Sculpture Honors Parents for Sacrifices Leading to Transformative Education

Tom Bonadio’s mom, Rose, was born in Sicily, Italy, where she lived until she was two years old. Her parents decided to move to the United States and settle in Pennsylvania where her father worked in coal mines. Eventually, they moved to Rochester to find jobs in sewing factories. Bonadio's father, Frank, was raised in Rochester and his family owned Bonadio’s Grocery. He never graduated high school and served in WWII where he became a mechanic and learned how to fix planes.

His big Italian family all had a small business of some sort - a grocery store, bakery, mechanic shop - creating the beginning of Bonadio’s entrepreneurial spirit. “They all worked for themselves, and that was always something I kept in the back of my mind.”  A member of Fisher's Class of 1971, Bonadio was born and raised in Rochester, originally in an Italian neighborhood in the inner city before moving to East Irondequoit. He and his sister, both of whom still live in Rochester, were raised on Bay Street in a house with a backyard that was also home to his father’s mechanic business. 

Bonadio said his family didn’t have very much, but he doesn’t remember thinking they were missing much, either. He recalled his parents’ faith, noting that they were very religious. “I always thought my dad made a deal with God - that if he got out of the war, he would go to church every week,” he joked. And that, they did.

He describes his father as having a “heavy work ethic;” he worked six days a week, and worked multiple jobs if he needed to. “My parents had always taught me about hard work as well as having a strong work ethic, honesty, integrity. My father was a garage mechanic that told you the truth and would never tell a lie, I’m not sure he knew how to” he laughed.

He said while his parents were not educated, they were very wise and understood life better than most educated people. They kept family and friends close, that was the most important to them. “Their upbringing was hard and they learned how to appreciate the good things in life. They were really a great couple together,” he said.  

In his time at East Ridge High School, Bonadio was a self-described mediocre student who tested high in math, and his counselor told him about accounting assuring him that he would have a good job in the end. He found Fisher and said he chose it for its affordability. And while he didn’t attend Catholic school growing up, he liked the discipline of a Catholic school, which was another factor in his decision. He enrolled in accounting at Fisher, and the rest is “calculated” history.

“Fisher was a good option for me. I kept my job working 20-30 hours a week, and lived at home so I didn’t have to pay for food and housing,” he said. “I was not a great student in high school, Fisher turned me into a good student. I developed an enthusiasm to learn, and I met some of the best friends I still have - 60 years later.”

He liked accounting off the bat, and recalls “great professors” including the legendary Charlie Wolfe and Bob Duplessis, both of whom were also practicing accountants. Bonadio credits them for his love of accounting, but said he learned about hard work from his parents.

He was the first in his family to go to college and the first one to graduate. He recalls that at the time, you graduated high school and went to work or got drafted to Vietnam. His experience, thanks to his parents, was different.

“For my parents, going to college was never a discussion. But they figured if they could get their children through college, they would have more opportunities, and they did everything they could to encourage me. They were not pushy, but very supportive. They wanted us to have the chances they never had,” he said.

After his graduation from Fisher, he went right to work for Arthur Andersen LLP, one of the big 8 accounting firms at the time. That work, and his early taste of entrepreneurship, led Bonadio to start his own firm in 1978. This year marks The Bonadio Group’s 47th year in business. Headquartered in Rochester, it now has office locations in Delaware, Florida, Vermont, Virginia, Texas, and across New York State, and employs 1,100, dozens of whom are Fisher alumni. Two of his most loyal employees throughout those 47 years? His parents, Rose and Frank.

“They both worked in my business at one time. My mother was our first employee. She was working as an administrative assistant at a law firm at the time, and I left with another colleague to start the firm. She said, ‘Who is going to type your letters and answer your phone?’ We never paid her. She just gave up her time until we could afford it. My father retired from being a garage mechanic and sold his business and became the firm’s delivery man,” he said.

Bonadio began giving back to Fisher through his time and talent, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees during President William Pickett and President Katherine Keough’s tenures. When comparing Fisher then and now, he sees differences but similarities rooted in the culture.

“I think the culture is similar, the values system is similar. The school is totally different, day and night. When I was there, it was a small Catholic school. Today I see it as a very relevant school, one that has always been true to its values, and provides an education that can be turned into a career,” he said. “Fisher has not only survived, but it is thriving. It has a wonderful reputation not just in New York state, but beyond.”

His success has led to his desire to give back to Fisher. He and his wife, Heather, have done so before. In addition to serving on the Board of Trustees, the Bonadios have contributed to Fisher to name The Bonadio Group Lobby in the Victor E. Salerno Center for American Enterprise, the Thomas and Heather Bonadio Atrium in the Donald E. Bain Campus Center, and the Bonadio Group Scholarship that their company spearheaded for students pursuing an MBA in accounting. But, they wanted to do more, and this time, in honor of Bonadio’s parents and of all parents whose sacrifices ensured a college education for their children.

“My parents were my mentors, and sacrificed so much for us to get a college education. Since my time in college, I have always thought parents didn’t get enough recognition for that sacrifice. It’s always about the students and congratulating them, rightly so; but if you look in the background and see parents who have sacrificed for years for their kids to get through school, that is what this statue is about - recognizing the sacrifice so many parents make,” he said.

Fisher had worked with renowned Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz before on two sculptures on campus today – the St. Basil sculpture that sits in the Napier Family Plaza in front of the Hermance Family Chapel of St. Basil the Great and the statue of alumna Thomas Urban Way, who is the only known alumna killed in Vietnam, near Founders Hall. He was also commissioned by Fr. George Smith, the William and Helen Cavanaugh Endowed Chair of Catholic Studies and campus chaplain, to create a sculpture of a Resurrected Jesus for the Basilian Retirement home in Toronto. Smith notes that Schmalz was also “greatly appreciated” by Pope Francis, who commissioned him to create a sculpture of Jesus as a homeless man lying on a park bench that sits in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican today. And according to Bonadio, after a conversation with he and Heather, Schmalz “got it right away.” Then, the work began and the Bonadios say that he captured their vision.

Titled, “Parents’ Sacrifice,” the bronze sculpture sits adjacent to the newly renovated Lavery Library in the center of the LeChase Commons, in a beautifully landscaped spot that looks as though it has always been on campus. It features a round walkway with a view of the side featuring two parents, whose foreheads are touching and who are imagined to be realizing that they are going to have children and trying to figure out how they will get their child through school. They appear worried, and are surrounded by chests with travel stamps on them from various countries, confirming that the couple is traveling to the United States to find opportunity. They are dressed in clothing that would have been worn by factory workers, and their faces keep a pensive look, wondering about the sacrifices they will make for their children.

As one walks around to the other side of the sculpture, bookshelves appear attached to a desk with seating. On each shelf is an artifact or a nod to Rochester, Fisher, or the University’s Basilian heritage. The piece includes a St. John Fisher statue next to book spines reading “Goodness, Discipline, and Knowledge,” Kodak camera, a basket with the Wegmans logo, a framed photo of his parents, framed photos of Rochester heroes Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and a Buffalo Bills helmet in honor of Fisher’s longtime partnership with the NFL team. Smith was also consulted as part of the project and asked for book titles that would be in a library of a college founded by Basilian Fathers. He recommended several, and the books that appear as part of the piece include, “On the Holy Spirit,” “Summa Theologica,” “The Degrees of Knowledge,” and of course, the Holy Bible. The shelves also feature book titles including “The Italian Kid Did It,” “The Erie Canal,” “Rochester on the Genesee: The Growth of a City,” and a story about the University’s growth published on the 75th anniversary, “Fisher Then and Now.” At the top of the sculpture, through the opening, the Kearney spire is in perfect view; a symbol of the transformative education the child received thanks to the sacrifices of their parents.

The sculpture was installed on campus just ahead of the start of the academic year, and officially dedicated during a ceremony with the Bonadios, joined by their family and friends, on Thursday, Oct. 16.

“Our hope is that students, faculty, staff, and visitors will interact with it, walk around it, sit and take it in. We wanted it to be interactive, and not just a statue. The true meaning of it is to honor your parents. Appreciate them for what they do for you. If students walk away thinking, ‘I need to honor my parents more’ or ‘respect what they have done for me,’ that is the message,” Bonadio said.

When asked what motivates him to give back to Fisher as a philanthropist, Bonadio’s answer is simple: “It changed my life.”

Part of the Bonadios’ legacy gift will also fund a scholarship to help parents like his fund a college education for their child. “Heather and I thought about other things we could do, and may do, but when we’re gone, Fisher was one of the places we wanted to help, and wanted to help students like I was and families like I had, those who may not have the means to do it on their own.”

Their hope is that Fisher will do what it did for Bonadio.

“Fisher creates opportunities. Schools like Fisher, if you go there and study and do well, you will have more opportunities in life than if you don’t. It’s a place that can take hard work and give you an opportunity to have a better life. That is what Fisher did for me,” he said.