UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Bob Barbarowicz arrived at Penn State just two weeks after his high school graduation in 1964, the moment felt “like an awakening,” he recalled.

He grew up in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, one of two children of a steelworker father and homemaker mother. He dreamed of being a journalist, maybe a sportswriter, and he was certain meeting fellow students from Philadelphia, Scranton and Erie was the start of something big. Something special.

Barbarowicz was right, but not about his career path. And his impact and legacy — thanks to a consistent and thoughtful pattern of supporting the University’s programs and people the past four-plus decades — have probably become something more than he ever expected.

His latest financial contribution, $50,000, supports the Dean’s Excellence Fund in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

“Bob has made a difference for so many people, especially students, over the years,” said Dean Marie Hardin of the Bellisario College. “Experiences and opportunities that might’ve been out of reach have become attainable, thanks to his support. He has given to several different initiatives through the years, and we’re better as a result. He’s been one of our most consistent and loyal supporters.”

Barbarowicz was active on campus as an undergraduate student. He hosted radio newscasts, served as the first head lifeguard at McCoy Natatorium, and was a distinguished military cadet and graduate of Detachment 720 in Penn State's Air Force ROTC program. He was commissioned as Air Force officer at graduation in March 1968.

Plus, his innate curiosity influenced his course schedule and led to an “accident” that launched a decades-long career as a lawyer.

“My senior year, first term, I took a graduate-level class in constitutional law. I was the only undergraduate in the class. After the midterm, there was a note on my blue book with a circled A that said, ‘See me after class.’ So I did,” Barbarowicz said. “The professor, Ruth Silva, asked me where I was going to law school, and I told her I wasn’t.

“So, she asked me why I was taking the class. I said it sounded really interesting and fun. She arched her eyebrow, paused and told me that nobody, at Harvard, at Penn State or anywhere, had ever had the temerity to suggest her class would be fun.”

Silva recognized talent and encouraged Barbarowicz to study and take the LSAT. He did and was accepted into three law schools. He earned bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1968 and his law degree from Penn State Dickinson Law in 1971. He subsequently built a successful career as a lawyer, with much of his focus in recent years on corporate and insurance regulatory matters.

Still, Barbarowicz said communications and journalism have provided the foundation for his career success — and offered a reason for his continued support of Penn State and its students. He has made gifts totaling more than $160,000 to a half-dozen University units since his first $25 donation in 1982.

“The courses I took as a journalism major, and the other classes I took really honed my ability to communicate and think,” he said. “My toolbox for law school, and for my career, came out of Penn State.”

With that appreciation and mindset as a grounding, he has built on initially small gifts to become an important supporter of the Bellisario College. It’s something he does just because he wants to help those who follow him and attend Penn State.

Many students have expressed their appreciation personally, and many more will be impacted by his support for years to come.

“It’s a tremendously gratifying feeling — not because they’re recognizing what I did to help them, but that it helped them,” Barbarowicz said. “It’s never too early to start giving to continue to become part of the Penn State family. It doesn’t require a major gift, just a small donation every year.

“Over time that can turn into something more. That feeling of giving to the extended Penn State family is something that’ll be with them as long as they’re alive.”

Gifts to Penn State will advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.