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Retiring director turned a small home for children into an international enterprise

Wednesday, July 03, 2002

By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

William "Clark" Luster arrived as executive director of Pressley Ridge Schools in 1975 to oversee a staff of 87 teachers, counselors and support workers at the North Side institution for troubled children.

	Pressley Ridge's William "Clark" Luster "I did what I said we would do: focus on the kids." (Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette)

He left last week having overseen the growth of the nonprofit into a vast international network that employs 1,200 and has an annual budget of $56 million. Besides expanding its reach to Europe, Africa and South America, Luster has helped create a couple of for-profit ventures at Pressley Ridge including an on-line business it sold for $5 million in 1999.

Luster, 57, contends he never had a plan to make Pressley Ridge an international entity that has helped set standards for handling kids, mostly ages 13 to 17, with emotional and behavioral problems.

"I did what I said we would do: focus on the kids," the Nashville, Tenn., native said during an interview a few days before he retired. Taking over as executive director on July 15 will be B. Scott Finnell, who currently works for KidsPeace, a facility for troubled children in Allentown.

Pressley Ridge has its roots in two Presbyterian orphanages established on the North Side in the 1800s: The Protestant Home for Children, founded in 1832; and the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Home for the Friendless, incorporated in 1861. They merged in 1969 and eventually consolidated operations at a site on Marshall Avenue. Pressley's programs include residential homes at its main campus and other sites including a 1,200-acre wilderness camp at Ohiopyle, Fayette County; an extensive network of foster care services called Pressley Ridge Youth Development Extension (PRYDE); and family support services.

Pressley provides its services to more than 1,500 children and their families in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. There is no tuition; the programs are funded through 170 governmental agencies with Medicaid being the largest source of funds, Luster said.

Its international work, which started in 1996, provides training at its main North Side campus to officials from other countries who want hands-on guidance in juvenile counseling, education and drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Last fall, for instance, participants included representatives from Brazil, Poland, Ukraine and Palestine.

"My sense is that, if [the United States] is going to be an economic, cultural and political leader, we have to share leadership on social issues," said Luster.

Pressley maintains one international office in Lisbon, Portugal, where it sells training systems and consulting services.

Pressley's early foray into the for-profit sector was its Corporation for Standards and Outcomes, the Internet-based system launched in the mid-1990s to measure results of Pressley's various programs. It was sold for $5 million in 1999 to Value Behavioral Health of Irvine, Calif.

Another for-profit company in which Pressley still has an investment is Esteam LLC, a partnership with Hampton software developer Innervate. Esteam is developing a software-based system that helps non-profits reduce paperwork and streamline management.

Luster was director of children and youth services at Knoxville's Eastern State Psychiatric Hospital and a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville when he was asked to interview for the top job at Pressley Ridge.

He said the call "came out of the blue." But a history of the organization says otherwise. Luster was part of a consulting team that had visited Pressley Ridge four years earlier, and he had made an impression with his expertise in the philosophy of using "re-education," a strategy that combines principles of education and psychology and takes into account the living environment and family relationships of those being treated.

"We focus on the children and their families," said Luster. "We need to focus on housing, employment and social support for the adults because more than 75 percent [of students] are from environments with joblessness, addictions and poor mental health."

Luster agreed to take the job thinking he'd stay a couple years and return to Tennessee.

"What kept me here is that Pittsburgh is...a place where you can get things done and know people in a way that allows you to get things done."

He's particularly proud of the systems Pressley has put in place to measure its results. Follow-up calls to discharged students last year showed 75 to 80 percent of them were living and functioning in less restrictive settings such as living at home with their parents rather than in a foster home; or going to school in mainstream classrooms.

Though Pressley's programs may merit attention from education experts, its name may best be associated with its annual Ice Cream Sunday fund-raiser in which local corporations sponsor new, custom ice cream flavors and guests pay a fee to taste them. The event is the brainchild of Luster who got the idea 10 years ago after attending a church ice cream social with his mother in Tennessee.

Luster, who is married and the father of three children aged 20 to 31, agreed to stay in Pittsburgh to help with the transition of management at Pressley Ridge. But he has plans outside the region too which include developing a national museum and foundation for motorcycles perhaps in the Blue Ridge Mountains or somewhere out West. He'd also like to hike the Appalachian Trail, but that's on hold until his foot heals from an injury sustained, naturally, on his motorcycle.