Lariccias to receive YSU award

The university has been the single largest recipient of the couple’s generosity.

YOUNGSTOWN — Tony and Mary Lariccia, philanthropic leaders in the Mahoning Valley, will receive Youngstown State University’s Friends of the University Award Thursday at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education Center at Fellows Riverside Gardens.

The award was started in 1997 to recognize YSU alumni, friends and donors who have had a significant impact on YSU. The dinner begins at 7:30 p.m.

The Lariccias have given more than $5 million to YSU, and their $4 million contribution to YSU’s Centennial Capital Campaign is the largest gift by a private donor in the university’s 100–year history. They also have supported the YSU Andrews Student Wellness and Recreation Center; statues honoring legendary YSU coach Dom Roselli and the university’s first president, Howard Jones; the Penguin Parade arts project; nursing labs; and intercollegiate athletics.

YSU isn’t the only recipient of their generosity. In all, the Lariccias have donated more than $11 million to various causes in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, including the YMCA, Goodwill Industries, Angels for Animals, St. Charles Church, New Hope Academy and Struthers, Chaney and Boardman schools.

Lariccia graduated from Struthers High School in 1963 and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from YSU in 1966. He worked at U.S. Steel Corp. as an accounting clerk from 1966 to 1969 and began his career at Merrill Lynch, where he is now vice president, in 1970. He has become one of the company’s most successful securities brokers.

He and Mary, a 1968 graduate of Chaney High School, married in 1974. They have two daughters, Natalie and Dana.