Dr. Chet Beres, M.D., the quarterback who gave of himself to so many people: Some Lilly Raiders who will not be with us on Saturday

Chet Beres was a special human being

… The 1968 championship QB is calling audibles from heaven

On a few nights in late October 2010, I slept overnight at the Conemaugh Hospital palliative care unit. My brother, Father Jim, was clinging to life at the end of a long battle with cancer, and this unit was designed to make life easier for those in the final stages of disease — and for the families who wanted to spend their last days with their loved ones.

It was at that time that while wandering through the hall, I noticed a plaque on the wall that warmed my heart, albeit in a sad way. 

The palliative care unit was dedicated to Dr. Chet Beres, M.D., an advocate for those in hospice care. My mind flashed back to the Lilly Raider quarterback on the 1968 championship team, a young man who was bright, exuberant, and so popular with his teammates. 

Chet went on to college at Pitt and to medical school after graduating from Penn Cambria. We knew that he was bright, but we also knew that he had compassion in his veins and in his heart. Here was an example of what he had accomplished in his lifetime, though leaving us at too young a stage in life. 

Chet, the athlete

My first recollection of working with Chet was in 1967 when I started coaching the grade school football team in my hometown. I was entering my first year at Penn State, starting at the Altoona Campus, and I was asked to coach the Lilly Raiders for a couple of weeks. 

So, I coached Chet first as an end on the team in seventh grade. During that season, he had chased down a loose football. From about 35 to 40 yards away, he threw it back like a strike he was delivering in baseball. 

I realized that he would be a prime candidate for quarterback the following year, and he became the engineer of one of the best offenses that the Cambria County Grade School League had ever seen. 

Few eighth grade teams could use audibles in those days, and probably today. However, with Chet at the controls, it was possible to do so. He could read the defense and communicate the change to the players. That was incredible for the 1960s.

As one of his teammates recalled recently,

Chet was smart and athletic and was a leader with charisma.  Rare in an 8th grader, and perfect traits for a quarterback.

Tony Stopka, email recollection

However, while he continued playing sports in high school, Chet had other dreams beyond athletics. He matriculated at Pitt-Johnstown (UPJ) and then the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. After serving a family practice residency in Roanoke, Va. and practicing in that area, he returned to Johnstown in 1989 to start a family practice there. 

Motivating others

When I was teaching a college English Comp class in the early 2000s, one of my students said something like this,

The doctor I work for knows you — and he’s the reason I am here. 

Recollection from the past 

The physician was indeed Dr. Chet Beres, and he has encouraged this young woman, who was an L.P.N. and working at Laurel Crest Manor, to return to school to earn an R.N. degree. 

She said that he was so kind and so supportive of everyone there, both the residents and the nurses and other employees. He had the perfect temperament for medicine, the same one that he had when he was a quarterback in 1968. 

The players looked up to Chet and respected him then, just as so many did later in life. 

As a physician, Chet worked for all three hospitals in Johnstown, becoming the chairman of family practice and president of the medical staff at the former UPMC Lee Regional.

Community-minded

While medicine can become an all-encompassing profession, Dr. Beres never forgot those who tutored him in sports in his youth. He did the same, serving as a little league, pony and colt league baseball coach, as well as a pee wee and girls basketball coach. 

He donated a great deal of time to St. Benedict’s and Bishop McCort athletic programs. 

That was the kind of guy he was, helping the three children he raised with his high school sweethearts, the former Dorothy Hammond: Christopher, Lauren, and Matthew.

“When bad things happen to good people”

As I have often mentioned, Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book is often quoted in wondering why such good people suffer misfortune. 

As a young man, Chet was hit by a vehicle while driving his motorbike home, and he suffered serious injuries. His leg was severly damaged, and it certainly restricted him in some ways. 

However, it never stopped him for pursuing his dreams of being a physician and raising a wonderful family with his wife. He did everything in life that he would have without the injuries. 

The saddest part of this is that he passed away unexpectedly on October 29, 2007, at the young age of 52.

Again, why do bad things happen to good people? In truth, we will never know, but with Chet, his memory lives on at Conemaugh Hospital — and with his family. 

Back to the Palliative Care Unit

In early 2008, the Palliative Care Unit that Dr. Beres had worked hard to pursue opened at Conemaugh,  and it was dedicated in memory of Chet,

Patients and their families often need some time and extra attention as they learn to deal with chronic and life-threatening conditions.

That’s the goal of a palliative care unit that debuted Wednesday at Memorial Medical Center, said Dr. Donald Ratchford, medical director.

“Palliative care is really a philosophy of treating complicated patients with complicated needs, including any chronic symptom management,” he said at the 10-bed unit in the Good Samaritan Building.

The unit was dedicated to the late Dr. Chester Beres of Richland Township, a longtime hospice advocate, Ratchford said during ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Beres died suddenly Oct. 29 at age 52.

He was medical director of Conemaugh Regional Hospice and former medical director of UPMC Lee Regional Hospice.

“There is a lot of time involved in coordinating care with family members,” Ratchford said.

“This allows it to happen in a more effortless, coordinated manner.

Randy Griffith, “Space to cope: Memorial unveils palliative care 

unit,” Tribune-Democrat, January 3, 2008

So, as some members of the 1967, 1968, and 1969 teams come together on Saturday night, we will also remember those who were so close to us like Chet Beres. He was a unique, caring, and compassionate person, and in retrospect, we saw that in the way he conducted himself as a young man and as an athlete many years ago. 

We are so proud of what Chet accomplished throughout his life, and I, for one, will never forget him.