Why a State College walkway will be renamed after the late Pat Daugherty, owner of The Tavern
After more than four decades of walking on and around the walkway adjacent to his business, The Tavern, the late Pat Daugherty is receiving some overdue recognition.
That walkway, between Calder Way and College Avenue, will be renamed “Pat Daugherty Walkway” after a unanimous vote Monday night by borough council. The walkway was previously known as Centennial Walkway.
“It’s very nice of the borough to do that,” said Dawn Daugherty, one of Pat’s two children. “Pat did a lot for downtown and the community, and I think it’s very nice of them to honor him in that way.”
Daugherty, who died at the age of 75 last month, might’ve been best known as the owner of The Tavern, a local staple that he purchased in 1980 while adding the Adam’s Apple Bar a few years later. But those who grew to know him were struck by a man who cared deeply for the community, never lost his temper and had the uncanny ability to make employees and customers feel as if they were home.
A Penn State graduate, Daugherty endowed several scholarships and hosted dinners for Thon dancers and leaders since 1987, a decade before most current college students were born. He was associated with numerous local charities and was also credited as a driving force behind State College’s town-and-gown relations.
The walkway, in the vacated McAllister Alley Right-of-Way, is known to visitors as the home to the Centennial Pigs sculpture, two bronze pigs that were commemorated in 1996. That year served as the 100th anniversary of the borough’s incorporation and harkened back to the agrarian roots of the borough, when livestock wandered the streets.
Daugherty’s local roots trace back to more than a half-century ago in the 1960s, when the Virginia native attended Penn State and began working at The Tavern as an employee. The civil engineer wouldn’t purchase the restaurant until more than a decade later.
According to the formal resolution that signals the walkway’s naming, signage indicating “Pat Daugherty Walkway” will be placed at the walkway sometime in the future.
Locally, Daugherty served on the Downtown State College Improvement District’s Board of Directors and — before that existed — the Downtown Business Association. In 1999, Penn State honored him as its Renaissance Man of the Year for making the university community a better place. And, in 2019, the board of Centre County’s Constitution Day awarded Daugherty the inaugural James Madison Award for Civility in the Community.
“It’s a nice way to keep his memory alive because he really made a difference in our community for many decades,” Councilwoman Theresa Lafer said. “That’s rare for any place.”
CDT reporter Halie Kines contributed to this story.
This story was originally published December 21, 2021 at 11:04 AM.
