Johnson, Pingie retire
ALAN HANCOCK ’07, ’19
Long time fixtures say goodbye after 40 years of service at Pitt-Bradford Two of campus’s longest-serving staff members retired this fall – Donny Johnson and Vicky Pingie ’93. Both have 40 years of service to the Bradford campus. On a campus that prides itself on its friendliness, Johnson has been its champion, greeting nearly every fellow staff member twice a day as mail carrier. This greeting ritual between Johnson and staff and faculty members went far beyond a simple hello. Johnson carried tidbits of information from one part of campus to another, and then there was usually a short conversation about 1. weather or 2. sports. Ah, sports. Anyone who has met Johnson knows he is synonymous with sports. In a speech to his classmates, Lyndon Orinion ’11, called him “a walking ESPN channel.” In addition to knowing the schedules, scores, practice times and travel arrangements for all Pitt-Bradford teams, he knows them for all major Pitt teams, the Pitt band, all Pittsburgh teams, all Bradford Area High School teams and whatever professional, college or scholastic teams staff and faculty members follow. We’re talking dozens, if not hundreds, of teams. His devotion to Pitt-Bradford sports earned him a place in the campus’s Athletic Hall of Fame and served as the inspiration for the Donny Johnson Athletic Endowment to support Pitt-Bradford athletes. In 2006, he was honored by the University of Pittsburgh and Chancellor Mark Nordenberg with the Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence in Service to the Community. In addition to volunteering with Pitt-Bradford athletics (something he plans to continue), Johnson has volwinter 2021
Donny Johnson delivering the mail on campus. unteered with Bradford High booster groups, is a track coach for the McKean County Special Olympics, participates annually in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life with the staff team, The Pitt Crew, and dances and jokes with Bradford’s annual charity fundraising talent show, the Kiwanis Kapers. “I’m a richer man for knowing him,” said Athletic Director Bret Butler. Associate Director of Admissions Vicky Pingie ’93 came to Pitt-Bradford in 1980, working as an administrative
assistant in human resources until she earned her bachelor’s degree from PittBradford in human relations, when she joined the admissions team. Pingie coordinated all on- and offcampus events along with the Student Ambassador program. She counseled and advised high school students in the university’s Bridges program, which allows talented local students to begin taking college courses on campus while they’re still in high school. Pingie was well known in the university’s primary service region, traveling and representing Pitt-Bradford at PORTRAITS
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