(Butler, PA) So devoted to his community is Jeff Geibel that the former Butler County Community College student-veteran has stooped to pluck the defiant weed encroaching a sidewalk in his hometown where he has volunteered to feed health care workers, to create a first-responders memorial and to establish a wine walking tour.
“I grew up here,” Geibel said. “I’ve been in Butler all my life. I genuinely care about the town. I am proud of the town. I want it to be all that it can be.”
So devoted to his community is Bill Miller that the former BC3 student-athlete chose to return to its college as an employee who would guide his alma mater as an administrator or athletics coach for four decades and counting.
“I grew up at BC3 as a young adult, and then I came back to work at the college just by good fortune,” Miller said. “BC3 has been my life since high school, really.”
BC3’s Alumni Council annually recognizes alumni whose “wow factors” include integrity, character and success, and who “provide inspiration to BC3 students and the community,” said Bobbi Jo Cornetti, development coordinator with the BC3 Education Foundation.
Geibel, a financial adviser who has volunteered with grassroots and service organizations, and Miller, with youth groups, have been selected as 2024 BC3 distinguished alumni and will be honored Oct. 5 at the Oak Hills Luncheon on the college’s main campus in Butler Township.
“How is my name on that list of people?”
“This certainly is an honor. I am humbled by it.”
Geibel, 45, Summit Township, served in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard while a student at BC3 and is employed by Edward Jones Investments in Butler. He earned an associate degree in business administration from BC3 and graduated with honors in 2004.
Miller, 66, Penn Township, was a record-setting and two-time all-conference point guard in men’s basketball at BC3 and retired in 2017 after working 37 years as a BC3 administrator. He earned an associate degree in general studies from BC3 and graduated with honors in 1978.
Approximately 26,500 students have earned at least 45 credits at BC3 since its founding in 1965.
Geibel and Miller bring to 58 the number of former students to be recognized with BC3 Distinguished Alumni Awards since the honor debuted in 2004.
“It is an incredibly special honor to be a distinguished alumni of BC3,” said Megan M. Coval, the college’s interim president. “A unique thing about this recognition is that we are not just looking for alumni who have had successful careers or who have gone on to achieve remarkable things. That’s certainly a part of it.
“But we are also looking for alumni who have chosen to give so much of their time and energy to the things in their community that matter.”
Authors, advocates, business leaders, county commissioners, educators, judges, physicians and a former starting pitcher in Game 6 of the World Series are among recipients.
“I don’t think at 23 I realized what a good school BC3 was,” Geibel said. “BC3 has been the top community college in the state for what, 10 years? How is my name on that list of people?”
Niche.com in August selected BC3 as the No. 1 community college in Pennsylvania for 2025. The recognition is the 10th for the college since 2015.
“So many … have done so many good things at BC3”
Miller was interim associate vice president for academic affairs, and dean of humanities and social sciences upon his retirement. He is in his 21st year as the college’s golf coach.
“This certainly is an honor. I am humbled by it,” Miller said. “There are so many different people who have come through and have done so many good things at BC3.”
After his graduation from BC3, Geibel – a sergeant – was deployed and served in more than 200 combat patrols in Tikrit during the Iraq War. He later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
Geibel has volunteered with the Butler A.M. Rotary Club helped to create a first-responders memorial at Alameda Park, and with Butler Downtown to send meals to Butler Memorial Hospital employees early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Doing good work in the community”
He was also part of an effort to restore Christmas decorations on streetlights in Butler.
“What I didn’t expect,” Geibel said, “was all the places I keep running into BC3 employees and graduates in the 20 years since 2004, and it is often times off campus and doing good work in the community.”
After his graduation from BC3, Miller earned a bachelor’s degree at what is now La Roche University. He became an intramural coordinator trainee at BC3 in 1980 and later served as director of financial aid, as director of admissions and as interim dean of students.
Miller has volunteered with the Butler County Junior Miss scholarship program, with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Butler County, the Slippery Rock High School guidance advisory group and the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame.
“BC3, we are the community’s college,” Miller said. “When you are involved in the community you develop a love for the community. I liked to get involved and I met so many great people over the years.”
Scholarship recipients can meet benefactors
The Oak Hills Luncheon will also serve as an opportunity for BC3 students who received one of 157 named scholarships from the BC3 Education Foundation in 2024-2025 to meet their benefactors.
Geibel in 2022 received a distinguished service award from the Butler Eagle and Rotary Club of Butler PM and was selected as the Butler AM Rotary Club’s Rotarian of the Year in 2021.
BC3 also chose Miller in 2004 to receive its outstanding service and community achievement award for administrators.
The coach of BC3’s golf program since 2003 becomes the fifth member of the college’s Charles W. Dunaway Pioneer Hall of Fame to also be selected as a distinguished alumnus.
Miller was inducted in 2023 as a coach and as a two-time all-Skyline Athletic Conference men’s basketball player whose record of 15 foul shots without a miss stood at BC3 for nearly 38 years.
Kimberly (Burford) Geyer, Michael Franko, Dr. Andrew Matonak and John Stuper, a former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher, were also inducted into the Pioneer Hall of Fame and chosen as distinguished alumni.
