NEW ROCHELLE, NY — A multi-generation alumni family, a banking executive, and a co-founder of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge will be honored by Iona College at the 2016 Trustee Scholarship Award Gala on Friday, April 15, at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan, the Board of Trustees recently announced.
“These outstanding alumni honorees personify Iona’s mission of community service, scholarship and life-long learning,” said Iona President Joseph E. Nyre, Ph.D. “They are a testament to Iona’s mission and the liberating power of education.”
The Catherine H. McCabe ’71MA and Hugh J. McCabe ’49 Family and Joseph J. DePaolo ’81 will each be presented with Iona’s Legacy Award. The award recognizes an individual’s lifetime accomplishments.
The McCabe family of alumni include parents Catherine (Cay) and Hugh McCabe, all seven of their children, their granddaughter and son-in-law. Catherine Henry McCabe was a wife, mother, professor, counselor, a longtime resident of New Rochelle and a 1947 graduate of the College of New Rochelle. Cay married Hugh McCabe in 1949 and later earned two master’s degrees, one in theology at Manhattan College and one in pastoral counseling at Iona College. Her career as a professor of Religious Studies at Iona would span more than 30 years and touch the lives of generations of Iona students.
The McCabe’s commitment and love of Iona did not stop with them. In addition to all of their children graduating from the College, their son David became an Iona Board Trustee. David J. McCabe ’80 is the senior partner in the Private Clients Group of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. Another son, Hugh J. McCabe ’71, ’75MBA, retired from Iona in 2015 after serving 15 years as a professor of Business Management.
Joseph J. DePaolo has been president and chief executive officer and a director of Signature Bank since its inception. He has also served as a director of Signature Securities Group and board chairman until December 2006. Prior to joining Signature Bank, DePaolo was a managing director and member of the Senior Management Committee of the Consumer Financial Services Division at Republic National Bank. DePaolo has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Heart Association of Westchester and a trustee of Manhattanville College. A 2002 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, DePaolo has received numerous awards on the local, state and national levels from the American Heart Association.
Iona will bestow The Blessed Edmund Rice Humanitarian Award to Patrick Quinn ’06, ALS advocate and co-founder of the Ice Bucket Challenge. The award recognizes those who by their activities and service to others have reinforced Iona’s identity as a College founded in the tradition of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and American Catholic higher education. Quinn will receive this award for his lifetime achievements and commitment to raising funds and awareness for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) research.
In March 2013, a month after his 30th birthday, Quinn was diagnosed with ALS. Soon after, he became an advocate with a mission of spreading awareness and raising funds for ALS research through his “Quinn for the Win” foundation. In July 2014, one of the biggest movements in fundraising history began: the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Quinn was instrumental in facilitating Ice Bucket Challenges throughout the United States and around the world. The 2014 Challenge raised over $220,000,000 globally.
Quinn continues to advocate for ALS through a variety of speaking engagements. He has received many accolades for his work including the ALS Association Living Hero Award, ALS Therapy Development Institute Stephen Hayward Patients Today Award, Distinguished Service Award from the City of Yonkers and the Dylan Smith Award from the American Ireland Fund for community service.
Quinn has been inducted as a member of the Iona College Rugby Hall of Fame, the Iona Preparatory Hall of Fame, and the Irish America Magazine Hall of Fame in Ireland. He also was nominated for TIME Magazine 2014 Person of the Year.
Past honorees represent a “who’s who” of prominent and successful leaders, including His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan ’14H, Francis Cardinal Spellman, New York Governor Malcolm Wilson, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department, and the 15 Iona alumni lost in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
Proceeds from the Scholarship Award Gala will support student scholarships. For more information and to reserve tickets, visit the scholarship gala site.