Mike E. Dimoff Sr.

← Notable People

Mike E. Dimoff Sr. belonged to a generation whose lives crossed nearly every part of twentieth-century Mount Union history. He was a Navy veteran, retail executive, fire chief, veterans’ organization leader, church trustee, Mason, historical-society member and collector. By the final decades of his life, researchers were also seeking him out for something equally valuable: his memory of the town’s railroads, industries, businesses and people.

Dimoff was born in Mount Union on June 5, 1924, the son of Elia and Angelina Taliff Dimoff. He grew up while the borough was still shaped by the East Broad Top Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the refractory plants and the commercial streets that served their workers and families. Those surroundings became more than childhood scenery. They became subjects he would help document and interpret for later generations.

Navy service during World War II

Dimoff entered active Navy service at Altoona on May 24, 1943. After training and stateside duty, the Norfolk Receiving Station transferred Gunner’s Mate Third Class Mike E. Dimoff to the light cruiser USS Houston (CL-81) on January 20, 1944. His obituary spells the ship’s name “Huston,” but the hull number and Navy records establish that it was the Houston.

Commissioned on December 20, 1943, the Houston departed for the Pacific in April 1944 and joined fast-carrier forces operating against Japanese positions. Quarterly muster rolls place Dimoff aboard throughout 1944. Japanese aircraft torpedoed the cruiser off Formosa on October 14, and a second aerial torpedo struck two days later while the damaged ship was under tow. The muster-roll sequence confirms that Dimoff was a member of the crew during both attacks. Despite severe flooding and casualties, the crew and accompanying vessels kept the cruiser afloat. The ship received three battle stars for its wartime service.

Later rolls continue to list Dimoff aboard through early 1946. A final report of changes records his transfer from the Houston to the Boston Receiving Station on February 16, 1946. By then he had advanced to gunner’s mate second class. His Pennsylvania veterans’ compensation application records his separation at Bainbridge, Maryland, on February 22 after more than two years of foreign service. A 1948 registration records subsequent Navy Reserve service beginning May 27, 1947.

From Berkeley Springs to Saxe’s

Dimoff’s first identified civilian employer was the National Youth Administration center in Mount Union, which he named on his June 30, 1942 draft registration. After the war he entered retail management. A September 2, 1948 registration places him in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, and identifies his employer as Dave Saxe and his occupation as manager of a retail clothing store. The record names his wife, Lois, as next of kin and states that he had children.

The 1950 federal census independently records Mike and Lois Dimoff in Bath, the municipality containing Berkeley Springs. Dimoff was working in clothing retail, and the household included Lois, a stepdaughter and a two-year-old son. On January 23, 1952, The Morning Herald of Hagerstown reported that he had recently been chosen chief of the Berkeley Springs fire department. The paper then identified him as manager of Bowman Stores Inc. and noted that he was a Mount Union native.

Dimoff’s later position as vice president and general manager of Saxe’s Corporation continued a relationship with Dave Saxe documented as early as 1948. Local business history dates Dave Saxe’s Mount Union department store to 1915. Its original Jefferson Street business later expanded into the former G.C. Murphy premises at 28–30 West Shirley Street.

The surviving records outline his progression from a Dave Saxe retail manager in 1948, to Bowman Stores manager in 1952, and eventually to a Saxe’s corporate officer. They do not yet explain the relationship between Dave Saxe and Bowman Stores or establish the date of his promotion within Saxe’s.

Veteran, civic, fraternal and church service

Dimoff was a charter member of Blue Juniata Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1754 and a past commander of Simpson-Hunt American Legion Post 107. He belonged to Deford Masonic Lodge No. 88 in Berkeley Springs, the Valley of Martinsburg Consistory and the Mount Union Order of the Eastern Star, where he served as Worthy Patron.

At Mount Union First United Methodist Church, he served on the board of trustees and as church historian. He was also a life member of the National Rifle Association and a charter member of the Mount Union Historical Society. His interest in firearms had a historical dimension: the July 15, 1966 Mount Union Times reported on his Rotary Club talk about rare firearms from the Civil War and earlier periods, illustrated with pieces from his collection.

Preserving Mount Union history

During Mount Union’s 1976 Bicentennial observance, Dimoff worked with Elizabeth Goodman to select sites for historical markers. A committee report listed places associated with the borough’s development, including the site of the Exchange Hotel of Santa Fe, built in 1848. The effort shows him helping decide which places and stories should be interpreted for the public while people with firsthand knowledge of the older town were still available.

Federal historians turned to that living memory in 1989. Margaret Mulrooney interviewed Dimoff in Mount Union on March 29 for a Historic American Buildings Survey study of south-central Pennsylvania’s refractory company towns. The project examined communities created or transformed by the silica-brick industry, including Mount Union and Kistler, and appeared in 1993 as Kim E. Wallace’s Brickyard Towns. The published report confirms the interview date, although it does not reproduce Dimoff’s individual testimony.

The Friends of the East Broad Top also recognized Dimoff as an important witness. In 1995 its journal, Timber Transfer, published a two-part oral-history feature titled “As I Recall... Remembering the EBT in Mount Union.” Those interviews preserved the perspective of someone who had known the town when narrow-gauge tracks, coal-transfer facilities, brickyards, railroad yards and downtown businesses formed an interconnected landscape.

Family, later years and legacy

Dimoff married Lois P. Ramsey, who preceded him in death. Their family included Joyce Klein and sons Mike Jr., Gregory, Nick, Victor and John. At the time of his death, his obituary recorded eighteen grandchildren, thirty great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Mike E. Dimoff Sr. died on September 20, 2019, at William Penn Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. He was 95. Following services at Heath-Anderson Funeral Home, he was buried in Mount Union Cemetery with military honors provided by the local VFW and American Legion honor guard.

His life connects Mount Union’s industrial era with the generation that worked to preserve its memory after plants, railroad facilities and older commercial landmarks began to disappear. He did not simply remember old Mount Union privately. He helped choose its historic markers, served its historical society and church as a historian, and sat for interviews that became part of the documentary record.

Published October 21, 2026. This profile distinguishes facts established by public records from relationships and dates that remain under research.