{"id":14557,"date":"2010-05-13T09:34:03","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T13:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=14557"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:41:09","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:41:09","slug":"gift-in-memory-of-wife-ensures-a-legacy-of-caring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/05\/gift-in-memory-of-wife-ensures-a-legacy-of-caring\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift in Memory of Wife Ensures a Legacy of Caring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Sal<\/a>
Sal Scalora, former director of the Benton Museum, and his late wife Mary. Photo supplied by the UConn Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a long career at UConn as a professor of fine arts and the director of the William Benton Museum of Art, Salvatore Scalora \u201971 has seen the power of philanthropy.<\/p>\n

Today, Scalora and his family personify it in their tribute to his late wife, Mary Scalora \u201980, \u201992, by creating and supporting a fund to help students following her footsteps in social work.<\/p>\n

Mary Scalora graduated from UConn in 1980 to become a teacher, but soon realized that the social problems her students experienced at home were negatively impacting their ability to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she looked around and thought, \u2018I can do more good for these kids in another way,\u2019\u201d Scalora says.<\/p>\n

Mary started a second career, graduating from the School of Social Work in 1992. She established a private counseling practice in the couple\u2019s home, specializing in issues relevant to women, adolescents, and families; and individuals living with life-threatening illnesses, and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proudest thing she had done was to get her social work degree,\u201d Scalora says. \u201cShe loved her life, she loved being part of a community, and always knew what she wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following Mary\u2019s death in 2007 after a long fight with cancer, Scalora\u2019s daughter-in-law, Kate \u201907, suggested that the family give back by establishing a fund devoted to supporting the next generation of social workers. The Mary Deane-Scalora Endowment Fund provides scholarship support for graduate students enrolled full-time in the master’s degree program at the UConn School of Social Work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Scalora<\/a>
Joshua and Kate Scalora. Photo supplied by the UConn Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe asked, \u2018What would Mary want?\u2019 and it was logical that she\u2019d want to help other students,\u201d Scalora says. \u201cIt was really the concept of \u2018doing the good,\u2019 and I can\u2019t think of anything better than helping to train students who dedicate their lives to helping others. It\u2019s leaving a legacy that is a perpetual health machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scalora has also remained active in the School of Social Work community, and recently was the featured speaker at the school\u2019s scholarship dinner, where he talked about Mary, the power of art, and the passion for helping others that sprung from his marriage. In addition to his daughter-in-law, who also practices social work, Scalora\u2019s son, Joshua, is in the human services field, and Scalora jokes that he hopes his young grandson will consider it as a career, in 18 years.<\/p>\n

He believes the passion in caring for others is not dissimilar to teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary and I were children of the 1960s and 1970s,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were always engaged and vocal in the political situation. Students today tend to not be as vocal, but they are just as dedicated to the world around them. I was very fortunate to have had a long career at the University and my great love was always interacting with students. You\u2019re seeing young lives developing and you witness seeds being planted that will only blossom much later in life. You can\u2019t get that any other way, and that\u2019s what we hope the gift will accomplish. It\u2019s a privilege to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information about supporting the School of Social Work, please contact the UConn Foundation\u2019s<\/em> <\/em>development department<\/a><\/em>.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Scalora family have established a fund to provide scholarship support to students in the master’s program at the School of Social Work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[53],"class_list":["post-14557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 06:21:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14557"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37291,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14557\/revisions\/37291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14557"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=14557"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}