Like millions of other Americans, Dierdre Savage, AS '83, read Sebastian Junger's best-selling book, The Perfect Storm, with a mixture of admiration and awe. But, she never imagined that this stirring, true-life drama would change the course of her career.

Junger's book, published in 1995, describes in vivid and often disturbing detail how six lives were lost when the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat based in Gloucester, Mass., sank during a deadly Halloween storm in October 1991.

The Perfect Storm rocketed Junger into publishing superstardom and drew national attention to the seafaring town of Gloucester.

During the summer of 1998, Savage's life intersected with Junger's quite by accident. Junger was being interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR) when Savage tuned in on her drive home. Savage was working in Cambridge as a real estate developer, but she had recently moved to Gloucester, "not knowing a soul, or really why I had chosen to be there.

"Sebastian was talking about this educational foundation he had just established to help kids in Gloucester whose parents worked in the commercial fishing industry," Savage recalls. "I thought, 'If he means it, and if he's committed to it, this is something I want to be involved in.' It was just a very strong feeling I had."

Junger, a freelance journalist, had lived in Gloucester for two years while writing his book. During that time, he developed a deep respect for the working men and women of the town. After the book's phenomenal success, Junger decided he wanted to give something back to the townspeople.

In May 1998, he established The Perfect Storm Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable organization based in Gloucester that offers educational and cultural grants to young people whose parents work in the commercial fishing industry.

Savage says she had long hoped to "become more involved on a local level with planning and policy issues, without being a politician." She contacted NPR, which provided her with a number for The Perfect Storm Foundation. She called and left a message, and about a week later, was recruited by volunteer board president Jeanne Blake.

Savage's involvement with the foundation grew quickly. She started working festivals on the weekends, selling T-shirts and baseball hats, and became a full-time volunteer in the winter of 1998. The next July, she was appointed to the full-time, paid position of executive director.

"It is the most challenging job I've ever had," Savage says. "We're reaching kids and making a difference in their lives, one child at a time."

The endowment money raised by The Perfect Storm Foundation, which Savage says she hopes will exceed $1 million, is being used for children in grades 7-12 to give them more educational and cultural experiences. Money has been raised through a variety of sources, from local businesses to readers of The Perfect Storm, Savage says. Warner Brothers, which is producing the film version of the book, starring actor George Clooney, donated $25,000. The movie is scheduled for a July release.

Not strictly a scholarship fund, the foundation allows Gloucester youngsters to look at other career opportunities beyond fishing. Even today, Savage says, fishing remains one of the world's riskiest occupations, claiming more lives per capita than any other.

Helping high school and middle school students is top priority, Savage says. With grants aimed at fostering "the spirit of discovery and adventure in the lives and minds of young people," as Junger puts it, the first series of awards was presented in June to three Gloucester students.

One, a 19-year-old boy, is dyslexic and the victim of a violent accident that damaged tendons in his hand. His grant allowed him to purchase a portable transcriber-recorder to tape lectures and partly fund a laptop computer to transcribe notes when he begins college. A 15-year-old boy was given a scholarship to the Wooden Boat School in Maine, where he is learning the fundamentals of traditional wood boat construction. The third student, a 19-year-old son of a fisherman and brother of two others, is using his grant to continue his college education at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

As Savage says, The Perfect Storm Foundation not only gave Junger an opportunity to help the town of Gloucester but also opened up a "new world of opportunities" to the town's young people.

"I'm thrilled to be a part of this," Savage says, adding that a good part of her job involves getting the word out about the foundation and looking for sources of revenue to keep it growing. "It's a busy, challenging job with an organization that I think can make a real and lasting difference in young people's lives."

The road to operating a nonprofit foundation was not a straight line for Savage. A native of Manhattan, she became interested in art conservation at a young age.

"I went to high school a block away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is where we would hang out during lunch," she says. At the University of Delaware, she studied art history, "which provided a solid foundation," she says, but studying in Rome during her junior year clarified Savage's goals even further: "It all became about buildings there," she says. "The focus turned from art to architecture."

After graduation from Delaware, she pursued a master's degree in architectural preservation at Boston University, graduating in 1985.

For the next four years, Savage worked as an investment manager for a development company that acquired and renovated property in Boston's historic South End. She also spent three years in real estate investment banking with Shawmut Bank of Boston, developing a loan product for institutional investors seeking financing for national real estate portfolios. From 1994-98, Savage was a real estate developer in Cambridge, Mass.

"The Perfect Storm Foundation has been a great fit because I'm passionate about this, and I'm able to use my finance background effectively in a nonprofit environment," Savage says, adding that it "still amazes me that some of the characters in Sebastian's book are now a part of my day-to-day life."

Savage recalls, for example, the recent memorial service on Oct. 30 for Ethel Shatford, a bartender at the local watering hole, The Crow's Nest. The service, Savage notes, was held almost eight years to the day after Shatford's son, Bobby, died on the Andrea Gail.

"I was sitting in the back of the church and wondering, 'How did these people become a part of my real life?'" Savage recalls. "I'm honored to be part of this community, and I'm not afraid to ask people for money. It's for such a vital cause."

For more information about The Perfect Storm Foundation, visit its web site at [www.perfectstorm.org].