Brownsville alumni honored
BROWNSVILLE – With an alumni base that stretches far across the globe, Brownsville Area School District officials are proud to boast a number of successful graduates that went on to become national and international leaders, politicians, professional athletes and musicians. As a means to recognize their success, members of the Brownsville Area Schools Alumni Association celebrated its sixth annual awards banquet this month honoring five distinguished individuals that exemplified themselves in their careers.
The honorees included: Vanessa DeSalvo Getz, a 1989 graduate and political advisor; Douglas Dascenzo, a 1982 graduate and professional baseball player; Vincent Colaiuta, a 1973 graduate and renowned drummer; Dennis D. Matteucci, a 1956 graduate and civil engineer; and the late Marion Klingensmith, a 1939 graduate and professional boxer turned politician.
“You can hardly go anywhere without running into somebody from Brownsville,” said Conway Keibler, treasurer of the Alumni Association and a 1945 graduate of Brownsville High School.
Keibler, also a retired minister, based his conclusion on a conversation he had with a clerk at the Upper St. Clair post office after learning both were Brownsville graduates, although 27 years apart.
“I just don’t go into the post office now just to mail, I see an old friend and we swap Brownsville stories… and you represent some of them,” Keibler told those at the banquet.
Colaiuta was unable to attend the presentation with Kevin Fortuna, alumni association president accepting the award on his behalf as well as Dascenzo, whose wife, Trisha, accepted his award.
Getz, the daughter of Ron and Nancy DeSalvo of Hiller, earned a degree in business and marketing from California University of Pennsylvania in 1993.
As the daughter of a township supervisor, Getz pursued her interests into government affairs and politics, serving an internship in the office of state Rep. H. William DeWeese, former Speaker of the House.
From there, Getz extended her career in government affairs working on behalf of clients such as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company.
In addition to her lobbying work and role as Director of Special Projects, Getz was selected to serve as President of Keystone Strategies from 1995 to 2000 working in local, federal and statewide funding initiatives.
In 2000, Getz accepted the position of executive director for Pennsylvania Auditor General Bob Casey and again in 2003 as campaign manager.
Getz returned home that same year to be closer to her family and held the position of western Pennsylvania campaign manager also planning and organizing special and political events and fund-raisers, coordinating inaugural celebrations and consulting for a number of state non profit endeavors on a volunteer basis.
Getz was also named as one of 23 of Pennsylvania’s Most Politically Powerful Women and resides in southwestern Pennsylvania with her husband, Blake, a 1987 Brownsville graduate.
“I have great memories of high school, especially how we got there everyday,” said Getz.
According to Getz, her interest in politics dates back to the 1980s when her uncle ran for Fayette County Sheriff.
“Fayette County seemed so huge to me at the time. Now, I work with all 67 counties,” said Getz.
Getz added that the area helped shape her in ways to make her the person she is today.
“Everyone I met has become a source of information for me,” said Getz.
Dascenzo also grew up in Hiller where he started playing baseball at age 9.
As the mother of a professional baseball player, Dolly Dascenzo said she and her husband never hesitated to follow and support their son.
“Our family went all over the country to watch his games,” said Dascenzo.
Dascenzo said her son wanted to improve his batting skills and with the help of his father, used bottle caps and a broomstick to do so.
After graduating, Dascenzo played college baseball at Oklahoma State University and in 1985 was drafted by the Chicago Cubs, working his way through the minor leagues before playing centerfield for the major league team in 1988.
Dascenzo, who resides in Uniontown with his wife and four children, is most known for ranking fourth on the Cubs in stolen bases in 1991, a streak of 242 errorless games in the outfield from 1988 to 1991 and making four scoreless relief pitching appearances for the Cubs in 1990 and 1991.
In 1998, Dascenzo began his coaching career as an outfield and base running instructor for the San Diego minor league teams and is currently the manager for the Eugene Emeralds, a rookie ball team of the San Diego Padres in Eugene, Ore.
Dolly Dascenzo recalled her son stating, “Baseball has a way of making you humble.”
Colaiuta’s break came in 1978, when he auditioned for Frank Zappa, an audition that involved performing the notorious piece titled “The Black Page.”
The audition was so successful that Colaiuta went on to work with Zappa as his principal drummer while his performances on the albums Joe’s Garage and Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar are considered by drummers to be among the most astounding ever recorded.
A native of Republic, Colaiuta started playing the drums as a child, receiving his first semi-professional Japanese drum kit from his parents at age 14.
Colaiuta continued to play around the Pittsburgh area following graduation before attending the Berklee College of Music for a year and relocating to Los Angeles.
In 1990, Colaiuta snagged the drum spot in Sting’s touring band where he remained for the next seven years.
Colaiuta released a self-titled solo recording in 1994 and to this day is one of the most in demand studio musicians, having won 18 “Drummer of the Year” awards from Modern Drummer Magazine and being inducted into the magazine’s “Hall of Fame” in 1996.
Most recently, Colaiuta toured with Faith Hill and recorded with Megadeth.
Colaiuta’s talent has provided him with the label of being the greatest drummer of all time.
Matteucci, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the Carnegie Mellon Institute of Technology, is most noted for bringing employment back to the area at the CallTech Communications Customer Contact Center, located off Route 40.
“Denny never forgot his roots,” said Frank Ricco, a 1938 graduate of Brownsville.
Matteucci said he initially declined the honor and was still reluctant to receive such an award because it was “role reversal” for him in the sense that he was always recognizing others for their accomplishments.
Matteucci served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain before moving his way up the corporate ladder at IBM in Pittsburgh from marketing representative of manufacturing and fabrication to marketing manager, manager of systems engineering services and then regional personnel manager.
In 1972, Matteucci became a branch manager in Philadelphia and also served as manager of the communication industry before becoming director and eventually vice president of the communication industry worldwide, retiring in 1991.
Matteucci then took a job in 1991 with Northern Telecom as its executive consultant and one year later became vice president of marketing and sales. Four years later, he was named the company’s Chief Executive Office.
From there, Matteucci held various upper management positions with Ameritech, Enhanced Business Services, CompuServe Interactive Services, Cable and Wireless USA and CallTech, where he retired in 2004.
Matteucci said no matter where he and his wife lived she vowed they would return to Brownsville one day.
Matteucci credited his success to the owner of the former Pennzoil station where he worked for nine years. “He gave me the grounding in the business I couldn’t get anywhere else,” said Matteucci.
Notorious for sweeping the streets in Brownsville, historical figure Marion Klingensmith was best described by his son, Larry, as taking great pride in the city.
A successful amateur boxer that went by “Slugger,” Klingensmith served in the U.S. Navy as a physical education and boxing instructor starting his professional career in the “Golden Age” of the sport with the likes of icons such as Sugar Ray Robinson, Jersey Joe Walcott and Jake LaMotta.
Klingensmith later held the position of Pennsylvania State Athletic Commissioner regulating both boxing and wrestling before taking a turn in his career to be a police officer and Brownsville’s first elected mayor.
He went on to serve as a state representative and a county commissioner for four consecutive four-year terms, sticking to the motto, “It’s nice to be nice.”
“He enjoyed campaigning door-to-door and was up close and personal,” said Larry Klingensmith, amazed at his father’s win.
In addition, Klingensmith was an amateur filmmaker with much of his work incorporated into a PBS documentary currently available.
Klingensmith resided with his wife Katheryn in Brownsville until his death in 1993. The couple had four sons.