Big Brother Friendship Spans 30 Years

May 1, 2009— -- It was an unlikely friendship -- a 7-year-old-boy and a 65-year-old man.

But 30 years later, a relationship that started through the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program, is still going strong, even though the "big brother" is now 95 years old.

"Being a big brother or being a big sister is not a one-way deal," Chester Ross said. " It's a two-way deal. Because you get just as much out of him as he gets out of you."

In 1979, when Ross was 65, he had to be convinced that he wasn't too old to volunteer. A few miles away, David Loughran, who was then 7 and being raised by a single mom, expected to be paired with a big brother in his 20s.

But when the two were matched up for the first time, they said, something clicked.

"I actually remember the day. I was sitting on the couch. And my mother and the social worker were chatting and so forth," Loughran, now living in Connecticut, said. "Chester was kind of looking at me and said, 'Let's get out of here.'"

"And believe me," Ross said, " for one hour, the conversation never, never stopped."

The pair hung out every Saturday for years until Loughran, then 12, asked Ross for a favor.

"He says to me, 'Chester, I want you to do me a favor.' What's the favor? 'I want you to take me out on Sundays instead of Saturdays,'" Ross remembered. "'On Saturdays when I go out with you, my friends are all playing baseball, and they're all together and they're having a good time. On Sundays, they're with their family. And I have no family, and I would like very much to be with you."

Their Sunday outings would sometimes be as simple as watching a ball game on TV or seeing a movie. Other times, Ross, who lives in White Plains, N.Y. gave Loughran experiences he would never have had otherwise, such as getting seats at a baseball game right behind home plate or tickets to a Broadway show.

"I can sum it up very easily," Loughran said. "The big brother relationship, my relationship with Chester, was probably one of the single most important relationships that I've had in my life."

They once took a weekend trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown N.Y. Ross made Loughran wear a dinner jacket to a fancy restaurant and taught him how to use a salad fork.

From Friends to Family

As Loughran grew up, Ross became a true mentor.

"He was always setting me up for the next thing," Loughran said." You know, setting me up for success."

When Loughran was a teenager, Ross went above and beyond the duties of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program. Since he'd never gone to college, Ross wanted to be sure his "little brother" did. So he offered to pay Loughran's college tuition.

"It totally took me off guard," Loughran said. "Never thought that in a million years. And his response was simple but totally Chester. He said, you know, 'You're part of my family, you know, what else would I do?'"

Over the years their families have become intertwined as well.

So it only made sense that when Loughran got engaged five years ago he would ask Ross, then 90 years old, to be his best man.

"I said, 'OK, however, on one condition, that I would not be in charge of the bachelor party.'"

For Loughran, it has never really mattered how he spent his time with Ross, just that he has always been there for him.

"That consistency -- you know, that I could rely on him, and that he was always there -- you know, was tremendous," Loughran said, becoming emotional. "Being of, you know, an only child of a divorced family where you don't have a father, to have someone to play that role for you is just the best experience that, you know, a child could ask for."

CLICK HERE for more information about Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and CLICK HERE for more information on Family Services of Westchester which runs the program that matched Ross and Loughran.