Bronx Native Mario Gabelli Gifts $25 Million to Fordham University, His Alma Mater

–Underscores Significant Role Donor Attaches to Education as a Driver of Meritocracy –

NEW YORK, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mario J. Gabelli, philanthropist, investor and chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors Inc., has made a $25 million gift to his alma mater, Fordham University.  The gift is the largest ever in the university's 169-year history, and will help propel Fordham's campaign to its $500 million goal.

Fordham will formally announce the gift at a ceremony during the Homecoming celebration on September 25, 2010, at the University's Rose Hill Campus.  

The gift will allow Fordham, which will rename the undergraduate business college the Gabelli School of Business, to expand student scholarships and faculty chairs, and will be crucial to the creation of the Center of Global Investment Analysis, which will bring together students, faculty, and professionals in the financial community to enhance scholarship in the study and understanding of capital markets.

"It is impossible to overstate how much Mario Gabelli's gift means to Fordham, and to higher education," said Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham. "His extremely generous gift will greatly enhance Fordham's ability to deliver a world-class business education. The University community, including those who will join us in future generations, are deeply in his debt."

Mr. Gabelli, a native of the Bronx and resident of Greenwich, Conn., is a second-generation American and the first in his family to attend college.  He is a summa cum laude graduate of Fordham's College of Business Administration (1965), and holds an MBA degree from Columbia University. His wife, Regina Pitaro, class of 1976, is a Fordham trustee and echoes his support of education.

"Education is the great leveler, the engine of America's meritocracy, and it must remain so for the country to compete in the global economy," said Mr. Gabelli.  "My grandfather died in a coal mining accident in Western Pennsylvania, one hundred years ago, and my family always stressed the importance of education as a stepping stone to creating a better life. I am proud and blessed to be able to contribute to that effort."

The gift to Fordham is part of Mr. Gabelli's long-term philanthropic strategy to support education, as well as other causes.  Other organizations he has supported through the Gabelli Foundation or The Gabelli Family Foundation at The Jewish Communal Fund, include Columbia Business School, Boston College, Roger Williams University, University of Miami, Fordham Preparatory School, Montefiore Childrens' Hospital School Health Program, the National Italian-American Foundation and the American-Italian Cancer Foundation.

"Very simply, Mario Gabelli has put Fordham Business at the table in the financial capital of the world," said Donna Rapaccioli, Ph.D., dean of the Gabelli School of Business and dean of the business faculty. "He both understands and fervently believes in the transformative power of education, and with his very generous gift, he will transform the way business students are educated at Fordham."

About Fordham University

Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to approximately 14,700 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools. It has residential campuses in the Bronx and Manhattan, a campus in Westchester, the Louis Calder Center Biological Field Station in Armonk, N.Y., and the London Centre at Heythrop College in the United Kingdom.

SOURCE Fordham University