Alumnus’s gift honors life-changing generosity
Tuition money was tight and hard earned for Joe Moffitt as a young college student.
Although his family’s income was good, he said, “We had limited funds to be able to get a college education. Not only did my parents make loans — I would beg them to help me get through the next term — but I would make a student loan also. And I would also work jobs to be able to proceed. To be very blunt, I worked my ass off.”
Looking back over the 60-plus years that have passed, “Life has been very good to me,” he said. “I have been relatively successful. I have saved. And being the minimalist that I am, I came to terms with the fact that I don't need this money and I'd like to put it to good use. As a teacher and as a human being, considering how challenging it was to get through my years of schooling, I figured it would be great to be able to put money toward helping other individuals.”
So in a first-of-its-kind philanthropic gift — one that will fund the full cost of undergraduate and medical school tuition for scholarship recipients in Penn State’s Premedical-Medical program as well as a separate scholarship that will fully fund tuition for recipients pursuing an undergraduate degree in education at Penn State — Moffitt has given $1.5 million to the University: $1 million to the Eberly College of Science and $500,000 to the College of Education.
“Penn State was a lifesaver for me,” he said. “I cannot be thankful or grateful enough.”
Born and raised in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, Moffitt matriculated in 1959 at Penn State’s Pottsville campus (now Penn State Schuylkill) before moving to the University Park campus in 1961 and graduating in 1963 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Eberly College of Science. He was then accepted to Jefferson Medical College on a full scholarship, but in the first year he had a change of heart.
“Medicine was not for me,” he explained. “And it was a very difficult choice. But my motivation was to follow what I really wanted to do, which was to be in the classroom teaching chemistry.”
Moffitt was then accepted to Villanova University, where he earned a master’s degree in secondary school education, with concentrations in chemistry and math, in 1969 and then went on to teach high school chemistry for 30 years, first at Cardinal Hayes High School for Boys, in the South Bronx, New York, and then at Scarsdale High School, in Scarsdale, New York, where he retired in 2001.
“It was a wonderful experience,” he recalled of his career as an educator. “I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
But the experience of leaving medical school, Moffitt said, has stuck with him all his life: “Having had the full scholarship and not using it, I felt obligated to give something back.”
So he established an endowment at Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College to fund an annual scholarship, and now he has also endowed these two scholarships at Penn State.
“I strongly believe in giveback,” Moffitt said, and he explained that his philanthropy was also a way of honoring those whose generosity, support and kindness made the difference in his own schooling, and in his life: his parents, George and Jewell Moffit, and three very special teachers — Penn State professors Maurice Shamma and Frank Mallette and his high school chemistry teacher, Elizabeth O’Connor, also known as Sister William Elizabeth, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, of Chestnut Hill, in Philadelphia.
“My parents,” he said, “were wonderful human beings. And Dr. Shamma and Dr. Mallette were very impactful for me, with what they helped me learn and gain. Dr. Shamma was very supportive. Every time I went to him, he was always so helpful and patient and willing to give me the extra guidance I needed to be successful with my undergraduate research. Similarly with Dr. Mallette, he was supportive, patient, a friend, a wonderful educator. Sister William Elizabeth, she was a phenomenal teacher, an impacting human being, a mentor, a friend, an advocate — one of the strongest motivational people in my life next to my parents. Her dedication and support carried through in my own teaching. I pray for her every night.”
It was important to him, Moffitt explained, that as an educator himself, he pass on to his own pupils that same generosity those special three had shown him as their student.
“I walked in their shoes,” he said. “As a teacher, it was not nine to five for me; it was any time I could be there, and always at work early, every day. I was extremely passionate. And I would do anything for the kids’ attention, in my determination of wanting them to learn. If I had to jump from one side of the room to the other, if I had to jump up on the laboratory table, I got their attention. And they learned. And they appreciated it.”
A testament to that: in his career at Scarsdale High School, Moffitt twice had the yearbook dedicated to him by the senior class.
“It was quite an honor,” he said, “and a very humbling experience.”
Now, with this gift to Penn State and Jefferson, Moffitt is paving the way for others to get a college education without the financial struggles he faced.
“Money is a tool,” he said. “It’s got to be used. I’d rather it’s used while I’m alive than when I’m dead. I think I’ll have the advantage of seeing what it’s doing. Maybe I will see a graduating M.D. within the next four, five, six years, God willing I live that long.”
At 82 years old, though he retired 21 years ago from teaching, Moffitt is still working.
“I don't believe that there's an 11th commandment ‘Thou shalt retire,’” he said, adding that he has his own antiques business and 2023 marks his 40th consecutive year as a licensed real-estate broker in New York state.
Moffitt said he hopes his gift will, in turn, inspire its recipients to give back one day if they too are able; after all, he explained, it’s not financial wealth that has brought him the most satisfaction in life.
“It’s first thing getting up in the morning, before I even take a shower and get dressed, taking this bird seed down back and spreading it for all the birds waiting for me; and my garden during the seasons, that’s extremely important to me; and my ability to ride my bicycle,” he said. “But material, money, luxury — none of that appeals to me. I like the dirt, the garden, bees, birds, simple life, patches on my clothes that I have sewn on myself. You know, what I gave is miniscule compared to what some people give, but somebody can benefit with a little bit. That’s OK. I’m only glad that I’m able to do what I can do.”
Donors like Joseph Moffitt 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.