Profiles

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 …

A political reporter by trade, Paul Salsini parlayed a fascination with one of America’s great musical minds into a long-running newsletter and now a book. Paul Salsini was a journalistic mainstay in Milwaukee for decades, serving as a reporter and editor for The Milwaukee Journal for 37 years and as the Wisconsin correspondent for The New York Times for 15. While his coverage gravitated toward government and politics, he nurtured a longtime fascination with one of the greatest musical writers of all time: Stephen Sondheim. Not satisfied with admiring the maestro’s work from afar, Salsini reached out to him in …

Originally trained by the Army as a typist, Patrick Mauro insisted on becoming a paratrooper and ended up guarding the border between West and East Germany during the Cold War. The fourth of six children, Patrick Mauro was born and raised in Blue Island, Illinois, to Peter and Caroline Jones Mauro. He grew up in a town that was mostly German and Italian. Mauro’s paternal grandfather emigrated from Carovilli, Italy, to Ladd, Illinois, his father’s birthplace. Mauro’s extended family lived in the Taylor Street Italian enclave, and they visited each other regularly. He remembers sharing delicious homemade meals at family …

Lifelong member Paul Faso has been elected president of Società Maria SS. di Costantinopoli. Joining him as officers are First Vice President Darrin Bosell, Second Vice President Frank Loconte, Recording Secretary Lucia Maffei, Secretary of Finance Sabina Bosell, Treasurer Vito D’Ambrosio and Sergeant-at-Arms Frank Faso. Faso officially became a member of the organization when he turned 16 in 1999, but he has been active in the society his entire life. “My parents and grandparents realized how crucial it was to get the younger generations involved early, so that’s what they did,” he explains. “Initially, there wasn’t a choice, but now …

Wheaton attorney Amanda Zannoni will ascend to the presidency of the Justinian Society of Lawyers, DuPage County Chapter, at an installation dinner on May 19 at The Cellar by Cooper’s Hawk Winery in Arlington Heights. Joining her as officers will be First Vice President Kira Albrecht, Second Vice President Maria “Gabby” Antoniolli, Secretary Lindsey Mirabelli, Comptroller Elizabeth Pope, and immediate past president and Scholarship Committee Chair Jessica Defino. Zannoni joined the chapter on the recommendation of a partner at the first law firm she worked at as an attorney. “The partner, now deceased, embodied the ideals of Justinians and Italian-American …

Mario Cervi is the quintessential hard-working Italian immigrant who carved out a life for himself in the Chicago area. He was born in Alvito, a small town outside of Rome. When he was just 5 years old, he lost his father, who went missing in action during World War II. He began working as a barber at age 15, making him the youngest barber in the region. Cervi immigrated to America with his mother in 1955, landing on a Saturday and beginning work at a barbershop in the Galewood neighborhood on the following Monday. Cervi’s maternal family sponsored them, and …

John F. Misasi passed away on Oct. 13, 2015. The quotes in this article come from an interview conducted and archived by the Melrose Park Library’s Veterans History Project and are used with the library’s permission. (mpplibrary.org/vhp) As a mechanic and driver during World War II, John Misasi helped keep the American tank assault rolling across Europe toward the Nazi capital. One of three children, John Misasi was born in Melrose Park to Francesco and Maria Nardi Misasi. Both parents emigrated from Calabria, his father from Paterno and his mother from Dipignano. Misasi grew up in Melrose Park with his …

A recreational water skier since grade school, Tina Grossi recently took home gold in ski slalom in the 55- to 59-year-old division of the amateur national championship. As the top seed in her age division for water ski slalom at the amateur national championships last year, Tina Grossi was the last one on the water, making her acutely aware of how well her competitors had performed. “Top seed can be both a blessing and a curse. It was a relief when the ski ride was over,” says the 57-year-old Californian, who aced her performance in the women’s 55- to 59-year-old …

A bishop in Italy during the first great wave of migration to the Americas, Giovanni Battista Scalabrini founded two religious orders and a lay society to tend to their spiritual and temporal needs. The year is 1881, and the setting is the Milan train station. A 41-year-old Italian bishop watches as 300-400 migrants — young and old, men, women and children, from different northern provinces — wait to board a train to Genoa. They will all soon be headed to America on a steamship voyage fraught with sickness and danger. The middle-aged prelate is overcome with sadness as he looks …