Joseph J. Wilfinger, of Brookline, was not your typical steel worker.

In the 1960s, he played Joseph in a live nativity scene at Brookline Methodist Church.

His love of the violin as well as his radio job also made him unique during his 45-year career at U.S. Steel's Homestead Works, where he worked as supervisor of coke and coal.

Mr. Wilfinger, 89, died Oct. 20 at Legacy Place assisted living center in Twinsburg, Ohio, from complications of prostate cancer.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he and his brother, Edward, now deceased, had their own radio show originating from WBTM in Danville, Va. They were working for the Civilian Conservation Corps when they auditioned at the station and got the jobs playing their violins on air each Sunday morning.

When their assignments with the CCC ended, they got ready to return to Homestead, where they had grown up, and the programming director pleaded with them to come back each Sunday and to continue their show. So they drove to Danville each Sunday in their 1934 DeSoto, so the show could go on.

The act ended when they joined the Army.

"He was always finding places to play his violin," said his son Edward, of Twinsburg. Even though he aged, his skill at the violin did not diminish. "He liked to say that his fingers worked automatically."

Over the years he played at the Kane Regional Center in Scott, at the senior center in Brookline and on holidays at Brightwood Christian Church.

He learned to play from a music teacher in East Liberty when he was a boy. He also learned shorthand at a business college; his family found old notebooks written in shorthand.

"He was well liked and gentle, with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face," his son said.

Besides his son, Edward, Mr. Wilfinger is survived by one daughter, Donna Randall, of Ponchatoula, La.; another brother, Frank, of Eureka, Ill.; one sister, Frances Mook, of Orlando, Fla.; four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

A service was held Oct. 24 at Beinhauer Mortuary in Beechview.