Barbara Quinn and her husband Marty have been named the 2022 Joseph F. Saporito Lifetime of Service Award winners.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
2023 Distinguished Woman Award recipient Barbara Quinn, stands with her granddaughters who introduced Quinn to recieve her award. Left to right: Kearney Quinn, Quinn, Katie Quinn, and Samantha Quinn.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
Marty Quinn, along with his wife Barbara, have been named the 2022 Joseph F. Saporito Lifetime of Service Award recipients.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
Marty Quinn is shown as the 2023 Grand Marshal of the 10th Annual Pittston St. Patrick’s Parade earlier this year.
Tony Callaio file photo | For Sunday Dispatch
PITTSTON – Martin and Barbara Quinn know the value of volunteerism and public service very well; after all, they have lived their lives practicing what they preach. As a result of their lifelong service to community the Quinns have been named the 2022 Joseph F. Saporito Lifetime of Service Award recipients.
“We are both very, very honored and we are thrilled we are also named along side the Person of the Year with the Pittston Area softball team,” Barbara said on being chosen the Saporito Award. “That’s very appropriate, we’ve got the very youngest with the community and some of the oldest. Marty is 85 and I’m 80 and those kids are all 16, 17, and 18 years old.”
Barbara went on to say how surprised she was for her and Marty to have the honor of the Saporito Award bestowed on them, “I always feel like there are so many people that are more deserving because we do what we do, but it is nice to be recognized.”
She acknowledges the hard work and dedication by her parents that influenced her to help in the community.
Marty’s father served at the Pittston Township School Board, influencing him for his life of public service.
“Marty’s father was one of those involved in creating the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center,” Barbara added.
Marty, known to all of his family and friends, has been serving Pittston Area by serving on the school district’s board of directors for 32 years. To acknowledge Marty’s devotions and dedication to Pittston Area, the Primary School was named in his honor in 2016.
That was not the first time Quinn was honored, he is a former Greater Pittston Friendly Sons of St. Patrick’s Man of the Year, in 2019 Marty was presented with the Friendly Sons’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and this past St. Patrick’s Parade in Pittston, he was named grand marshal.
Quinn, son of the late Martin J. Quinn and Margaret Mitchell Quinn, was born and raised in the Cork Lane section of Pittston Township and is a 1955 graduate of Pittston Central Catholic High School. He served and was honorably discharged from the United States Army.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad and ConRail Inc. employed Quinn for over 30 years before retiring as a Line Foreman in 1999.
He is a licensed electrician and was recording secretary of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local No. 1153 for many years.
Prior to returning to this area in 1973, Marty was employed in the trucking industry in New Jersey and was vice president of the Teamsters Union Local No. 701.
In addition to serving on the Pittston Area School Board, he had been instrumental in guiding the construction of the Pittston Area Primary Center in Hughestown, and in November of 2016 the school was named in his honor.
Quinn currently sits on the board of the Parking Authority of the City of Pittston and is active with the Third District Democrats serving many years as a committeeman in his ward.
He is a social member of the Polish Club in Dupont, the West Side Club in Avoca and the Pittston Township Italian Club.
Barbara always took the advice of her mother Helen told a young Barbara to keep herself busy and she never looked back.
Barbara was recognized for her dedication to volunteerism when she was honored with the 2023 Women’s Network’s Distinguished Woman Award.
She is, the daughter of the late Guy and Helen Brigido, longtime Pittston business owners, has been volunteering for positions at her places of employment as well as non-profits for most of her life.
Educated at College Misericordia graduating in 1964, Quinn, left the area moving to New Jersey to teach English/Spanish at Woodbridge Township School District for six years.
Upon moving back to Greater Pittston with husband Martin in the early 1970s, Quinn substituted at Pittston Area School District for over 10 years, as well as private tutoring, all while raising her three sons.
In the late 1980s, Quinn found herself working for the Department of Labor and Industry as a Disability Adjudicator and was later educated to be a certified Hearing Officer to conduct Social Security Disability Hearings for the next six years. Eventually she was promoted to a supervisor until retirement in 2004.
A month after retiring at age 62, Quinn was appointed to the Pittston Memorial Library board of directors holding the positions of treasurer, vice president and president, a position she held for seven years.
In 2014, the Pennsylvania Citizens for Better Libraries recognized Quinn as the Commonwealth Citizen of the Year.
While a member of the Pittston Memorial Library, Quinn was instrumental in helping raise $1.3 million to construct a 5,000 sq. ft. addition onto the library.
Today the new addition that includes the Cosgrove Room, a space for meetings and gatherings of all sorts of events has been a huge asset to the community over the last nine years.
Barbara is a member of the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Network and an active member of Our Lady of the Eucharist Church, Pittston, where she serves as a lector and has served as co-director of the summer Vacation Bible School for 15 years.
Barbara and Marty are retired spending as much time with their children Mitch (Kim) of Hanover, Mike (Tara) of West Pittston, and Brian (Denise) and getting to spend quality time with their five grand children, Zach, Jake, Samantha, Katie, and Kearney.
