Building a Bridge to an Engineering Career 

Giving Forward

Who:
Ray and Joneen Betler 

What They support: 
Carnegie Science Center

Why it matters:
“I see the opportunity to expose young people much, much earlier than I had the opportunity to be exposed to science and technology and engineering.”  –Ray Betler

 A career in engineering seemed to always be right there for Ray Betler; he just needed to find a bridge to it.

His stepfather encouraged him to enter the field, which was thriving in the 1960s and ‘70s at  Pittsburgh companies like Westinghouse Electric. But, as a kid from a working-class community in South Park, there were precious few opportunities  to gain a toehold.

“I never had a chance to do internships and get exposure,” he says. “That’s why I have this affinity and commitment to young people and science and engineering.”

Ray is now retired after a remarkable career at Westinghouse, where he became the company’s youngest-ever president and chief executive officer. He and his wife, Joneen—a couple since they were teenagers—want to help young scientists and engineers forge their own path through their support of Carnegie Science Center. They note that the Science Center can be a bridge to careers in STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—and be a place where kids of all income levels and backgrounds can get inspired.

“To me, the Science Center is like the touchstone,” Ray says. “It’s the one asset that we have in Pittsburgh that everybody regionally can relate to in terms of science and technology.”

Ray and Joneen have been donors to the Science Center since the early 1990s, and Ray has been a Science Center board member for nearly as long. At 32, he was promoted to VP of Engineering at Westinghouse Transportation—the youngest in the company’s 120-year history—before ascending to become its youngest president and CEO when he was just 38.

As a child, Ray rarely visited museums or even Buhl Planetarium, now part of the Science Center. Inspiration had to come from elsewhere. Fortunately, a high school physics teacher saw promise in Ray, and connected him and a few other students with a Saturday enrichment program for promising young engineers at Westinghouse Research Center.

Years later, and after earning degrees in engineering and business from Carnegie Mellon University, he returned to Westinghouse where he not only ascended through the ranks at a historic pace, but also looked to cultivate a new generation of talent. He created a robust internship program, which brought in hundreds of budding engineers to learn and work each summer.

If Westinghouse is the place where young adults can start their STEM careers, the Science Center provides the initial spark of interest, Ray says. He has sought to bridge the two institutions through employee incentives and other programs. Westinghouse gave out museum memberships to employees as prizes, held its annual holiday party at the Science Center, and sponsored the museum’s annual Science Center awards.

“I made sure there was a close relationship with the company, and we were constantly trying to engage with the high schools and colleges to promote STEM-related activities,” he notes.

But the Betlers’ interest in supporting the Science Center isn’t just about inspiring local kids to go into STEM fields. They’ve spent many afternoons at the Science Center with their three sons—now all grown—and have since accompanied their 10 grandchildren there on visits. Even though four of their grandchildren live in Connecticut, they make sure to visit the Science Center on every trip to Pittsburgh.

“The youngest grandkids don’t live here, so they go twice every time they come,” Joneen says. “We also get them back to Pittsburgh to do the summer camps. It’s really nice.”

The Betlers are especially excited about ongoing transformation at the Science Center, including the recent relocation and expansion of the BNY Fab Lab on the third floor of the main building.

“I see the opportunity to expose young people much, much earlier than I had the opportunity to be exposed to science and technology and engineering,” Ray says, “and an opportunity to support families in this area that maybe didn’t have the opportunity to see and get exposed to the Science Center. That’s really what interested me and has been extremely gratifying.”

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