UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Two former members of the Penn State Board of Trustees, Betsy E. Huber and Paul H. Silvis, were recommended for emeritus status at a meeting of the Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning today (Sept. 14). The recommendations will go before the full board for a vote Sept. 15.
Emeritus status is an honorary position granted to former members of the board. Trustees emeriti draw on their previous board service to provide counsel as needed, and they are invited to attend University events, activities and public meetings of the board. The board chair also can appoint a trustee emeritus to serve as a nonvoting member of certain standing committees.
Betsy E. Huber
Huber served on the board for 12 years after being elected by delegates from agricultural societies in 2005. Huber is currently president of the National Grange — the first woman to hold that office in the organization’s 150-year history. The National Grange was founded after the Civil War in 1867 and is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group with a national scope.
Huber also was the first female president of the Pennsylvania State Grange, a position she held from 2002 to 2010. Following her term as state president, Huber returned to the state grange as government relations director until she was elected president of the National Grange in 2015.
Previously, Huber served as a member of the board of directors of the National Grange. She has held numerous leadership positions within the agriculture community, including serving on the boards of Pennsylvania Farm Link; the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Agricultural Advisory Board, which she chaired in 2007; the Pennsylvania State Council of Farm Organizations, which she led as president from 2011-12; and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Fertilizer Advisory Committee. She is the current executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Young Farmers Association.
In addition, Huber spent 24 years as a township supervisor for Upper Oxford Township. A native of Chester County, Huber attended West Chester High School, and Millersville and Lincoln universities. She graduated from Penn State’s Rural-Urban Leadership Program in 2001.
Paul H. Silvis
Silvis served as a trustee for six years after being appointed by former Gov. Ed Rendell in 2010. He was elected vice chair of the board in 2013. Silvis, of State College, is the founder and president of SilcoTek Corp., a Bellefonte-based manufacturer of industrial coating products.
Before founding SilcoTek in 2009, Silvis founded Restek Corp., a leading developer and manufacturer of chromatography products, in 1985. Silvis graduated from the Penn State Smeal College of Business Executive MBA program in 2006, having earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and life science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977.
In 2011, Silvis and his wife, Nancy, donated $1 million to the Penn State Ice Campaign, which helped to fund Pegula Ice Arena and Penn State’s varsity ice hockey programs. The couple also co-chaired the Penn State Ice Campaign Committee.
Silvis currently serves on the Patton Township Planning Commission and the board of directors of Central PA 4th Fest. He previously has been a member of the Penn State advisory boards of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, Penn State Outreach, the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, and Schreyer Honors College.
A trustee must serve for six or more years with distinction to be considered for emeritus status, and the Committee on Governance and Long-Range Planning then reviews the service records of eligible trustees and recommends them to the full board for this honor. All chairs of the board are automatically named trustee emeritus upon retirement or resignation.
Trustee emeritus status lasts for six years, at which time the member retains the title but relinquishes all other rights and privileges of the honor.