Who is Bob Pullo?

Robert W. Pullo was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the Waypoint/York Federal Foundation, Inc. Now retired from banking after a career spanning forty-seven years, Pullo is active in the community and has been an advocate for Penn State York for more than twenty-five years. Pullo has served as chair of the Penn State York Advisory Board and was also chair of the Grand Destiny Campaign, a campaign which raised nearly $10 million in support of the campus.

In addition to his foundation work and his statewide work as a member of the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, Pullo remains active in the York community. He is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Welsh Recycling Inc., chairman of the board of Hystar Enterprises, LLC, chairman of the Investors Advisory Board of Meridian Venture Partners, a venture capital company; and chairman of the board of Bindery Associates LLC.

Pullo’s banking career began back in 1958 when he left high school to become a messenger at the State Street Bank and Trust in Boston. He rose rapidly in the banking profession and in 1976 was recruited after a national search to be executive vice-president of the York Federal Savings and Loan based in York, Pennsylvania. Five years later he became president of the bank. He successfully took York Federal to become a publicly traded company and accomplished two ensuing mergers and is considered one of the area’s most prominent financial leaders.  In 2004 Pullo received the Chamber of Commerce Business Achievement Award.

In the late 1980’s, Pullo played a pivotal role in securing the transfer of 34-acres of wooded property from the City of York to the University. That transfer not only expanded the physical space of the campus, but eventually became the site of the new Pullo Family Performing Arts Center, the Lee. R. Glatfelter Library, and the John T. and Paige S. Smith Atrium.

In 1997, the Pullos established the Pullo Family Fund to encourage Penn State York faculty to engage in innovative technology-based projects that involve collaboration with high school teachers in the region. The Pullos also established the Pullo Family Technology Center in York’s Information Sciences and Technology Center to encourage faculty to become familiar with the latest technology in support of their teaching and research.

The Pullo family’s substantial financial support enabled the campus to complete the construction of the new performing arts center/library/classroom building. Pullo received the 2006 York City Humanitarian Award, the 2006 Volunteer of the Year Good Samaritan Award from the York County Chamber of Commerce, and was accorded honorary alumni status at Penn State in University Park.

The Performing Arts Center is named to honor a lifelong commitment to education, culture and the arts by Robert and Donna Pullo.  Bob and Donna are respected benefactors, volunteers and visionaries in the community who demonstrate their personal belief in making life better by exceptional gifts of time, talent and treasure.  They were named 2009 Philanthropists of the Year by Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.  Their contributions include significant gifts for capital needs and endowments to enable growth and prosperity in the present and to sustain the campus into the future.

Originally from Somerville, Massachusetts, outside of Boston, Pullo resides in York with his wife, Donna from Winthrop, Massachusetts. They have four grown children, Robert, Jr., Julie, Susan, and Tracey;  five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.