Savini honored as outstanding alumnus
A man who stuck true to his roots was honored Thursday for achievement and contributions to the community.
Dr. Philip Savini, superintendent of the Brownsville Area School District, was awarded Outstanding Alumnus of Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, for 2013 at Uniontown Country Club. The award recognizes former students of the campus whose professional achievement merits special recognition by their alma mater.
“I’m very honored to have received this award,” Savini said. “The award is more than one person, but about family and community. It’s my family who helped me get to college. After college, it was working with people on the alumni board and advisory board for nearly 30 years — they’ve taught me a lot. Some of the professors were an inspiration. Thanks to my wife (Joanne) and children for those times I’ve had to attend meetings. Thanks to my family for picking up the pieces when I’m not around. Certainly it is my personal family as well as the family at Penn State that makes people successful.”
Savini has served as a member of the Board of Directors for Penn State Fayette Alumni Society and the Penn State Advisory Board.
Wayne Port, chairman emeritus of the advisory board, praised Savini for his contributions to Fayette County.
“Dr. Savini has always been a good and supportive board member,” he said. “Education is of the foremost importance to him. He has worked on a lot of charitable functions that we’ve had. And, he’s just a good guy.”
State Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Dunbar, offered praise to Savini.
“We are very proud of the fact that Philip got his start at Penn State Fayette,” he said. “When people excel and exceed expectations, accomplish the goals they set for themselves, we like to look back and say Penn State Fayette had a little bit to do with that.”
Joanne Savini, a Penn State Fayette graduate, had kind words for her husband in his hour of triumph. They have two children — Domonique and Philip III.
“I’m very proud of him,” she said. “He’s worked very hard for this.”
A native of Republic and Brownville High School graduate — class of 1977 — Savini graduated from Penn State University Fayette in 1982 with an associate degree in liberal arts and a bachelor of science degree in education. He received a master of arts in geography and regional planning from California University in 1986. Savini received educational administrative certificates from the University of Pittsburgh and his Ph.D. in educational administration from Kennedy Weston University in Wyoming.
“If you look at his resume in terms of what he’s done, where he’s been, and now he’s back home in Brownsville,” Kasunic said. “He’s a product of leading those youngsters to a better life through the education system. My hat is off to him. I have the utmost respect for him and the job that he does. He’s proven that he’s willing to give something back.”
Savini was a past member of the Team Pennsylvania Advisory Board for Education and Economic Development, and currently he serves as a member of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators Legislative Committee. He is co-founder of the Republic Community Library and co-author of “Republic-Hub City,” a historical book about the village. Savini gives credit to Brownsville for forging him into the man he is today. Not only is Savini an alumnus of Brownsville High School, but he taught and was an administrator in the school district before taking his current post as superintendent.
“That was my foundation educationally,” he said. “That foundation and that education helped me to achieve a degree from one of the more prestigious universities in the country. I’m proud of that. Brownsville provided me with the moral and academic structure to get into college and Penn State took it the rest of the way.”