BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - When Paul Navone decided to give away millions of his hard-earned wealth to two area schools, the last thing he was looking for was fame.

When news broke of his generosity, the 78-year-old retired factory worker said he was amused at the attention. He wasn't really looking for any praise, he added, hinting impishly that he gave it away mainly because he didn't want the government to take it.

But what started out as local interest has blossomed into full-fledged celebrity.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine invited Navone to his annual State of the State address earlier this week and recognized the lifelong Millville resident directly on the Senate floor. Reporters from news organizations across the region have continued to court him. He's even scheduled to give an interview with Katie Couric on Friday.

And Wednesday evening, when he and several other donors were assembled at this township's St. Augustine College Preparatory School to be recognized for their contributions to an ambitious expansion project, a television crew from the "CBS Evening News" was trailing his every move.

Navone, a Vineland native who worked in Millville's manufacturing plants until his retirement 12 years ago, seemed to take it all in stride. Amid the bright lights of television crews, he explained his reaction to getting the personal invitation to the governor's address.

"You know, I got two letters the other day from the state of New Jersey," Navone said with a wide smile. "It's all been very nice."

In appreciation of Navone's $1 million cash gift, the school has decided to name its new eight-lane swimming pool after Navone. It is located inside the new Louis and Josephine Buondonno Forum, a recently opened $21 million expansion project that brings state-of-the art classrooms and athletic facilities to the school's historic grounds.

Navone, however, wasn't the only philanthropist to be recognized by the St. Augustine Prep community Wednesday night. Also on tap for special honors were Rose Marie Davis, who is the Buondonnos' daughter, and two other major donors to the school's ongoing capital campaign, which school president Father Paul Galetto said had reached $7.6 million.

"It wouldn't have happened without their help," Galetto added.

Navone, who left school after eighth grade to work on the south Vineland farm his family shared with another local family, never had the luxury of a high school education. He said he was motivated to give to St. Augustine Prep because of what he called its exceptional ability to groom boys into poised young men.

Navone echoed those sentiments Wednesday night, saying he was delighted that he was able to enrich the lives of local youth.

"I never had the pleasure of a swimming pool," he said.

R. Douglas Smithson, the financial adviser who has worked with Navone in building his fortune, said that the septuagenarian directed his generosity at schools because he felt it was a shrewd investment in the future.

"Paul's benevolence serves as a lesson to each and everyone of us," Smithson said. "We all have the ability to give back to the community in some way."

This week's recognition came on the heels of last month's announcement by Cumberland County College that Navone gave an equally large cash gift to the school's health sciences program. At the county college, the school named its newly refurbished education building the Paul Navone Healthcare Education Center.

At St. Augustine Prep, the Buondonno Forum is a two-story, 95,000-square-foot building designed with a Roman flair. Brick-and-masonry arcades flank the structure, which also features rusticated stonework on its base. Its halls are lined with marble floors and other antique flourishes - like exposed stonework, bust statues in alcoves and bas-reliefs on the walls - bestow a look of a classical gymnasium.

Egg Harbor Township resident Ann Szapor, a St. Augustine Prep parent and mother of four whose third son is enrolled at the school as a sophomore, said the opening of the Forum justifies the school's extraordinary work.

"I think what it does is validate everything they do here for the boys," she said. "As a parent, I can tell you that the brotherhood raising these boys as Christian gentlemen is real."

Galetto, whose own family history is steeped deeply with St. Augustine Prep, said all of the donors being honored have contributed to the project with family considerations in mind.

To that end, Navone - who never married and has no children - asked that his contribution be made in the name of his parents, Secondo and Adele Navone.

Navone's family grew up poor in Depression-era Vineland. His father worked as a laborer on railroads while his mother doubled her homemaker duties with her work on their farm, where they grew vegetables such as sweet potatoes for sustenance.

In recalling his childhood, Navone remembered the annual trips they would take by rail to Philadelphia when his employer would give each worker a free rail pass. The Navones would window-shop at all the stores they could barely afford to patronize. A pair of new shoes, Navone said, was a rare luxury.

When asked last month if he felt his parents would be proud of what he was able to accomplish, Navone's normally smiling face turned uncharacteristically grim. As Navone struggled to keep his composure, four tears squeezed past his solid resolve.

"They wouldn't even have understood what $1 million is," Navone said.