Feb 19, 2005 By Jennifer Harr 3 min read

Rodd J. Durbin was the type of person who managed to mix compassion and humor, putting those around him at ease. “He was easy to talk to and loved his family very much,” said Roger Victor, who worked with Durbin through the Fayette County Coroner’s office.

Victor and Elsie Dvorchak, who both work for the coroner’s office, were shaken Friday, talking about Durbin’s death Thursday night in a one-vehicle accident in Washington Township.

Durbin, 39, of Bute Road in Uniontown was driving his car southbound along Brownlee Road in Somerset Township around 7:30 p.m. when he hit a patch of ice. His car, a 2003 Mercury sedan, hit a tree near Church Road, according to Washington County Coroner S. Timothy Warco.

Durbin was wearing a seat belt, but there was no evidence that his airbag deployed, Warco said.

His cause of death was listed as blunt force trauma.

Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly said Durbin’s death was the only one reported Thursday evening in the tri-state area. “This shouldn’t have happened,” said Reilly.

Reilly reported that the area went without a motor vehicle death throughout the holidays last year, something that is relatively unheard of.

According to Reilly, Durbin’s career as a pharmaceutical representative required a significant amount of travel throughout the week, while he still maintained an interest in forensics and made time on the weekends to serve as a volunteer deputy coroner.

“He would have made a nice chief deputy and conscientious coroner,” said Reilly.

Reilly added that he had become acquainted with Durbin’s family over the years because of their strong commitment to public service.

Victor and Dvorchak remember numerous times that Durbin went out to scenes with them.

He was professional, and compassionate, and offered a human side to oftentimes-difficult work, they said.

“He came into the office and helped so much,” Dvorchak said, both as a deputy and personally, in any way he could. “He was truly an asset.”

The three played practical jokes on one another over the two years they knew Durbin. Victor said he and Durbin had fun at Dvorchak’s well-humored expense on more than one occasion, making funny phone calls or seeing how long they could get her to believe an outlandish story.

And like most others who work in the tight-knit office, Durbin had a nickname. They called him “Opie,” Ron Howard’s character on “The Andy Griffith Show,” because they thought he looked like him, Victor said.

It was a name that Victor said Durbin’s wife and mother started calling him.

Both said Durbin’s love of his wife, Lisa, and their daughter was obvious any time they talked to him.

Fighting tears, Dvorchak said that the movies depict dying people going into a light and getting a choice of whether to live or die.

“There’s not doubt in my mind, he didn’t have a choice. He’d never have left his family,” she said.

Victor said Durbin was excited for the first day of fishing season and planned to make it a family event by taking his daughter.

“You couldn’t find a kinder person. He was always someplace, somewhere, doing something for somebody,” Victor said of Durbin.

But even Victor, who has been working for the coroner’s office for many years, got choked up.

“We’re hard. But when it hits this close to home …,” he said, trailing off.

“He was a prince of a man,” added Reilly.

Funeral arrangements for Durbin are incomplete and being handled by the Stephen E. Kezmarsky Funeral Home, Uniontown.

—

Editor’s note: Herald-Standard reporter Joyce Koballa contributed to this story.