Joe and Kathy Guyaux were without health insurance when their first child was born in 1972 at Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison.
“I paid $15 a month with no interest. I’ll always remember that,” said Joe Guyaux, a Tarentum native who now lives in Fox Chapel.
“We know what it was like to struggle and be without, and I know that there’s other people like that. If we can give back, that’s what we like to do.”
The Guyauxs on April 25 donated $3 million to Allegheny Health Network to support three specialties — neurosciences, cardiovascular medicine and orthopaedic care.
The couple, both 74, said they’ve been fortunate to remain healthy but have been touched by those specific areas of health care. They left it to the medical professionals to determine specific uses for the money.
The gift will be split evenly among three service lines, with $1 million going to the AHN Cardiovascular Institute, $1 million to the AHN Neuroscience Institute and $1 million to the AHN Orthopaedic Institute, which will supplement a previously established endowment fund.
The cardiovascular donation will create the Joseph and Kathleen Guyaux Innovation Program in Cardiology, while the neurosciences gift will create the Joseph and Kathleen Guyaux Epilepsy Center.
Mark Sevco, AHN president, said the donation will impact the health and well-being of patients for years to come. The couple’s generosity and commitment to the region is inspiring, Sevco said.
Joe and Kathy Guyaux grew up in Tarentum.
Kathy Guyaux’s father was a grinder at Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corp. for more than 40 years. Joe’s father was a butcher at locally owned Weissberg’s Market on Fifth Avenue.
“We come from low-income families,” Joe Guyaux said. “I went to college on a scholarship. We started with nothing and we’ve had good fortune.
“We want to support the community where we can.”
The couple was part of the last graduating class of Tarentum High School in 1968, before it became part of Highlands School District the following year.
Kathy Guyaux became a teacher and worked for the Westmoreland Intermediate Unit. She also taught special education in the New Kensington-Arnold and Burrell school districts.
Joe Guyaux went to Brown University and began working at Pittsburgh National Bank, the predecessor of PNC. He briefly served as assistant manager of the Heights Plaza branch in Harrison before rising through the ranks.
He retired in 2016 from PNC Financial Services Group after 44 years. He was senior vice chairman and president and CEO of PNC Mortgage when he retired.
Joe Guyaux is the longtime chair of the Highmark Health board and also serves on the boards of Highmark Inc. and AHN. He has served as chairman of the board and as an independent director for Duquesne Holdings LLC and Duquesne Light Co.
He is a life trustee for the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and an emeritus director for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera and Duquesne University.
The couple acknowledges there is no shortage of need or good causes across the region.
Throughout the years, they have donated to groups that include Pittsburgh Fisher House, UPMC Children’s Hospital, United Way and Project SEED’s backpack project. Project SEED started in 2013 by two New Ken-Arnold teachers to provide children with food for weekends.
The Guyauxs also funded the 2010 renovation and expansion of the emergency department at Allegheny Valley Hospital, where both of their sons were born and where Joe Guyaux’s mother studied nursing.
They credit their upbringing in Tarentum for teaching them to “look out for the community.”
“In the late 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, each community had its own school and its own police department. Everyone knew each other and you took care of each other,” Joe Guyaux said.
“I think it was always the notion for us to be appreciative of people who helped us along the way.”