From Penn State ties to volunteer opportunities, what draws people to retire in Happy Valley?

This article was provided by HappyValley Industry, an Affinity Connection-run website that published a series earlier this year about what makes Happy Valley such a popular destination for retirees. They interviewed individuals and couples about what drew them to the area and about the ways they contribute time, experience, leadership and business knowledge to the community. Read more and sign up for HappyValley Industry’s newsletter at happyvalleyindustry.com.

The first time Greg Guise moved to State College, he jumped in with both feet. “I was a student from 1970-1976,” he remembers. “I worked full time as the chief photographer of the Pennsylvania Mirror while I was a student. I’d come from Bedford County, so this was a pretty big town — a diverse community.”

While he was at Penn State, he covered the Hurricane Agnes flood in 1972, and took a picture of Heisman winner John Cappelletti that’s still on display at the Tavern. Over the next 40 years, Greg worked his way up in the news world — a journey that he says was boosted from the motivation and critical thinking that he gained at Penn State. As a videographer, he worked in Detroit and then Washington, D.C. for CBS affiliate WUSA for 35 years, and then Al Jazeera English Channel as senior North American camera man, editor and videographer. “I saw lots of bad things,” he said of his decades as a journalist. And what he experienced ultimately influenced his decision to move back to Happy Valley.

“I’ve seen a lot of civil unrest. Neighborhoods torn apart, areas gentrified,” he said. “I’ve come to realize the importance of strong communities. It’s about donating more than money — it’s about the people, and it’s about investing time. The investment of time is what builds neighborhoods and communities, safety, quality of life, growth. It’s so important.”

So when he and his wife Debbie started looking for a place to retire, the first thing on their list was community. But that wasn’t all that they were looking for.

“There were seven main things we were looking for,” Greg said. “A really good community. We wanted a compact community with lots of amenities without a lot of driving. We wanted to be a reasonable driving distance to our kids and grandkids in D.C.

“My wife, Debbie, is Jewish, and we wanted to find a synagogue in an active Jewish community. We wanted a place that both had diversity and accepted diversity — that adds depth to a community. We were looking for a place with cultural and athletic events. And we wanted a place where we could be involved.”

Their search took them along the East Coast from Richmond, Virginia to Wilmington, North Carolina, but ultimately brought them back to Happy Valley. “We just didn’t have a connection,” he says of the other destinations.

“There’s a quid pro quo here,” he said. “You can roll up your sleeves and do whatever. It is incredible to find a place where people can pitch in and get integrated into the community. It was a pretty big get for us.”

He and Debbie volunteer throughout Happy Valley. Greg works with the local amateur radio operators to build and operate a radio relay that supports the NOAA Skywarn system — a task that includes hiking up mountains to install radio equipment. Debbie, who spent 40 years as a primary school teacher, is an active volunteer at the State College Friends School. The couple works with the YMCA Anti-Hunger Program, and Greg does photography and videography for the Alpha Fire Company, the largest volunteer-run fire company in the state. “Before we could give money, but now that we’re retired, we are able to give time. It’s very rewarding.”

Beyond the “get” of community, Greg says that Happy Valley has ticked off the other boxes as well. “This is a safe place. And, although there are limitations, it’s a compact place where you can see Broadway shows, get groceries, and choose from a variety of restaurants and still be ten minutes from home.”

After a lifetime of working 70-plus hours doing a job where he said it was a benefit to have attention-deficit disorder, Greg enjoys that every day — and every season — is different in Happy Valley.

“The nature of retirement in Happy Valley is anything you want it to be,” he said.

‘I’ve lived all over, but State College is home’

I met with Bill Kidd in the short weeks between the end of his teaching semester — he’s an Instructor in the School of Hospitality Management and the cluster director for the school’s Minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Penn State — and his impending trip to Portugal with a Penn State alumni tour. He was fresh off the golf course, where he meets with “The Fun Bunch” four times a week, with the tan to show for it. In short, Bill Kidd is living his best Happy Valley life, and he credits a favorite downtown eatery for a detour that blessed him with a career, and a curmudgeonly shop owner for reminding him that this was the place for him.

“I initially majored in architecture when I came to Penn State, and after having too much fun, I had to drop out,” Bill said. “I went looking for a job and started cooking at The Deli and Dantes Restaurants with Andy Zangrilli. I loved it. It became more than a job — Andy Z blessed me with a career in hospitality.”

After five years at Dantes, he re-enrolled at Penn State, this time in hotel and restaurant management. He took 21 credits a semester on top of a full-time job, got his degree and started a restaurant in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

“I made food like Andy taught me,” he said. “Make it from scratch, make it fantastic, or don’t do it.”

After a few years, Bill moved on to hotel management, a career that took him across the globe. He used skills that he’d learned at Penn State — and the Deli — to be an innovative hotel asset manager. After spending the last 20 years working with many of the best hotels and management teams in the country, and living in the Washington, D.C. area, he started to think about retiring.

He’ll be the first to tell you that a destination with a warmer climate was first on his retirement list. He initially looked at a coastal college town near the Outer Banks with a goal of teaching, but when he reached out to friends at Penn State about giving him a recommendation, they gave him a sales pitch instead. They wanted his teaching expertise here at Penn State, and he was all too happy to give it.

“The winters still get to me,” he said, “But I’ve learned to go south during winter break. It makes the rest of the cold weather a little bit more bearable.”

Winter notwithstanding, Bill said that he’s embracing his return to Happy Valley. “Penn State has such a unique arts program. Performing arts downtown and on campus are outstanding. This spring, I went to hear Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham at Schwab Auditorium, in the same spot where I used to fall asleep in class long ago. I looked around and there were nothing but old fogies sitting in the seats. And then it hit me — hey, these are my peeps! We’re all retirees! That’s one of the pros of living here.”

He also emphasizes how much he enjoys teaching at Penn State. “You can’t beat the wonderful time spent in the classroom with our young hospitality management students — they challenge me as much as I challenge them and they always leave me proud to be associated with the future leaders of our industry!”

He built a house overlooking the Centre Hills Country Club, where he meets up with the Fun Bunch, a group of golfers who range in age from 40 to 90. “They’re smart, accomplished people who are an absolute hoot,” he says. “And I’m lucky to have them.” Every so often, he sees Zangrilli, the man who helped him start out on his journey, at the country club.

“Back in the ‘80s, when we needed specialty items like cheeses and meats at The Deli, we would ask Bill Clark from The Cheese Shop on Calder Way to get them for us,” Bill remembers. “He went to New York City regularly and would bring back things that we couldn’t find here. In the mid-80s, as more products were available in this area, he started to roast specialty coffees. In all of my travels, in all of the places where I’ve lived, I’ve ordered his coffee. It’s been a constant in my life: Tanzanian Peaberry.”

“When I moved back to Happy Valley five years ago, I walked into The Cheese Shop and the first thing Bill — he’s always been a curmudgeonly kind of guy — said was, ‘Welcome home.’”

Bill puts his hand over his heart. “Man, that just felt really good. That’s part of what makes Happy Valley so special. I’ve lived all over, but State College is home to me.”

Badminton, the arts and the best alumni in the world

If you ask Deb and Jeff Leo how they ended up retiring in Happy Valley, where they frequently walk downtown, welcome students over for homemade pasta and have fun like they’re still students themselves, they’ll take you all the way back to the beginning: a cold day in badminton class.

It was the winter of 1976. Freezing cold. Jeff was at his badminton class, but couldn’t play because his wrist was injured.

“My teacher asked me to go and help him grade the girls’ class,” Jeff said. “I can still remember it so clearly. There were two girls I noticed right away. There was a girl in red shorts with a Heinz T-shirt that said ‘Where you bean all my life,’ and a girl in Penn State blue shorts with a T-shirt that said ‘München’ — you know, the German spelling of Munich. She seemed like she was so traveled. I hadn’t been anywhere before I got to Penn State.”

“And I said to myself, I’ll talk with the smart one.”

He asked Deb out, and the two became inseparable, getting married shortly after her graduation.

From there, the couple landed in Doylestown, just outside of Philadelphia, where they raised their three children while Jeff worked in insurance and Deb taught ESL.

When the time came to retire, they both knew exactly where they wanted to be — something that surprised them both.

“If you hang out with us, you’ll find that we don’t always agree,” Jeff said with a laugh. “But we both really like State College. It’s always felt like home and our kids love it here. At first, we didn’t know where to go, so we decided to go to the place that we both loved.”

“We like all of the activities in a college town,” Deb said. “The arts, music — plus downtown is such a fun place.” The Palmer Art Museum and the Arboretum are in walking distance. They also attend concerts through the Penn State School of Music and performances through the School of Theatre.

They moved to College Heights in 2016, where they bought an old stone house, and have been working to restore and renovate it in a way that makes it their own and still honors the historic features.

The rest of their time is full. “It’s sort of like being back in the fraternity,” Jeff said. “We’re surrounded by lots of camaraderie and people with common interests, a bunch of misfits who have each other.”

Jeff has taken to winemaking, fly fishing and playing in a golf league. Deb is involved with The Art Alliance, creating her glass mosaics and teaching ESL and co-leading a women’s reading group for Global Connections, a group that helps international families transition, integrate and succeed within Centre County.

“Interacting with the students who Debbie gets to teach, seeing their culture and their reaction to being here — it’s something that’s really enlightening to us,” Jeff said.

The couple said Happy Valley checks other boxes for them as well.

“I’ll tell you — the mountains, the scenery, the hiking, biking. Plus, there are still many connections along the East Coast. We are not as close as we used to be, but we can still get back to visit Philadelphia and New York City,” Deb said.

And, back to the day when Jeff met Deb, wearing her Penn State blue shorts, it’s a place that has something that nowhere else can quite replicate.

“Penn State has one of the biggest and most loyal alumni groups in the entire world, and there’s something to that,” Jeff said. “A lot of people love Penn State and come back here to support the University and enjoy State College. Living here makes it easy to make new friends and reconnect with old friends.”

“Once I heard Penn State fans were referred to as a cult,” Deb added, “and I hate that! It’s not a cult at all — it’s more like a brotherhood that promotes love.”

“If anything sounds like the description of a cult, it’s what you just said!” Jeff said with a laugh. “But seriously, it’s a nice place to be, when you wake up and appreciate where you are. We aren’t here because of a job transfer or whatever — we’ve chosen to be here. Everyone wants to visit because it’s a fun place.”

“Plus, we get to wear a lot of blue and white,” Deb added.

From ’weekend condo’ to full-time home

“I was here in Happy Valley for five years and got two degrees,” Jeff Hyde said. After that, he says he visited Happy Valley nearly every year for 40 years. Now, we’re sitting on the screened porch of his home in College Heights, with his wife Sharon sitting beside him, and dog Jack begging to play a game of fetch. It’s clear that somewhere along the line, the Hydes’ 40-year streak of visiting what Jeff calls “his favorite place in the world” turned into something a lot more permanent — and became their ultimate retirement destination.

Jeff and Sharon Hyde both went to Dickinson School of Law, living in and around major cities throughout their married life — Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and just outside New York City, in Connecticut. Throughout the years, they kept coming back to Happy Valley.

“State College was a nice decompression zone during my working years when we owned a ’weekend condo’ here,” Jeff said. “When I retired from my position as senior tax counsel of General Electric, we hadn’t decided where we wanted to live.”

“We knew that we wanted to be near family,” Sharon said. “ Our younger daughter went to Penn State and now lives in State College so we decided to retire here. Our older daughter and son-in-law live only a few hours away in New York so it’s easy to visit them. The university offers interesting speaker series and there is plenty of entertainment and sports so we always have something to do.”

“We have a lot of connections to Penn State,” Jeff added. “I serve or have served on three Boards of Visitors within the University’s College of Liberal Arts, and there is always something interesting going on — speakers, events, the arts, sports. The university was definitely a major attraction for me.”

The couple bought a property in College Heights (just three blocks from Jeff’s first dorm room in Beam Hall), and worked with a local architect and contractor to create their forever home that the couple says they’ll leave “feet first” — a place cozy enough for the two of them, but with plenty of room for football guests during their active fall weekends.

The verdict? “There’s a lot to do,” Sharon said. “It’s walkable to downtown, restaurants and events on campus. We have some students living in the neighborhood with us, and there is something about having them here that is energizing. Plus,” she said with a laugh, “When they have parties, they have really good playlists.”

Jeff said that having a Research I University fosters culture and energy. “The vibe is created by the university and the 45,000+ students,” he said. “Together, it brings something you can’t find in other places.”

The Hydes jumped right into the community. Among other gifts and endowments to the university, they established the Jeffrey L. Hyde and Sharon D. Hyde McCourtney Endowed Career Development Professorship in the School for Public Policy within the College of the Liberal Arts. Jeff is also a member of the Dean of Liberal Arts Development Council. Sharon is involved in several civic organizations, including the League of Women Voters, Fair Districts, Global Connections and the State College chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

They joined a great gym as well, One on One Fitness, where they are always making new friends. At the Centre Hills Country Club, Jeff golfs with Bill Kidd in the group the “Fun Bunch,” a dedicated group of men ranging from their 40s and into their 80s and 90s who share an affinity for Happy Valley and tee times. Sharon and Jeff attend OLLI — Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — events where the learning adventures take them from dairy farms to nuclear reactors to an Amish table. “OLLI does a good job of drawing you into the community,” Sharon said.

And then, when football season comes around, their home fills up with family and friends from across the country. “Our friends call to pick their football weekend as soon as they can,” Sharon said with a laugh. “Even people who have no connection to Penn State — they enjoy coming for football weekends.”

“It is a great place to retire and to be part of,” Jeff answered. “We endorse it.”

Sharon agreed, “It’s easy to make friends here, and very, very relaxed. It’s a peaceful place for us to be.”