By STEVE SNYDER – Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News
June 1, 2010

How’s this for a resume: Photographer, scuba diver, bartender, actor, author, and now …

Inventor.

All this from a woman, Rebecca Savich, who grew up next to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area in the southeastern corner of Lebanon County and now calls Los Angeles home.

Or more specifically, Sherman Oaks. Ever hear of Ventura Boulevard? Just to the south is Beverly Hills.

Anyway, before we stray too far away, how about we learn a little more about our scuba-diving inventor from Millcreek Township?

Way back when she was a student at Elco High School, Savich was featured in a front-page story of the Lebanon Daily News because she was selected to do an underwater photo shoot in the Caribbean.

After graduating from Elco in 1988, she lived for a time in New York City and worked for Bob Gruen, a photographer who won fame for his work rock-and-roll stars, notably John Lennon. Later, Savich moved to Los Angeles, did some writing and bartending, and joined the Screen Actors Guild. She appeared on some episodes of “Suddenly Susan,” and “Murphy Brown,” and was a stand-in for Christina Applegate during the sitcom “Jesse.”

“I’m still in the union and pay dues but I haven’t done anything (in acting) in 10 years,” Savich said last week.

Her current endeavor is “The Adventure Brigade,” an animated online, interactive project for which she holds a trademark. But that’s another story for another day.

“I like projects,” Savich said.

“I’m not a 9-to-5er.”

She’s lived in Los Angeles since 1995, except for two years in Florida.

Oh, and about that invention …

In 2006, Savich began working on what has become the Adjustable Breast Comfort system for massage and medical tables, for which she has a patent pending. The massage tables are manufactured by Oakworks, a massage and medical table-building company located in the southern York County town of New Freedom, and have been on the market since January. The ABC system tables have already been sold across the United States and in Italy, Canada and Korea.

As her business’s website, www.contourtablesystems.com, says, Adjustable Breast Comfort system “is the revolutionary answer to the issues women face when lying down on a table due to its effective balance of support and reduction of pressure on women’s breasts. A powerful foot pump and simple release valve allow therapists to adjust the contour of the table top during treatment without interrupting the flow of the session, ensuring maximum comfort and excellent results.”

Savich is not exactly the shy, retiring type.

“I’m naturally endowed,” she said, “and I get a lot of massages. Finally they’re paying off.”

(Laughter heard from a cell phone about 2,646 miles away.)

When she located Oakworks as a potential manufacturer last year, Savich packed up her car and drove east.

“I figured I could get an appointment with the president,” she said. “After five days of calling constantly, I got an appointment. They gave me 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes lasted two-and-a-half hours. … They started the prototype the next day.”

During June and July, Savich lived with family and friends while Oakworks did development work.

In August, Savich signed a deal with Oakworks, which “gave me my own line,” Savich said, as well as a five-year license for the patent. That line, the Utopian, is featured on her business website.

Now, she travels to trade shows, including a three-day convention in Las Vegas in May, to promote her invention.

Savich dedicated the ABC project to her late mother, Sandra, who was going to fund it before she fell ill and passed away in August 2005. Savich used her inheritance to help cover the project’s expenses. She set up the Sandra K. (Mark) Savich Foundation, which provides funding for several charities.

“That means more to me than anything, that I’m honoring my mother,” Savich said.

In addition to her mother, Savich said her influences include her grandfathers, Frederick Mark, who was a box designer for the Lebanon Box Co., and George Funk, a machinist at Hershey Foods.

She has two brothers, George Savich III, who owns the End Zone Tavern in Richland, and Mike Hall, who works at Kay Jewelers in the Lebanon Valley Mall.

Anyone who wants to reconnect with Savich can send her an e-mail on her company’s website, or send her a message on Facebook.

“I try to get back home a lot,” Savich said.

And when she does, “I go all over the place. I love Pennsylvania. … I’m still exactly the same person I always have been.”

Not surprising, is it?