A Letter from the Executive Director

Back in 1898, the United States was the world’s rising industrial power, and no city played a more vital role in that transformation than Pittsburgh, the nation’s forge. Many Penn State grads flocked to the city for jobs and careers, particularly our engineers. It comes as no surprise, then, that the first “branch” of the Penn State Alumni Association was founded in the Steel City

Fast forward 110 years to June 19. Here we are with 200+ pumped-up Penn Staters, at the top of the world in PNC Park, the sparkling new home of the Pirates, looking out over center field into the beautiful dense skyline of downtown Pittsburgh. We are celebrating the 110th birthday of the Allegheny County Chapter of the Penn State Alumni Association, which that same evening retired its old banner and officially changed its name to the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter.

In fact, it’s not only the 110 years of service to alumni and alma mater we’re celebrating, but also the phenomenal success of the 2007-8 year for our Alpha chapter. Under the energetic leadership of President Daniel Byrd and an incredibly devoted Executive Board, the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter held 37 events this past year and increased its active paid membership from 242 to 715 – a three-fold jump. As a gift to those alumni who showed up, the chapter renewed their dues for 2008-9 free of charge!

That’s extraordinary progress in a year’s time. Pittsburgh is one of the five key metro areas for the Penn State Alumni Association. Nearly 23,000 alumni live in Allegheny County alone – the No. 1 county in the nation in population of Penn Staters – and 22,000 more live in the metro area contiguous to Allegheny County. It’s vitally important that we have a large, growing, dynamic chapter at the epicenter of our 45,000 alumni in Metro Pittsburgh., and the Greater Pittsburgh Chapter is exactly that.

And if the revelers weren’t excited enough that evening, the chapter brought out Nittany Lions Defensive Coordinator Tom Bradley ‘78, a Penn Stater with strong ties to western Pennsylvania, who hit it out of the ballpark with his inside stories of Penn State football. Appropriately, Dan Byrd and Vice President Tim King presented Coach Bradley a Louisville Slugger baseball bat with his name inscribed.

Nowhere was the spirit of Penn State ever more enthusiastically displayed than in PNC Park on June 19. Of course, it didn’t just happen. It took exquisite planning and excruciatingly hard work to pull off this awesome celebration. For that we are most grateful to Dan Byrd, Tim King, treasurer Jim Adams, secretary/newsletter editor Kathy Moyer, social chair Laura Kunig, and the rest of a truly committed executive board: Lindsey Fox, Jeff Kennedy, Paul D’Andries, Melissa Fanto, John Herrington, Amanda Morel (immediate past president), Casey Muir, Greg Scott (who serves on Alumni Council), Holly Ranich and Ronnie Ranich.