Profiles

Donato Ancona currently serves as president of the West Suburban Chapter of UNICO National. He was elected to the post in July 2022, having previously served as treasurer and secretary. “If I had to choose one word, it would be ‘honored,’” Ancona says of his election to the presidency of the chapter. “To be nominated by the board to lead the organization along with them is special. I have been involved and I’ve helped out wherever I could from the first day I joined, and the board recognized that. I look forward to giving back to the organization and the …

Recently elected to the presidency of of the National Italian American Bar Association, Frank Sommario dedicated his career to shining a positive light on his heritage and his profession. Justice may be blind, but Chicago attorney Frank Sommario has a clear-eyed view of his duties as an American attorney of Italian descent. “I want to show that Italian Americans continue to contribute to the legal system in a positive way, despite the stereotypes that our community has endured over the decades,” he says. “It makes you work harder because you know you not only represent yourself, your firm and your …

The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans honored Vito Gargano at their general meeting on June 27. Gargano, 95, is the former president of the Italian American Federal Club, an organization comprising hundreds of federal employees of the United States Postal Service. Gargano’s career spans more than 40 years in the USPS. He started as a clerk/level 5 and rose to the highest level in the postal system, level 27, as district director of mail processing for Illinois. Along the way, he served as postmaster for Des Plaines, Illinois, and Racine, Wisconsin, as well as officer-in-charge at the post office …

On skis since she was barely walking, Marta Bassino has hurtled to the top of the sport, notching countless podium visits on the local, regional, national and international levels. After first stepping into skis when she wasn’t even 2 years old, Marta Bassino grew up whizzing down slopes in her native Northern Italy, perfectly at home on the snow. “It was always something very natural,” the 27-year-old says of her sport. “When you start so little, it becomes normal. It feels normal.” Over the years, her talent and hard work catapulted Bassino, a native of Borgo San Dalmazzo in the …

by Rosa Morici Rappa as told to Linda Grisolia An American citizen who died in a Soviet prison camp as a member of the Italian army during World War II, Vincenzo wrote a letter to his family that finally arrived more than 60 years later. My father, Vincenzo Morici, was the youngest of six children. He was born in New York City on March 14, 1918, to Diego and Rosa Lo Baido Morici. His father had emigrated to Chicago from Borgetto, a small town near Palermo, got settled, and then sent for his wife and five children. My father attended …

An award-winning anchor and reporter for WGN-TV, Dina Bair leads a fulfilling triple life as a cancer crusader and mom of four. As a little girl growing up in suburban Philadelphia, Dina Bair liked to pretend to be a journalist and narrate accident scenes for imagined TV cameras while riding in her mother’s car. Her role model was broadcast journalist Diane Sawyer, who inspired her to pursue a journalism degree at Northwestern University and forge an award-winning career at WGN-TV in Chicago. Bair is an anchor for WGN Midday News and the medical reporter for WGN Evening News, as well …

Initially enlisting for a four-year term, James Belmont is approaching 30 fulfilling years in the Navy, with 15 different jobs and four tours on aircraft carriers under his belt. James M. Belmont was born in Highland Park, Illinois, to James and Barbara Brain Belmont. He has one sister. Belmont was 15 years old when the family moved to Deerfield. In 1901, his great-grandfather, Luigi Belmonte, emigrated to Chicago’s Little Italy from Castrolibero, a small town in Calabria. He went home to marry his sweetheart in 1906, and when they returned to the Chicago area in 1913 and settled in Winnetka, …

kaymac60423@yahoo.com franoi.com/profiles/piccolin In 1926, 16-year-old Onorato Piccolin came to America from Falcade, province of Buluno, region of Veneto, Italy.  He arrived at Ellis Island, settling in the Kensington section of Chicago. A blacksmith in the old country, he eventually found work in Gary, Indiana, at the steel mills. Many of you share this same story. A father, a mother, coming to Chicago, perhaps knowing some relatives who were already here, perhaps not. Starting a life, a family.  Everyone worked hard and contributed in this family of two daughters, Mary Jane and Nella. Nella started in the hair business sweeping up …

A half century at any job is something to celebrate, but Sam Gullo is marking five decades as the barber at one of Chicago’s most iconic buildings, the Civic Opera House, home of the Lyric Opera. Gullo and his family arrived in Chicago from Caccamo, Sicily, in 1961. “I came here with my father and brother,” Gullo says from his shop on the 15th floor of the historic building. “My father worked in Chicago for two years, then returned to Sicily to bring us back. We first settled at Ohio and Leavitt streets.” Gullo learned his trade from his older …

NICK BUONICONTI JR. Undersized for a linebacker, he dominated the NFL gridiron for 14 seasons before making a name for himself in the fields of law, business, broadcasting and medicine. The hardest thing about profiling Nick Buoniconti Jr. is having enough space on the page. The man accomplished more in one lifetime than most talented people could accomplish in 10. Let’s start from the beginning. Nick was born on Dec. 5, 1940, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Nicholas Anthony Buoniconti Sr. and Pasqualina Mercolino, both of whom traced their roots to Naples. Nick Sr. married into a family that owned an …