Gift from Tom Arlotto will create endowed professorship
Tom Arlotto grew up in a Jersey City neighborhood that was vibrantly Italian, from the mouthwatering pastry at Monteleone’s Bakery to the beautifully expressive Italian masses at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church.
Tom Arlotto“I’ve always felt lucky to have an Italian background,” says Arlotto, a 1960 graduate of Rutgers College. “It was a very warm, wonderful, and welcoming culture, and I would love to see it preserved."
Toward that end, Arlotto, a retired public school teacher, recently announced a planned gift that will support Italian studies in the School of Arts and Sciences. The Arlotto Family Endowed Professorship of Italian Literature, Culture, and Languages will benefit the Department of Italian and help Rutgers University-New Brunswick remain a wellspring of Italian studies in New Jersey and beyond.
“This is huge for us,” says Alessandro Vettori, chair of the Department of Italian in SAS. “We’re deeply grateful to Tom for his vision and passion for Italian studies at Rutgers.”
Renowned for its breadth and depth, the Italian department provides language instruction at all levels along with a rich array of courses covering the full scope of Italian civilization, everything from “Sex, Death, and Damnation: Introduction to Italian Opera” to "Dante and Medieval Culture" to “Classics of Italian Cinema” to “Doing Business in Italy: Food, Wine, Fashion and Beyond.”
The department’s popular “Italian Food Culture” is a Rutgers staple that enrolls more than 100 students every year and explores the role that food plays in Italian society and culture.
Alessandro Vettori“Italian in New Jersey is very important,” Vettori said. “There are lots of Italians and Italian Americans and we are very proud of what we do for the university and for the state.”
Arlotto felt right at home at the department’s annual alumni dinner last spring, where he was honored by SAS Executive Dean Juli Wade. He was impressed by the gathering of faculty, staff, alums and students, all united by a love of Italian studies.
Arlotto’s own Italian roots run deep. He was the eighth of nine children born to Thomas and Mary Arlotto, who met at a Sons of Italy event in New York City, 1916. The parents raised their children in the Marion section of Jersey City, emphasizing values that included: A love and respect for their Italian heritage and an unwavering belief in the power of education.
Arlotto said his father, a plumber who lacked a high school education, would often declare that he’d go without a roof over his head but that his children were going to college. Nearly all the Arlotto children attended college. Arlotto’s late sister, Dolores Gavin, was a chemistry professor at Douglass College.
Arlotto majored in economics at Rutgers and went on to earn two graduate degrees, an MBA from Seton Hall University and a master’s in education from the College of New Jersey. After a stint working in the corporate world, Arlotto realized his true calling was teaching. He taught mathematics for 30 years in the Franklin Township school district and was named New Jersey Teacher of the Year in 1990.
Today, as the only living sibling, Arlotto feels a particular sense of urgency to celebrate and preserve his heritage.
He noted that the endowed professorship is named for his entire family.
“This gift is in honor of my mother and father, who sacrificed so much to get us into college, and for my brothers and sisters, who were models for me,” he said. “That is why I didn’t name it after myself.”