Ken Wiltz remembered as leader in Charleroi

Friends recalled his kind nature along with his love for the district.

Ken Wiltz broke the mold.

A champion for his students — on the field, in the classroom and as a veteran leader on the Charleroi Area school board — Wiltz bled red and black and was always sure to flash a contagious smile beaming with pride at every success for his students and those around him.

Wiltz, who died unexpectedly Wednesday at 79, has left a lasting legacy within his community and all the lives he touched while wearing many hats over the years.

A true Cougar at heart, Wiltz graduated from Charleroi Area High School in 1962. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1965 and served as a military police officer in Vietnam from 196667.

After valiantly serving his country, he returned home to start his career as an educator, leader and mentor.

Lasting legacy

Wiltz graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in secondary education in 1972 with a concentration on social studies. He began his professional career shaping young lives at Mon Valley YMCA, where he climbed the ranks to CEO, a position he had for 37 years before passing the torch to current CEO Jeff Vitale in 2010.

Wiltz helped to build the organization into what it is today, and Vitale said the legacy he has left won’t be forgotten.

“He was here for 37 years as CEO and it was a truly monumental task to live up to,” Vitale said. “We worked together briefly, but he has such grace. There was just something about him that set people at ease and calmed them down.”

Vitale said with Wiltz at the helm of the organization, nothing seemed impossible.

“Looking back now at all he was able to accomplish, his innate ability to bring people together and form these relationship, he made impossible goals possible,” Vitale said.

“When he started here, it started out of a school bus on top of the hill and three different building projects. With each one, no one knew how they would raise the money to make it happen, but he made it happen no matter what he was up against.”

Vitale said Wiltz’s willingness to help others is something he will be remembered for.

“He was so involved with people’s lives, we’ve heard countless stories over the past few days about people commenting on what he meant to them and how he impacted them,” Vitale said. “There were countless avenues he traveled to do that. His legacy is wanting to help.

“He never cared about glory, or recognition or money, he just wanted to help as many people as he could, whenever he was able to. That’s the impact he had on me.”

Vitale said Wiltz was proud of what he created at the YMCA.

“I think that is something he was really proud of. Without the leadership from Ken, there would not be a YMCA,” Vitale said. “The countless lives he touched, I’m not sure he ever even realized. The number of lives he touched directly or even indirectly through the programs or services that started here under his watch, it’s incredible. He will not be forgotten anytime soon and we will certainly make sure he is not forgotten here.”

Life of service

Wiltz firmly believed in making an impact. His dedication to children led him to seek a seat in 1975 on the board of education, a position he held for 49 years. He served the past 22 years as president.

Superintendent Dr. Ed Zelich said Wiltz prided himself on setting an example for others.

“His wisdom and integrity made him a trusted figure within the district and beyond,” Zelich said. “He led by example, always striving for excellence and inspiring others to do the same. Though naturally easy going, Ken commanded respect through his decisiveness and clear sense of authority. His balanced approach earned him admiration from his colleagues and the entire learning community, particularly his ability to maintain the students’ spirit while ensuring fiscal responsibility.”

Like countless others, Zelich considered Wiltz a mentor.

“He let me grow, he let me learn,” Zelich said. “I could reach out to him 24/7, no matter what. And it was always comforting to me to know, as superintendent, that I could always trust that whatever decision he and the board made would be in the best interest of students. Sometimes those decisions aren’t easy, but when you refocus the problems back to make them about students, which is what Ken did and led others to do, he made it look easy.

“Not having him to reach out to, to lead, is going to be a huge void, but he would want us to shine and work together to continue to build this community, and that is what we are going to do in honor of him.”

Adele Hopkins and Elaine Pappasergi were elected to the school board in 2003 and spent 22 years serving alongside Wiltz.

“I have always had such a deep respect for him,” Hopkins said. “That is because he always had the students, employees and school at heart. For him, it was all about doing what is best for the school and his students. From his leadership, I always came to listen to his understanding, his reasoning and decisions. He was a smart man and was always there for all of the right reasons.”

Before resigning in July, Hopkins sat next to him as vice president for many years.

“I remember the first meeting after I was elected, the first thing we did was make him president and he has been ever since,” she said. “He was the face of Charleroi. A Cougar true and true, from the time he graduated until now. There was nothing he would not do to support those kids, no matter what.”

Hopkins said while they had different leadership styles sometimes, he taught her valuable lessons.

“He taught me to listen, about dedication,” she said. “I think a lot of people learned a lot of things from Ken, things I will always remember.”

Pappasergi called serving alongside Wiltz a privilege.

“It was just such a privilege and honor to sit on that board with him,” she said. “I’m so heartbroken and it will take everyone a long time to absorb this loss. His top priority was always his students, but he also wanted to make sure the teachers and taxpayers were taken care of.”

Pappasergi said Wiltz led longer than most, and did so with a dedicated passion.

“He made sure we all worked together cohesively,” she said. “That was the best thing he could have ever done. Through his leadership, we learned to work as a team. We always put our personalities aside, our differences aside, to make sure the decisions we made as a group always came back to putting the kids, teachers and taxpayers first.”

Barb Pepper has served on the board since 2013 and was a tenured teacher in the district. She is currently the board’s vice president.

Pepper believes the type of man Wiltz embodied is hard to find.

“I worked with him as a teacher, taught his kids as my students,” she said. “He was a fixture of this district. So it’s just a very emotional time for us all right now.

“His heart was in this school, with his students. He would have done anything he could to make sure he saw them become the best people they could be.”

Pepper said he had an “aura” about him that carried light with him no matter where he went.

“It’s his energy, his aura, his calmness,” Pepper said. “There is a lot of life we have experienced together, things and stories I will think of, but I am just so very honored to have been a part of his life because he truly made the school, my life and so many lives him around him better.”

Board member Tom Nutting said Wiltz was his favorite “cousin-inlaw.”

“He married my cousin Linda 45 years ago, so we are extended family, but I just loved him dearly,” Nutting said. “He was just such a great person, and he received so much respect from everyone who knew him. He was the backbone of our district and such a good leader.”

He was asked by Wiltz to join the board for a two-year term several years ago.

During the past week, Nutting and Wiltz spent time together at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish’s annual Festival of Nations and at Dee’s Event Center in Charleroi to organize school supplies that were distributed to students this week.

During preparation for the event, Nutting said he and Wiltz had an interaction he believes will stand the test of time. They left the event center to get coffee and refreshments for volunteers, and on the way back, they shared a hug.

“I said, ‘Ken, you are my goombah,’ and we put our arms around each other and he told me I was his goombah too.”

Goombah is a nickname for a close friend or associate, especially used among Italian-American men.

“It was a small moment, but looking back now I am so thankful for it,” Nutting said. “It’s so fresh in my mind and it’s really all I can think about. It seemed like only 10 minutes, but 36 hours later he was gone, so of all the moments over a lifetime, so many minutes over the course of so many years, it was really meaningful. And, he had a lot of goombahs.”

Former Charleroi Area Solicitor Todd Pappasergi was taught by Wiltz as a young athlete.

“Ken was my very first coach, I knew him for 35 years,” he said. “It’s a devastating loss to the community because he was a champion of anyone who came out of Charleroi.”

Wiltz’s legacy will transcend municipal lines, Pappasergi added.

“If you want to talk about someone who not only bled red and black, but really of the colors of the Mon Valley, he loved where he was from,” he said. “He loved his community. He poured everything he had into it.”

Leaps and bounds

Wiltz’s commitment to service extended beyond the school district.

He was a longtime youth coach for Charleroi baseball and basketball and was an avid fan of Charleroi football.

A lifelong member of the Charleroi Community Park Trustees, Wiltz had his name added in April to a sign leading to Veterans Memorial Baseball Field in Charleroi as a thank you for his volunteer work that helped keep the facility up and running.

In April, the late Ron Monack’s name was added to a plaque leading in to the facility, and to his surprise, Wiltz also saw his name on the plaque when it was revealed.

Wiltz had been on the board since 1970 and was the longest current serving member on the board.

Trustees Chairman Mark Alterici also learned the ropes from Wiltz and has considered it a privilege to work with him over the years.

“I have had a long-term relationship with Ken, from a child playing baseball to serving on the trustees with him,” Alterici said. “It all came full circle with me, being able to serve with him and learn from him. He truly gave more to the community than most. He was one of the original guys down there cutting grass, who laid the foundation for the trustees and what we have now.”

Alterici said if not for men like Wiltz, a lot of organizations would have been worse off.

“If it weren’t for Ken Wiltz in the world, the park would not be what it is today,” Alterici said. “I think I can speak for the entire board when I say it was an honor to have him, to learn from him, to be coached by him and to be led by him. I can’t say enough really, but we were so happy to be able to honor him and are very thankful he was there to see that. It was well deserved.”

Modest servant

Wiltz was a member of St. Mary’s Anglican Church, the Charleroi Masonic Lodge and Mon Valley Country Club and served on the board of directors for SPHS, Mon Valley YMCA, Intermediate Unit 1, Mon Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency.

He was also a dedicated volunteer for Meals on Wheels and a strong supporter of the Charleroi Area Education Foundation, led by Nutting.

John LaCarte got involved in many organizations because of the dedication he learned from Wiltz. It started when LaCarte was chosen as student representative to the CASD board of directors as a junior in 1983.

“Ken was a tremendous cheerleader in my life, and my career,” LaCarte said. “He always made it a point to talk about my experiences in college and my career, cheer on my family and, eventually, getting me on various boards. Many of the boards I serve on now is largely in part because of Ken, because he was involved in everything. There was truly no bigger advocate for the Mon Valley. He was always involved, always making a difference and he made me want to make a difference too.”

Like many of his colleagues, friends and those he watched grow up, Wiltz had a way to find compromise that was unmatched.

“That’s what it takes to lead, and he did that, on various boards with various personalities all coming from different perspectives,” LaCarte said. “He was never going to come on a board to serve without making sure the right thing was done. I have a learned a lot from his emotional intelligence skills, it’s one of the many things he taught me.”

Washington County Judge Mike Lucas also learned from Wiltz.

“He was a great leader, constructive, positive and always a problem solver,” Lucas said. “I saw first hand his ability to manage a meeting or reconcile with people who might be upset because he always listened and heard people out. He was a problem solver and there are not many people like him.”

Dedicated family man

It could be said Wiltz never met someone he wasn’t friends with. He filled a role as a fatherly figure in so many of the lives he has shaped, but to everyone who knew him his family came above anything else.

A lifelong resident of the Charleroi Area School District, he built a life with his lifelong love, Linda, also a Charleroi Area graduate in 1966. Together, they raised two children, Kendra (Class of 2000) and Kenny (Class of 2002), both district graduates.

He was a proud grandfather to four grandchildren, Aralyn Hartley (Class of 2023), Ethan Hartley, who is a current Charleroi Area School District student, and Neva and Nolan Wiltz.

Vitale said Wiltz put his family above all else.

“He was family first, always,” Vitale said. “He would want to be remembered for that above anything else.”

LaCarte said he admired the relationship he had with his wife, Linda, and his children.

“You never saw one without the other,” LaCarte said. “Ken and Linda were always together. They had a role model kind of marriage, a truly incredible partnership.”

He also said Wiltz was in the prime of his life, spending time with his grandchildren.

“When he was with his grandchildren, he was in his glory,” LaCarte said. “I can only imagine what a wonderful grandfather he was. He was a tremendous family man, no matter what he did, what he was involved in, he found a balance to always come home to be with them because they were most important. I think his family is what inspired him, to push him to be the best he could be, and was truly the best.”

See a complete obituary on Page A4.