Local men to be honored by Chamber of Commerce
The Fayette Chamber of Commerce has selected Robert W. Garrett as its 2006 Citizen of the Year and Patrick Stefano as the winner of this year’s Herman M. Buck Award. Garrett of South Union Township is the Community Foundation of Fayette County’s director of marketing, and Stefano of Bullskin Township is president of Stefano’s Printing Inc. of Dunbar.
They will be presented with their awards at the chamber’s annual dinner Thursday at the Summit Inn Resort in Wharton Township.
“I’m very honored and humbled,” Garrett said about his selection for the award.
A Bowling Green, Ohio, native, Garrett said he and his wife, Gretchen, a Toledo, Ohio, native, moved to Fayette County in 1991 when he was promoted to district operations manager for Columbia Gas.
It was the sixth and final time he relocated during the nearly 40 years he worked for Columbia.
His first job was in the company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. He was promoted to an engineering office in Athens, Ohio, where he spent 15 years and where he and his wife had their two daughters – Robin and Jill.
Robin and her husband, Tim Weininger, have to children and live in Celina, Ohio.
Jill Garrett lives in Sydney, Australia.
He spent the following years in various managerial positions in Tiffin, Norwalk and Alliance, Ohio, before he was promoted to district manger in Fayette County in 1991.
He said he “promised” his wife he would retire in 1999, but accepted a part-time job as marketing director for the then-upstart Community Foundation in 2000. It has evolved into a full-time job, he said.
“It was exciting to get involved with growing an organization from the grass roots,” Garrett said.
Even though he and his wife are from Ohio and they spent many years there while he worked for the gas company, he decided to stay in Fayette County after retiring.
“The home is where you make it, not so much the house,” Garrett said.
He said Columbia Gas encouraged him to get involved in the communities where he lived.
“We always got involved in the community and made friends,” Garrett said.
Tapping the economic development knowledge and community relation skills he developed while working for Columbia, Garrett became involved in numerous organizations in the county as a volunteer.
He is president of the Fayette Industrial Fund, a member of the Uniontown Hospital Board of Trustees, president of Fayette Home Care and Hospice, a member of the Fayette County Emergency Medical Advisory Board, a member of the Redstone Foundation board of directors, a member of the Rotary International Club of Uniontown, a member of the 84 Lumber Classic Charity Board, a member of the Glade Run Lutheran Services board of directors, vice president of Glade Run Lutheran Foundation, a member of St. Peter Lutheran Church of Uniontown and a board member and treasurer of the chamber.
Garrett said after he became involved with one organization, another one would ask him to join and so on. “One thing leads to another,” he said.
He might have been too busy to notice that the chamber was preparing to recognize him for his commitment to his new home community.
“I was shocked and surprised,” Garrett said of the award. “I wasn’t anticipating it nor was it something I was seeking. It was a surprise for me. I’m honored.”
Stefano, a Fayette County native, will receive the Herman M. Buck Award, which the chamber presents to a person under age 45 who has volunteered their time and energy to community service.
President since 2003 of the family business that does commercial printing and promotions, Stefano, 40, is a member of many organizations in the county and the Connellsville area.
He is president and a 20-year board member of the American Heart Association of Fayette County and the vice president of the Connellsville Rotary Club. He will serve as Rotary president next year.
Stefano has been a member of the board of Junior Achievement of Southwest Pennsylvania for 16 years and is a charter member, and current president, of the Bullskin Township/Connellsville Township Sewer Authority.
He is a member of the Laurel Highlands Chamber of Commerce, Connellsville Chamber of Commerce, Fayette Chamber of Commerce and the FayWest chapter of Business Network International.
His activities also include the Connellsville Bicentennial Committee and the Bullskin Township T-ball team.
Stefano said he is thankful for the award, but he gets involved in so many organizations because he enjoys working with others and not because he likes the attention.
“I love to be connected to people in this way,” Stefano said. “There’s always so much to do. I always want to help. I don’t do what I do for recognition.”
Of all the organizations he is involved with, the Heart Association is his favorite, he said.
“The Heart Association is closest to my heart. I’m a 20-year board member. They’re a great group of people,” Stefano said.
His list of activities stretches from the boardroom to the ball field, where he is in charge of the scorebook for his son’s little league baseball team.
“I didn’t realize the list was so long until I wrote it down,” Stefano said.
However, he said he has started to not accept every request he receives to volunteer so he can spend more time with his wife, Tina, and their four children, Jennifer, Marina, Francesca and Nathan.
Stefano’s family and a group of co-workers will accompany him to Thursday’s dinner.
He represents the third generation of his family to run the business. His grandfather started in the printing industry in 1958 and his father took over in 1980 following his career as a teacher at Connellsville High School.
Before taking the helm in 2003, Stefano said he was production manager for 17 years.
His experience in the business began as a young child when he would receive a quarter for doing helping out around the shop.
“I’d get paid 25 cents for doing chores,” Stefano said.