David Wargo perpetually championed for the future of Summit Hill. He worked tirelessly for the town’s economic growth, culture and historic preservation and quality of life improvements.

Wargo, who was the president of Summit Hill Borough Council and active in numerous organizations within the borough, died Monday in Lehigh Valley Hospital following a valiant battle with cancer. He was 58.

He envisioned the business district being revitalized. He started serious planning for a local mining museum. He worked on tweaking ordinances for better enforcement.

Despite his dedication to the community, he was also a devoted family man. He and his wife, the former Katie Gelezinsky, have a daughter, Kathryn. David was able to watch, via streaming, his daughter graduate Friday from Panther Valley High School and recently from Lehigh Carbon Community College, where she was a dean’s list student.

“He would always say (about Summit Hill), he wanted a place for his daughter to always call home,” said Kira Steber, secretary/treasurer for the borough.

Wargo was a lifelong resident of Summit Hill.

Due to his death, Tuesday’s scheduled meeting of Summit Hill Borough Council was postponed with a date to be announced.

Joseph Weber, vice president of the council, said he decided to cancel the meeting immediately after getting word of Wargo’s death. He said that he and Wargo became best friends and “I know I was going to be in tears walking through that door.” Weber had sat with Wargo at his home for his daughter’s graduation program.

Members of the Summit Hill Fire Department, of which Wargo was a former member, placed black bunting on the exterior wall of the Summit Hill Borough Hall.

Just a few of the many things credited to Wargo are:

It was mainly through Wargo’s efforts that Summit Hill joined the Panther Valley Blueprint Communities program, a group formed to revitalize the Panther Valley area.

Wargo methodically went through virtually all the ordinances in Summit Hill in an effort to bring them up to date and make them enforceable.

He pushed for a comprehensive rental inspection effort that would protect tenants and potentially prevent blight.

He conducted ghost tours for many years in the borough and even wrote a book in 2020 on unusual occurrences in the community entitled “Mysteries on the Mountain.”

In 2005, he spearheaded a campaign and successfully helped to regain for the borough two historic Civil War cannons that were erroneously sold to a western Pennsylvania collector. Wargo and the owner of Walters Monument Company personally traveled to the Pittsburgh area to pick up and guns and brought back to their home base in Ludlow Park.

He formed an economic committee of the borough that met separately from the council sessions to address concerns and suggestions regarding the Ludlow Street business area.

He served as a past president on the Summit Hill Historical Society.

He was pushing to have a mining museum constructed. Although downsized from original plans, the efforts will continue and if successful, the museum will initially be located in First Presbyterian Church in Wargo’s memory.

He was instrumental in major improvements to the historic GAR Cemetery in the borough.

Steber said she first met Wargo 23 years ago. At the time, he was a correspondent for the Times News. She was hired as the borough secretary, and he interviewed her for an article.

She has been working with him on borough council for the past decade, but even before that she worked with him as a result to his involvement in so many projects and organizations.

“He was a very dedicated person,” Steber said. “He was very devoted to family and the community. He loved this town and would do anything for this town. He was very proud and would do anything he could to make it better.”

She said, “He went above and beyond what is the council position.”

“He was not only a colleague of mine,” she said. “but a mentor and a really good friend.”

Former Summit Hill Mayor Jeffrey Szczecina said that with all the organizations Wargo was involved, and the projects in which he was engaged, “I don’t know how he found so much time to do it.”

“I know he cared about the town he lived in second to none,” he said. “We literally spoke five or six times a week, sometime at six in the morning or late at night.”

Considering the time he put into caring for this town, “it will be a great void,” Szczecina said.

Weber said regarding Wargo, “He always had a good ear and he always was open-minded. I’m going to miss him.”

“He was worried about the museum project,” Weber said. “He wanted to make sure that it moves forward.”

Weber continued, “He was a likable guy. He became a friend of anyone. That’s not always easy to do.”

John Dowling, chairman of the Panther Valley Blueprint Communities, said he got to know Wargo about three years ago when the Blueprint program began. At the time, Wargo was chairman.

Wargo stepped down as chairman to concentrate on the mining museum project.

It was Wargo who suggested to Dowling that he take over the chairmanship of the Blueprint group. “He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Dowling said.

Dowling, a banker, also became a financial consultant for the museum project.

He said he sat with Wargo in his home about two weeks ago. Wargo told him, “I hope the project doesn’t fall through” and they discussed how to keep it moving forward.”

At that time, said Dowling, “He was in good spirits. He was talking about getting through (the cancer) and that the treatments were going good.”

“It was devastating,” he said to hear that Wargo passed away this week.

Dowling was overwhelmed by the dedication Wargo showed to Summit Hill, saying, “He put Summit Hill in front of some of his own priorities.”

“Anything that he had his hands in was never for the betterment of Dave,” he said, reiterating that his love was for the community.

“He was a great guy,” he added. “He saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. I hope I live up to it. He’s one of a kind and will be missed.”

State Rep. Doyle Heffley issued a statement saying, “Dave was a passionate public servant who cared deeply about Summit Hill and always worked to turn his vision into action.”

Borough resident Ed Kocha wrote, “So sad! What a great guy! His genuine kindness was so clear to see the first time I had the chance to meet him while our daughters played youth basketball together.”

Kocha, a Panther Valley teacher, said that Wargo also had attended one of his classes as an author and “the students learned so much in one class period.”