Robert E. Chiappetta, whose 34-year career in education included stints as principal of middle schools in Moon and Fox Chapel, died Friday of a brain tumor at UPMC Presbyterian. The Upper St. Clair resident was 60.

Mr. Chiappetta was destined for a life in education. He grew up in Clairton, across the street from Miller Avenue Elementary School. As a child he spent so much time at the school that the principal asked his parents to keep him at home at least until the janitors arrived each morning.

After graduating from Penn State University in 1966, Mr. Chiappetta took a job teaching algebra at Fort Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair.

The next year, a new social studies teacher arrived in the room across the hall. It was Donna Casey's first job out of college. She spied Mr. Chiappetta -- "a tall, good-looking guy," she recalled -- and struck up a conversation.

They began dating and married the next year. As new teachers with little money, they took advantage of free passes to school events for their entertainment.

"Schools have been our life," Donna Chiappetta said.

Her husband served as assistant principal at high schools in Clairton and Beaver, and as principal at a Beaver junior high school. In 1990, the Fox Chapel school system was looking for an administrator to help with the conversion of Dorseyville Junior High into a middle school.

"Bob was really very well-known, not only locally but in the state, of being an outstanding principal," said Helen C. Sobehart, who was acting superintendant of the school system at the time. "We really went after him."

The conversion to a middle school required changes in culture and thought processes in working with students, teachers and parents. During an awkward time for children -- grades six, seven and eight -- Mr. Chiappetta's main concern always was "is this what's best for the kids?"

"He valued them and could see what they could become," said Debra Fink Sailsbery, an assistant principal under Mr. Chiappetta for three years at Dorseyville Middle School. "He was committed to help them navigate those challenging years, to help them become what they could be."

He retired from the public school system in 1998 and worked two years as principal of St. Germaine School in Bethel Park.

It's unlikely that Mr. Chiappetta would have stopped work had not the brain tumors he first experienced in 1994 forced him to retire. While multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and gamma knife surgery forced him out of the schools, he continued trying to help educate children.

He and his wife undertook paying for the education of a young Kenyan he came in contact with through his work at St. Germaine. Mr. Chiappetta even wrote to Oprah Winfrey, trying to interest the talk show host in supporting the school in Kenya. The Kenyan is now in high school.

Mr. Chiappetta had wanted to pay for his college education. His wife said she'll try to follow through on that.

"That's what Bobby would have wanted," she said.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Thomas, of Washington, D.C., and Daniel, of Philadelphia; five brothers, Frank, of West Chester, Chester County, Jerry, of Laurel, Md., Lawrence, of Upper St. Clair, Leonard, of Peters, and Donald, of Holland, Bucks County; and three sisters, Betty "Tootsie" Parker, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Dolly Peters, of Jupiter, Fla., and Darlene Chiappetta of Beaver.

Visitation will be tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Beinhauer Mortuary, 2828 Washington Road, Peters. Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Louise de Marillac Church, 331 McMurray Road, Upper St. Clair.

Donations can be made to St. Germaine School, c/o Nancy Koslosky, 7001 Baptist Road, Bethel Park 15102.