, of Bridgeville, PA, passed away on April 6, 2023 after a prolonged illness.  Scott is the middle son of the late Frank and Lois Ludwick.  He is survived by brothers Paul and Craig (Beth), nieces Cara and Brynn, nephews Preston and Drew, and his beloved grey cat, Gabby.  Scott will be remembered as an avid Steelers fan, a modern Renaissance man, and someone who was able to repair just about anything.  Sundays in the fall were his favorite, and now he’ll have the best seats in the house.  He will be deeply missed.

There are so many stories to tell about Scott.  As a youngster, he loved the show Dark Shadows.  He would watch it every chance he could after school.  He also loved to watch Pittsburgh’s Chiller Theater on Saturday nights.  To stay awake, he would place cool washcloths on his head.  One time, as his parents were out playing cards, he decided (for some reason) to lay down behind the couch with his cool washcloth.  And then promptly fell asleep.  When Frank and Lois came home after midnight, they couldn’t find him and he wasn’t waking up to their calls. The police were quickly called and looked all over for him, mainly in the wooded area between Missouri Avenue and McLaughlin Run Road.  Imagine everybody’s surprise when he eventually crawled out from behind the couch and asked “What’s going on?”  Still, some of his favorite movies were The Birds, The Exorcist, and Trilogy of Terror.

Scott had a great love of rock music even from an early age.  He enjoyed the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix.  He also went to a lot of concerts down in Pittsburgh.  To the end, he treasured his Led Zeppelin ticket from Three Rivers Stadium, and seeing the Allman Brothers at the Syria Mosque, as well as many, many more.  To this day, the media hard drive in his car has several thousand songs from hundreds of musical groups.

From about the age of 10, he had one or more motorcycles.  The neighborhood kids made a few miles of paths throughout the woods between Missouri Avenue and McLaughlin Run Road and ride their motorcycles and mini bikes.  Scott enjoyed his little Harley Davidson Leggero 65cc, Benelli 125cc, and Kawasaki 125cc.  He would graduate to bigger and bigger bikes and would eventually end up with a Suzuki GSXR1000.  He said that no ride was complete unless he got above 100mph.

Scott was mechanically minded.  His high school aptitude test showed that his mechanical reasoning was in the 95^thpercentile and that was certainly true.  He was able to fix most anything.  He would repair the dishwasher, faucets, plumbing, gas lines, electrical lines, computers, and just about anything else that was not working.  I think that his motto was “Why buy something when it can be fixed?”  His final love was working on his 1969 Corvette.  He purchased it as a broken down wreck and it’s now running and can be driven on the road.

Scott was an avid scuba diver and snorkeler.  As a young boy, some of his favorite activities was snorkeling in the crystal clear springs of Florida.  Juniper Springs and Crystal Springs were his favorites.  Towards the end, floating down Rainbow River was a great love.  He must have done that 20 times.  And of course, Crystal River with the manatees was always a good time.  In the early 90s he trained to be a commercial diver.  The next 15 or so years were spent in mostly cold water, barely able to see his hand in front of his face.  In that water he would clean and maintain pumps, inspect filter screens, clean the screens of clams and mussels, weld items, and numerous other dangerous jobs.  This rolled over to recreational diving.  He would dive with his brothers so many times that he probably logged several hundred hours under water.  One of his favorite dives was the USS San Diego off of Fire Island NY, a WWI wreck at 120feet.  While diving one time, he managed to reach the ammo hold and brought up a bag full of cartridges and clips for the M1903 Springfield.  He also loved diving Venice Beach FLA for sharks teeth and all kinds of other places looking for mastodon fossils, megalodon fossils, and many other fossils that he has in his personal collection.  His last dive was in December 2022 when he went on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands, his dream vacation. There, he was able to dive with the penguins, seals, and other marine life.

Scott was a pretty good horticulturist.  He spent many hours growing flowers and plants that would attract bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies.  One of his proudest moments was when monarch caterpillars were crawling all over the milkweed that he had planted.  He knew that the caterpillars would soon be a butterflies.

He was a picky eater.  He hated fish, but loved hamburgers.  Our mother would cook our favorite meal for birthdays and his was hamburgers with deep fried French fries (not baked!!)  In the early 70s, we had to eat what was put in front of us, and couldn’t leave the table until it was done.  The only way Scott would eat spinach, beets, and liver was if it was smothered in Heinz ketchup.  He was also a big fan of Pepsi.  To the end, Scott would carry around a huge insulated cup that held 64 ounces and he would fill it with ice and Pepsi.  He would carry it around for hours and drink it.

Scott will be greatly missed by his friends and family.  Very rarely did he turn down an opportunity to help somebody.  While we believe that he’s in a better place, we still wish he was here with us.