BARBARA D'IORIO MARTINO '60
“For over 40 years, since her graduation from CHC, Barbara D’Iorio Martino has exemplified all that is desirable in a Chestnut Hill alumna. Competent in her profession as a chemist, faithful to Rocky in marriage, and successful in raising four wonderful sons, Barbara exemplifies the valiant woman. Moreover, Barbara’s love for the College and her hard work for its growth make her an outstanding candidate for this prestigious award.”
So wrote Sister Margaret Fleming, SSJ, in her enthusiastic endorsement of Barbara D’Iorio Martino, Class of 1960, this year’s recipient of the Eleanore Dolan Egan ’28 Award for Outstanding Service to Chestnut Hill College.
From the early sixties, Barbara stayed close to Chestnut Hill by becoming an active volunteer. She joined the DelMo Club (the Delaware and Montgomery Counties alumnae chapter) and “no task within that club was too small or too large for her,” according to her classmate Eileen Long Hessman. Eileen went on to say that Barbara “would sell chances, arrange flowers, set up tables for the fashion shows and dinner dances. She would get patrons. Barbara participated, contributed, and led at most DelMo functions for over twenty years.” Barbara held various officer positions in the club during the seventies and was elected president in 1978 while holding the offices of class president and class fund agent as well.
In the late seventies and early eighties, Barbara served as a member of the Alumnae Association’s Board of Directors. She served in several officer positions before being elected president in 1982. During her term, from 1982-1984, she inaugurated the annual fund-raising raffle and its festive party event and twenty years later, she is still selling raffle tickets! Barbara also launched local clubs in New York and Washington, D.C., and did extensive traveling on behalf of the Alumnae Association to spread the good news about Chestnut Hill far beyond the Philadelphia area.
Barbara’s term as president may have ended in 1984, but her untiring work for the College through the Alumnae Association continued unabated. She served on the Board as a Director-at-Large and worked on several committees, hosted alumnae events at her home, welcomed alums to her shore house for the summer party, and continued to provide active support of the College and Alumnae Association events and activities.
In a letter in support of Barbara’s nomination, Mary Merz Berko ’52 detailed the many reasons Barbara should earn the award but went on to say, “I have mentioned only the highlights of Barbara’s involvement with CHC. What needs to be underscored are her determination, perseverance, and meticulous attention to detail which has assured success in each of these ventures. Many sit on committees. Few contribute what Barbara always does.”
Barbara’s work for her alma mater continued at another level when she was asked to join the College’s Board of Directors in 1988, a position that she has held with various terms over the past 16 years. During this time, she chaired the College’s first Capital Campaign and, under her skillful leadership, its goal was surpassed when an impressive $5.5 million was raised for Chestnut Hill College. Of this effort, Sister Matthew Anita MacDonald ’60 wrote, “Barbara’s tremendous commitment of time and talent enabled the College to approach the last decade of the century financially secure, technologically advanced, and scientifically upgraded. More important than merely serving as Chair for the campaign, she touched the future by enabling the College to consider an even larger campaign in the new century.”
The dawn of the new century did, indeed, find the College actively seeking donations for a Capital Gifts Initiative to construct a new building with a spectacular multi-purpose arena, technologically “smart” classrooms, video production facilities, seminar rooms, and more. Barbara was in the lead in bringing new friends to support the College as well as working tirelessly with her alumnae sisters to contribute to this daunting challenge of raising over eleven million dollars. In Barbara’s honor, her husband Rocky donated $2.5 million to put the campaign over the top and the College was proud to name the new building for her. The first building to be constructed in forty years and the first to be named for an alumna, Barbara D’Iorio Martino Hall was dedicated on October 8, 2000.
Although Chestnut Hill College has always been her premier interest and the one to which she has given most of her efforts and financial support, Barbara has also been very actively involved in the fund-raising activities of St. Joseph’s Prep and her high school alma mater, Little Flower. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has often called on Barbara and her husband for philanthropic leadership to aid the local Church as well as the Vatican. For her lifetime of dedication and generosity to many Catholic and civic causes, Barbara was awarded the Chestnut Hill College Alumnae/i Association Distinguished Achievement Award in 2001. In addition to the recognition Barbara has received from many organizations for her good works and generosity, especially to Catholic education, she was a granted an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, and another from her alma mater in May, 1995.
Today Barbara still continues to be an active member, participant, and leader of the Chestnut Hill College Alumnae/i Association, serving in any capacity to support her alma mater. Perhaps Marianne Sewell ’61 summed it up best when she nominated Barbara for this award by writing, “I don’t know of anyone who has done more for CHC than Barbara. I think of her as ‘Miss CHC Alumnae’.”
The Alumnae/i Association concurs and proudly honors Barbara D’Iorio Martino ’60 with the Eleanore Dolan Egan ’28 Award for Outstanding Service to Chestnut Hill College.
