Like countless football-loving Pennsylvania kids before and since, B.J. Werzyn spent many memorable Saturdays with his family at Beaver Stadium. In his case, that meant the 1980s and ’90s—“a pretty good time to be a Penn State fan,” he recalls with a smile.
Werzyn grew up in Johnstown, Pa., about 90 minutes southwest of State College, and eventually played running back and cornerback for Richland High School. He was under no illusions about his football future. “I always knew I wasn’t at Penn State’s level as a player,” he says now. “I was more than happy to get accepted academically.”
Thirty years after he came to campus as an undergrad, Werzyn ’99 H&HD has made his own singular impact on the Beaver Stadium turf. In March, the university announced a $50 million gift from the Werzyn family and West Shore Home, the home remodeling company he founded and leads as CEO. Beginning this fall, the Nittany Lions will run through the tunnel onto the manicured grass of West Shore Home Field at Beaver Stadium. Athletic Director Pat Kraft called it a “game-changing gift that will have a lasting impact on our student-athletes, fans, and community.”
Werzyn’s path to career success is rooted in family and his Penn State experience. He started out as an aerospace engineering major, but about halfway through school he decided to switch to kinesiology, thinking he would go into sports medicine. Before he had a chance to start graduate school, his parents asked if he wanted to help out with the family’s window and door manufacturing business, which had expanded and needed a trusted hand at its facility in Florida. “I got to see all aspects of the business—manufacturing, dealing with architects and builders, and I did a little bit of direct-to-consumer work,” he says. “In the process, I caught that entrepreneurial bug and really kind of gravitated toward the consumer aspect.”
Werzyn moved back to Pennsylvania determined to open his own business; he tells the story of making a trip to Staples to buy “a phone, a desk, and a computer.” In 2006, he found a storefront location in Mechanicsburg, Pa., and established West Shore Window and Door. It took 10 years to establish a second office in Pittsburgh, and two more after that for the company to make its first acquisition, a move that sparked exponential growth. Today, West Shore Home is one of the largest home remodeling firms in the country, with 40 locations across 20 states.
The field-naming gift is in keeping with a philanthropic relationship that started with Werzyn and West Shore Home’s support of THON and Four Diamonds. His support for athletics gave him the chance to get to know Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin, and as the NIL era began to revolutionize college sports, Werzyn looked for more ways to support his alma mater. In addition to the naming gift, West Shore Home in March announced a partnership with the College of Information Sciences and Technology and the Nittany AI Alliance to provide students with internship opportunities that connect their academic pursuits with real-world experiences.
Werzyn says he’s excited to partner with Penn State “in any way we can,” but he knows it will be hard to match the impact of the field-naming gift, one of the first of its kind in college football. “That’s the story, to me—born and raised in Johns-town, lucky enough to able to go to Penn State and earn a degree, start a business that’s still headquartered in Pennsylvania, and now having the opportunity to give back to the university and associate my company’s brand with Beaver Stadium,” he says. “It’s really just a dream come true.”
