Daniel Priatko

During his time at Norwin High School, Daniel Priatko made his name on both the football field and in his academic studies. As the football team captain, Priatko was selected as the most valuable player by coaching staff, teammates, and the local newspaper and voted Norwin High School’s Most Outstanding Male Student, as well as Senior Class President as voted for by the student body.

His love of country led Priatko to pursue an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he continued in the same tradition he did at Norwin. He would go on to become a cadet Battalion Commander, one of twelve such cadet leadership positions, and receive the Major William Whitehead, Jr. award, named after a West Point football player killed in action in Vietnam for having the highest QPA of a senior varsity football letterman. He would join the West Point Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and serve as the cadet-in-charge of Orthodox Church cadets. Priatko would graduate West Point in 1984, as well as graduate from the U.S. Army Airborne and Ranger schools.

Priatko’s Army career would be upended by an accident while on active duty that left him in a coma for seven months and hospitalized for eighteen consecutive months, during which his only food intake was through a feeding tube. Priatko’s initial diagnosis from doctors was that he was not expected to live, but he managed to perserve and refused to give in to his injuries.

Later on, Priatko would work as a recreation aide at Loyalhanna Care Center for seventeen years; for the past seven years, he has volunteered as a recreation aide at Redstone Highlands in North Huntingdon.

Priatko’s determination to not give and to continue to fight for the betterment of his friends, family, and community would be recognized by the Norwin School District with the Noble Knight Award in March, 2017. Throughout his life, Priatko has repeatedly demonstrated the traits of a Noble Knight: respect, responsibility, courage, honesty, perserverence, fairness, and caring. His story is an inspiration to the Norwin community.