Schiavo named honorary alumnus

Pasco L. Schiavo, who served as chairman of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students at Penn State Hazleton, was named an honorary alumnus and recognized by the Penn State Alumni Association during a reception at The Nittany Lion Inn.

The Penn State Alumni Association has given the Honorary Alumni Award since 1973 to recognize individuals who, while not graduates of Penn State, have significantly worked toward bettering the University. Since the award was established, more than 100 individuals have been given Honorary Alumni status. Honorary Alumni receive a life membership in the Penn State Alumni Association, as well as a commemorative award.

For more than five decades, Schiavo has generously contributed his legal and business acumen, leadership, time and money to Penn State Hazleton and the Greater Hazleton community.

Under his leadership of the campaign at Penn State Hazleton, the group successfully raised more than $7.6 million, 127 percent of Penn State Hazleton's goal. Schiavo established and later endowed scholarships - which are granted to local students who attend Penn State Hazleton - to honor his parents, Louis and Josephine "Shayna" Schiavo. The campus administration building was renamed Pasco L. Schiavo Hall in recognition of Schiavo's recent $1 million gift to the campus to create a scholarship endowment for campus students.

Schiavo taught both law and Spanish at Penn State Hazleton on a part-time basis for seven years and spent many years and countless hours working to obtain a key piece of property for the campus. As a member of the Penn State Hazleton Council, he held leadership positions, including president.

Born in Hazleton, Schiavo earned a bachelor's degree from Lafayette College in 1958. He then entered the U.S. Army Reserve and became a first lieutenant. He decided to study law and received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1962.

His affiliation with Penn State began in the early 1960s when, as a recent law school graduate, he began teaching at Penn State Hazleton as an adjunct instructor. This initial involvement blossomed into a lifelong affiliation with the campus. His previous gifts established three scholarships to benefit local students attending the campus.

"I believe Penn State Hazleton has done much good for our community and is an essential, integral part of it," Schiavo said. "The campus provides a lot of opportunity for people who don't otherwise have such options, and it gives personal guidance and instruction. Students are well prepared when they leave, because we have good educators and instructors."

He became an assistant district attorney and also opened his own law practice, which he continues to operate. He represents clients on personal injury, workers' compensation, business law, wills, trusts and estate matters, and has achieved outstanding professional recognition, including being appointed to the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Schiavo has authored two books, Betrayal and Deliverance of a Community (2011) and The Lattimer Massacre Trial (2015), and has written many articles on law that have been published in national and state law journals.

He is a member of the Penn State Alumni Association and lives in Hazleton.