Vincent J. Rotondo (COM ’57) came from a family that knew hardship. His father died when he was five years old; his mother then worked as a seamstress, raising a family of ten on her own.

As a teenager, Vince contracted tuberculosis. Separated from his family, he was confined in a hospital ward for long-term treatment. While in the hospital, Vince was visited regularly by a volunteer nurse who, recognizing Vince’s talents, took an interest in his future. She persistently raised the possibility of his attending college, but Vince knew that his family needed him to find a job after his release.

Vince completed an application to NYU, just to appease the nurse. Shortly after his release from the hospital, he received notification of his acceptance at NYU—and the award of a full scholarship made it feasible for him to attend. Vince studied business and accounting at the School of Commerce, now NYU Stern. He recognized early on that the NYU scholarship had transformed his life and that of his family. After a long and varied career, he retired as an accounting executive at New York’s Montefiore Hospital.

Vince always harbored the desire to provide other students with the same opportunity that he received at NYU. He never felt comfortable giving away his assets during his lifetime—but through the NYU charitable gift annuity, Vince was able to make a number of contributions to the University. In return he received lifetime income, with the remaining assets to be used by the University to fund scholarship awards for deserving students.

The gift annuity became a comfortable giving arrangement; Vince described treating each gift to NYU’s future students as an investment for himself as well. And he found it so helpful and attractive that, upon his death in 2015, he left his entire estate to NYU to provide gift annuity income for his close friends and family members. The gift annuities pay income to the beneficiaries for their lives, and then the remaining funds will be used according to Vince’s direction to add to the permanent named endowed scholarships at the Stern School of Business and the Tisch School of the Arts.

Vince’s youth was difficult, but he parlayed a stranger’s kind advice into an NYU education, a successful career, and an opportunity to help others in the same way that he was helped.

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