Santorum’s roots deep in county
He spent 10 of his formative years here
By Jared Stonesifer
Eagle Staff Writer

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is shaking up the national
political scene after his second-place finish Tuesday in the Iowa
caucuses, adding another chapter to his political journey that has roots
in Butler County.
Santorum spent nearly 10 years in Butler, years that saw him transform
from an impressionable 7-year-old into a young man about to enter his
senior year of high school.
He played basketball at St. Paul’s Catholic School, a precursor to the
current Butler Catholic School, and studied there from the second to
eighth grades. He transferred to Butler Junior High School and later
attended Butler High School until his senior year, when his family
moved away.
The former congressman and senator moved here in 1965 with his family
after his father, Al, got a job at the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, now
VA Butler Healthcare. He grew up in a small brick house behind the hospital.
Sue McKnight of Butler remembers the small brick house well because she baby sat Santorum and his two siblings in the summers of 1966 and 1967, a time when the future senator was only 9 years old.
Because both of Santorum’s parents worked during the day, McKnight said she would frequently baby sit the Santorum children. McKnight remembers Santorum as a “typical boy at that age” who liked to play cards and board games. “But he could be a little mischievous at times,” she said. The former baby sitter also said she knew Santorum would be successful based on the “good guidance and direction” he received from his parents. She didn’t keep in touch with the family over the years, but she did run into Santorum at the Pittsburgh International Airport several years ago.
“I saw him in the airport, and we talked for a couple of minutes. He told me, ‘I never thought I’d be taller than you!’ ” said McKnight. “I’m 5 feet, 10 inches tall which, to a young boy, is huge.”
During his time in Butler, Santorum played Little League baseball for the Meridian Dodger, swam in the VA Medical Center pool and horsed around with friends in the woods behind that complex.
He left before his senior year of high school after his father was transferred in 1975 to a hospital in Illinois.
During a Butler Eagle interview in 1994 when Santorum was running for and eventually won his first term in the Senate, the politician said he had nothing but fond memories of Butler, a community he called “the greatest place in the world to grow up, for so many reasons.”
“It was small-town America,” Santorum said at the time. “People knew each other; you knew everybody in town.”
That kind of spirit has stuck with the politician over the years, according to the woman who served as his county campaign chairwoman during his Senate campaigns in 2000 and 2006.
Pat Stirling of Lancaster Township has met with Santorum several times over the years and described him as “a person who really sees the big picture.”
Through several conversations with Santorum and his family members during those Senate campaigns, Stirling said she got a strong sense that no matter how far Santorum traveled from here, he always carried his Western Pennsylvania roots with him.
“They are still the same Western Pennsylvania family I believe that they were years ago,” Stirling said. “I think he hasn’t forgotten his values and truly represents what’s good about Western Pennsylvania, as someone who values his faith and morals.”
Stirling said Santorum has a legitimate shot at being the Republican Party’s nominee for president, and she said she’s already decided to again pick up the mantle and campaign for him in Pennsylvania.
As for his close finish in the Iowa caucuses, Stirling said she may have been among only a handful of people who weren’t shocked over his strong finish.
“I heard him speak probably two weeks before the caucuses, and he said he was going to surprise people,” she said. “And I just know that he has a good grasp of what’s going on, so when he said he was going to surprise people, I took him at his word.”
Jo Anne Tomasovic taught English to Santorum when he was in seventh grade at St. Paul’s Catholic School. Although she taught for nearly 40 years, the retired teacher said she remembered Santorum as a “serious student, someone who wanted to know everything he possibly could.”
“I recall him very well,” she said in June. “He stood out among all of the children in lots of ways. He was just a student that stuck with you, as some children do more so than others.”
While Tomasovic admitted she doesn’t pay much attention to politics, she’ll follow Santorum’s candidacy much closer than any other she’s followed before.
“He’s probably just as good as a lot of other people to be president, and maybe even better,” she said. “I think he’s a very outstanding man.”
Santorum graduated from a Catholic high school in Illinois in 1976. He eventually came back to Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State University in 1980 with a degree in political science.
He later earned a master’s in business administration at the University of Pittsburgh and, in 1986, a law degree from the Dickinson School of Law.
Voters elected Santorum to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 at age 32. He defeated a seven-term Democrat to win the seat.
Four years later, Santorum ran for and won a seat in the Senate. He held that post until his defeat in 2006 by Democrat Bob Casey.
Now he’s seeking a bigger political win on the national stage.
This was Rick Santorum in 1975
when he was at BHS.