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Joseph “Archie” Devine, 54, graduated from Bishop Neumann High School in 1975. On May 21, he will be honored by his alma mater for the highest level of career achievement.

“It’s an honor from where I graduated from. Past recipients have done a lot with their careers and public service. This is validation of my upbringing, through my years at Neumann. It was the foundation of what helped develop me and who I am,” Devine, a native of Second and Jackson streets, said.

Devine will be honored alongside Drexel University Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professionals Gloria Donnelly, a West Passyunk native, at the Millay Club’s annual Pinnacle Award Gala Dinner taking place at Center City’s Hyatt at The Bellevue.

“I am honored because I’ve been in health care my whole career. My fellow award winner is the dean of nursing at Drexel. I work with a lot of nurses and my executive nursing team does nothing but rave about her. I am honored to be recognized alongside her,” Devine said.

The Millay Club, which is the 25,000-member alumni association of Southeast Catholic, Bishop Neumann, St. John Neumann and Neumann-Goretti high schools, sponsors the award gala to recognize former students who have excelled professionally while also contributing to their communities. Devine, who is currently senior vice president of administration and external relations for the South Jersey-based Kennedy Health System, will join the long list of past honorees.

“They contacted me in the fall and told me someone was going to nominate me. … They came out and met me in the beginning of December and asked if I would accept the honor,” Devine, who resides in Washington Township, N.J., said. “Last year, Bill Bergman [received the award]. We grew up in the same neighborhood. … He came with someone else and asked if I would accept the honor.”

Devine is being honored for his more than 30 years as a health care professional, working on the business side to make sure operations run smoothly and health care providers can perform at their best. Additionally, Devine has made it his life’s work to give back to his community, having held volunteer positions on public service councils, as well as taking an active role in charity organizations such as the March for Babies and South Jersey Heart Walk.

“I find it rewarding first of all. But as a responsible executive, one of my responsibilities is to give back to my community. Being a good citizen and neighbor, I learned it from my dad, who passed about 11 years ago.” Devine said of his dad Joe Devine. “As a kid, I’d come home and he’d be involved with so many things. I had that as a role model.

“As I got further professionally, I got involved in more things. What you sow, you reap and if you give a lot back, you get a lot back.”

Devine received a bachelor’s in accounting and management from La Salle University and an master’s in business administration from St. Joseph’s University. He spent a couple years toiling as a public accountant before taking his first health care job at Pennsylvania Hospital in ’81.

“For some reason, something attracted me to [health care],” Devine said. “God always has a plan for you and I am kind of in the direction his plan is. For some reason I was always attracted to being in hospitals. It was a career passion.”

Working his “small administration job” into a managerial role five years later, Kennedy recruited Devine to build an audit department for the growing Jersey organization in ’86.

“I oversee our Washington Township campus, which is the biggest of the 23 hospitals,” Devine, who relocated with wife, Dina, a ’75 Goretti grad, to Jersey in order to live where he worked, said. “I work on strategic issues and government relations activities that tie in to the organization. I am the external face of Kennedy.”

It was important to Devine, who always played an active community role, to raise daughters Makenzie, 24, and Olivia, 21, in the community he was serving.

“I’ve been able to help the community in a lot of ways I wasn’t able to do [before]. I work in the town I live,” Devine said. “The most rewarding aspect of my job is the people I work with and for.

“People in health care care about people and I’m able to work around them. I’m not a doctor, but if I can help them process and do things, I’m able to help them do [their job]. It’s all about people.”

Devine has continued to strive for professional excellence and the Pinnacle recognition comes on the tail of a distinction from his employer, given to someone who has made a significant impact on the Kennedy business and the South Jersey community. Accepting the Kennedy Beacon award in February made Devine only the second executive to receive the award, the first being the company’s CEO and founder.

“I’ve gotten a couple things over the years, but nothing that big,” Devine said.

As he readies family and friends for the upcoming honor from the Millay Club, the executive has taken time to reflect on a fulfilling career that began at 2600 Moore St.