Ursuline distinguished alumni honored

Staff report

youngstown

The 26th annual Dis- tinguished Alumni Awards were presented at the liturgy at the Feast of Saint Ursula Liturgy at Ursuline High School.

Each year, the award is given to graduates of Ursuline High School who have distinguished themselves by dedicated service to the school and community. This year’s recipients were Sister Mary Lee Nalley (’55) and John Vitullo (’71).

Sister Mary Lee was born on the East Side of Youngstown, a daughter of Joseph and Margaret Drummond Nalley. Her parents provided a Catholic education for their children, Patty Nalley Dempsey (’57), Peggy Nalley McDonough (’60), Patrick and Joseph (members of the Class of 1963).

Sister Mary Lee is a product of Immaculate Conception School. Upon graduating from Ursuline, she entered the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Youngstown State University. She also has a religious education certificate from the Diocese of Youngstown.

She taught at Immaculate Conception and St. Columba schools in Youngstown; St. Nicholas School in Struthers; and Our Lady of Lourdes in East Palestine. She serves as pastoral associate at St. Angela Merici Parish, the recently formed parish from Sacred Heart and Immaculate Conception.

For more than 40 years, Sister Mary Lee has ministered in a variety of capacities on the city’s East Side.

She has worked primarily with children from disadvantaged families. Her work included both classroom teaching in the consolidated parish school and in the Christian Education Program on weekends and after-school hours.

She has been an active participant in Project Panther, a drug-awareness program, and has received special commendation from the government director of this program for her contributions. She also has supervised the physical-education program for boys in grades five through eight at a local youth center.

She has directed fundraising projects in order to make Catholic education available for the children of families who cannot afford to pay the full education cost themselves. She contributes her expertise as an elementary teacher in the Via Education Program for adult high-school dropouts.

Sister Mary Lee is both a eucharistic minister and lector. She has been responsible for directing both groups and training altar servers. She serves part time at the Ursuline Educational Center in Canfield where, in the spirit of St. Angela Merici, she offers hospitality to the hundreds of area residents who use the facility for spiritual, social and theological development.

She said one of her greatest joys is distributing communion on a regular basis to those who are home bound, hospitalized or in nursing-care facilities.

Vitullo, the son of John and Florence Saadey Vitullo, is a graduate of St. Christine School. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from YSU. In 1984, he received his Ph.D. in regulatory biology from Cleveland State University in a joint program with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Vitullo completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic, where he received the William Lower Award for basic research in 1989.

He has had research positions at the VA Medical Center in Wade Park as well as at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

In 1998, Vitullo returned to Youngstown and taught for one year in the Ursuline Science Department. The following year, he co-founded Omega Laboratories in Mogadore, Ohio. It is one of only six hair drug-testing laboratories in the world, where he serves as chairman of the board of trustees. He is active in the community and regularly speaks to high-school students about the dangers of drug abuse.

Vitullo has co-authored nearly 25 scientific papers and abstracts. In 2013, he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Science and Health Professions at Cleveland State University.

Vitullo and his five siblings are all Ursuline graduates, Joyce Vitullo Santisi (’73), James Vitullo (’74), JoAnn Vitullo Rohan (’76), Joseph Vitullo (‘80) and Jacqueline Vitullo (’81). Although he lives in Cleveland, Vitullo still has close ties to Youngstown and visits often. He is a member of St. Maron’s Church.

Past award recipients include Bishop James W. Malone, Atty. John A. McNally III, Mary Irene Hoffman, Joseph Nohra, Sister Jerome Corcoran, William G. Lyden Jr., Mary Ellen Cushwa Wolsonovich, Monsignor Kenneth Miller, Alex Simon, Paulette Petrosky, Sara McClurkin Kennedy, Thomas J. Carney, Joy DiLoreto Brunner, Daniel E. Gallagher, Shirley LaCivita Phillips, Donald E. Foley, Sister Judy Rochford Wexler, Daniel P. O’Horo, John J. Ridel, Mary Kay Buckley D’Isa, Richard Barrett, Sister Alice Marie Morley OSU, Monsignor John P. Ashton, Cynthia Ryan Reardon, Jim Beil, Sister Nancy Dawson OSU, Pat Storey Kane, Thomas Stabi, Marilou LaCivita Stroney, Thomas Shipka, Helen Lamb Lafferty, Father Frank Lehnerd, Sister Virginia McDermott OSU, M. Richard Varley, Jeanne McLaughlin Foley, Atty. Vincent E. Gilmartin, Maureen Collins, Father Tim O’Neill, Dorothy Ferrell Durina, Thomas P. Metzinger, Mary Moran Krygowski, George Banks, Margene Flannery Chambers, Monsignor John Zuraw, Kathleen Cunningham Conlan, Dr. Edward Novosel, Dr. Janet E. Del Bene, Scott R. Schulick, Suzanne Morrison Fleming, Bruce Joseph, Aimee Amendolara Morrison and Tom Murray.