The Angel Fund: An Alumnus Gives Back

When Robert W. Fiondella '64 graduated from Providence College 45 years ago, tuition, room, and board, he recalled, totaled $1,800 a year. Today, an incoming student faces tuition and fees totaling more than $40,000 per year. The valedictorian of a small high school in Connecticut, Fiondella was awarded a four-year, $900 a year scholarship to PC. He was enrolled in the challenging Liberal Arts Honors curriculum but, as a political science major, recounted that he never quite felt like part of that program.

After graduation, Fiondella went on to law school, returning to Connecticut as an investment lawyer with the Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance Company in Hartford. With his background in business and computer technology, he soon became a valuable corporate asset.  Before he retired in 2003, Fiondella had become the CEO and chair of what he had helped to shape into The Phoenix, a leading provider of wealth management products and services. It would be some 43 years, however, before he resumed contact with PC. Today, Fiondella is repaying his debt to Providence College by helping today's needy students through The Angel Fund.

In his own words: Robert W. Fiondella '64

"The scholarship I received from PC was a meaningful award. I was a first-generation college student. My mother worked in a shop and my father was a machinist. But I wasn't happy when I left PC. I felt a bit alienated and burned out. I had to maintain a 3.0 GPA for my scholarship, so it was a very intense, pressure-filled four years.

"After graduation, I never did anything with or for Providence and it bothered me a bit. If you have been treated well, you need to repay at some point. What I got at Providence shaped me for life.
The logical thinking I learned at Providence was very helpful to my career. And the love of humanities caused me to manage in different ways than if I had gone to business school. At PC, I learned how to think and I also learned how to learn.

"Eventually, I was invited to a men’s basketball game with my grandson. I spoke to Father Shanley and asked him what major challenges the College faced. He told me that scholarship aid was down and that he was committed to not see one student leave PC because of lack of aid. As I talked to him, I began to empathize with what he was trying to accomplish. I was impressed most by his absolute commitment to make sure no students go without. If he's that committed, I thought, I can't sit on the sidelines and do nothing.

"I realized that there are a lot of students at Providence today who are in the same financial situation I was in. After seeing the movie, The Bucket List (in which two terminally ill men create a list of what they want to do before they die), I decided to create my own "bucket list." Giving back to Providence is on that list.

"I decided I should repay my scholarship, which now would be $6,000 a year, if you adjust for inflation. So, I have committed to donate $6,000 a year for the next four years and to persuade others like me to do the same thing - to spark in other alumni the desire to give back. This was an emotional and a moral decision. I would feel somewhat guilty if any students were forced to leave PC because I didn't step up and repay what was given to me.

 "Why is my class returning to Providence to celebrate a 45th reunion this year? It has to be that we are happy we graduated from Providence College and Providence needs our help now."