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After Sgt. Christopher deGruchy ’93 MBA ’05 returned from a four-year tour in the U.S. Army, the Philadelphia native enrolled at Alvernia to pursue a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting.
 

Committed to continuing his education after high school, deGruchy studied while he served, accruing college credits wherever he was stationed, from Alabama to Europe to California. After his Honorable Discharge and move to Berks County he attended Alvernia at night — an opportunity made possible by the medical device manufacturer where he worked by day, which helped fund his higher education. He worked full time in the accounting department while single-parenting his 2-year-old daughter for a few years. A decade after receiving his bachelor’s degree, he returned to earn an MBA.

A volunteer at the March of Dimes while an undergraduate, deGruchy became a dedicated philanthropist. Today, he contributes generously to several organizations close to his heart, including Alvernia’s Hope Fund and Reading Collegiate Scholars Program. More recently, he became involved with the O’Pake Institute for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, working with engineering students on product development projects and sharing his business experience with a seminar he taught on mergers and acquisitions.

“My path with charitable giving peaked in 2022 when my wife and I created the deGruchy Charitable Fund,” he said. “The mission of the fund is to invest in local programs that provide for the health, education and character development of children.”

The primary charities the fund supports are the Muscular Dystrophy Association; Berks Nature, which provides scholarships for children to attend their nature summer camps; Helping Harvest with their Weekender Program of healthy meals for children in need; the John Paul II Center for Special Learning in Shillington; Reading Musical Foundation and the Reading Collegiate Scholars Program, which helps high school students attend Alvernia.

“The scholarship program is special to me because the students are smart but just don’t have the financial ability to go to college,” he said. “I didn’t have any money but found a job that paid for it, which is the only way I was able to afford it.”
 

From Mushrooms to Metal

Post-graduation, deGruchy worked his way up in leadership roles across wide-ranging industries.

After several years at the medical device manufacturer, he sought new career opportunities. In the late 1990s, California-based Monterey Mushrooms hired deGruchy to help the company expand into the northeast market.

“I didn’t know a thing about mushrooms, but I accepted the challenge as the position offered was a stepping stone in my career path,” deGruchy said. “Pennsylvania is known as the mushroom capital of the U.S. There were concentrations of mom-and-pop mushroom farms run mostly by Italian families from Kennett Square through Berks County and out to Pittsburgh.”

In Berks, he worked with the mom-and-pop farms to join Monterey Mushrooms. His efforts were successful, and he ultimately was promoted to run the operation. During this time he worked with another local mushroom supplier to create a joint venture that solely grew portobello mushrooms.

Despite his limited knowledge of mushroom farming, deGruchy recognized that the business strategies and principles he learned while earning his MBA at Alvernia directly applied to his job. Always up for a challenge, deGruchy started thinking about his next move after completing his MBA: business ownership.

He began exploring potential opportunities and pursued one that landed him at the helm of Cast Rite Metal Company, an aluminum sand casting foundry that manufactures parts for machinery and equipment used in more than a dozen industries. His partner, Brian Kelley, is vice president of sales while deGruchy serves as general manager. In the 14 years the duo has overseen the business, they’ve tripled its size and expanded geographically, with hundreds of clients from Florida to Massachusetts, and a few in Canada and Mexico.

Located in Birdsboro, the company is just 20 minutes from the 10-acre arboretum where deGruchy lives with his wife of 32 years, Jane. Here they enjoy sharing the sprawling grounds with their family, friends and members of the community.

“When my father retired at 67, he bought an old horse farm and converted it into an arboretum with more than 100 species of trees and plants,” deGruchy explained, adding that although his dad loved the outdoors, he spent his career running an insurance agency. “When he retired, he followed his dream. He went to Penn State Berks to learn about horticulture while creating the arboretum. Additionally, he  grew kiwi, peaches, apples, pears, blueberries and chestnuts, to name a few.”

The younger deGruchy has carried forward his father’s legacy as a dedicated caretaker of the property, which includes a half-acre stocked pond, vast meadows and gardens that continue to yield blueberries, pawpaws, Asian pears and apples abundantly, with plenty to share with the local community. Every year, the deGruchys invite students from the John Paul II Center to visit and pick fruit, and they employ local high school students to help with upkeep. They also recently began raising honeybees.

“It all goes back to giving back,” he said. “Which is what you learn at Alvernia.”