July 2024 — When Kathy Pape ’78 and her husband, Robert Trinkle ’76, see a need, they try to address it. Over the years, that has meant doing anything from creating a fund at Penn State Dickinson Law to support programming to educate students about water law to establishing a scholarship at the Penn State College of Medicine for students from rural Pennsylvania and funding the addition of a private sexual assault nurse examiner (SANE) room at Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pennsylvania.

The couple can trace some of the impetus for giving to their days at Dickinson Law, where Pape said students were taught never to say no to a client. Instead, professors told them to ask the client what their need was and find a way to achieve it. Pape and Trinkle have done that through their giving, whether it is recognizing a need for water law specialists, doctors in rural areas, or privacy for sexual assault survivors. “We are grateful for the education that we received because that legal education permitted us to flourish in our careers. We recognize how education can transform lives, and we want to honor that by paying it forward,” said Pape.

In recognition of their generosity in supporting Penn State, Pape and Trinkle were recently inducted to the Mount Nittany Society along with fellow Dickinson Law alumnus Conrad Falvello ’74 and his wife, Christine Falvello. The society honors individuals whose cumulative lifetime giving to Penn State has reached or exceeded $250,000 in irrevocable commitments.

“The discussions we had with other new members at the induction dinner were fascinating,” said Pape. “The people I spoke to share a focus on the various parts of Penn State, whether it be Penn State Dickinson Law or Penn State Health. Everyone had interesting backgrounds and stories of how they started out, including what a Penn State education did for them and how it changed their lives.” “It is quite an honor,” said Conrad Falvello. “I was really impressed when I came to the induction dinner and met University President Neeli Bendapudi. I enjoyed meeting all of the other inductees.”

A Family Affair

The Falvellos boast quite a legacy at Dickinson Law. Falvello’s grandfather, great-uncle, father, sister, and daughter also attended the school. “We span about 100 years at Dickinson Law. My grandfather and great-uncle have an interesting story. They were sons of an Italian immigrant and lost their mother, and they ended up in a children’s charities home,” said Falvello. “They were able to bootstrap their way into college and then law school.”

His grandfather set up a practice in the Hazelton, Pennsylvania, area, where four generations of the family have now worked. Falvello and his wife met in Carlisle, too — she was an undergraduate at Dickinson College while he was attending Dickinson Law.

The Falvellos, who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, appreciate Dickinson Law’s great impact on their lives. They have made generous gifts to Penn State Dickinson Law, Penn State Health, and intercollegiate athletics over the years.

“Our desire to give back really goes back to my grandfather and his brother,” said Falvello. “They grew up in poverty. Against all odds, Dickinson Law gave them an opportunity. To whatever extent we are able, we want to help give others that same opportunity. I could not think of a better way to do that than through supporting students financially. In addition, the more resources we as alums can provide to this university, the better it will be positioned to continue as one of the country’s finest academic and research institutions.”

Falvello now works with his daughter, Alexis ’05, at Falvello Law, which his grandfather founded in 1923. He and Christine, a retired investment advisor and financial planner at the firm she founded, Navigate Financial Advisors, live in Drums, Pennsylvania, and enjoy spending time with their three children and their families, including five grandchildren.

“Dickinson Law has prepared so many attorneys to ‘practice greatness,’” said Falvello. “It has graduated a great number of state and federal judges and state and U.S. attorneys. It has a very high-powered history of accomplishments by its graduates.”

Filling a Need

Like the Falvellos, Pape and Trinkle also met in Carlisle. Trinkle was a third-year student at Dickinson Law when he asked first-year Pape to dinner with two federal judges who were volunteering with the Law School’s appellate moot court, which Trinkle chaired. The couple married two years later—the weekend after she graduated.

Pape eventually headed American Water’s Mid-Atlantic Division and served as president of its largest subsidiary, Pennsylvania American Water. But she wanted to be a prosecutor when she enrolled at Dickinson Law. “When I was admitted, Dickinson Law produced a high percentage of the district attorneys in Pennsylvania,” said Pape. “You could see why in the curriculum, which focused significantly on trial work."

She loved the trial classes but was less excited about the corporate law classes. “To me, that was big business. That was not me. I said, ‘I am not going to do that’ — only to end up as the CEO of a major company decades later,” said Pape.

While she never expected to go into water law, she felt well prepared by her education. “Dickinson Law taught you how to think through a legal issue,” said Pape. “That served me so well. At the first company where I worked out of law school, the general counsel would give me a lost cause issue with the view that what harm could a young lawyer do. I would tackle it as though it was the most important issue in the world. Dickinson Law taught me to be tenacious.”

Pape and Trinkle, a retired pharmaceutical lawyer who worked with Merck for several decades, raised their children in the Philadelphia suburbs, but both hailed from rural Pennsylvania counties and knew firsthand the challenge of finding good health care for rural residents. That led them to establish a scholarship at Penn State College of Medicine for students who attended high school in a rural district.

“These communities need practitioners. Our hope was that if a rural Pennsylvania high school student who decided to attend medical school were given a scholarship to pay for part of their medical education, there is a greater chance they will return home to practice after medical school,” said Pape.

They also endowed the Kathy L. Pape Water Law Program Support Fund with the hope of elevating Penn State Dickinson Law’s profile as a leader in water law. The fund helped pay for a recent trip to Washington, D.C., to introduce Dickinson Law students to energy and environmental practice. Pape said she enjoyed the Mount Nittany Society induction dinner because she heard about other inductees’ reasons for giving. “It was a great reminder that education has the power to transform lives,” said Pape.