Alumna Leaves $2.1 Million Gift to Speech-Language Pathology
A monumental gift from a behind-the-scenes alumna who received a degree in exceptional education and speech pathology from Buffalo State College in the 1950s will serve students in the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Department for years to come.
Marie J. (Gagnon) Marillo, ’56, left a $2.1 million endowment to the department, intended to be used to “support speech therapy education,” according to Susan Felsenfeld, associate professor and chair of the department.
“The amount was pretty shocking,” Felsenfeld said. “For our discipline, and probably for almost any department, it’s very unusual to get a gift that large.”
The endowment will allow the department to spend $75,000 annually for at least the next decade.
Marillo had not maintained much contact with her alma mater before this, and not much was known about her. She was born in North Tonawanda, New York, where she attended local schools. After marrying Chris A. Marillo, she moved to East Detroit, Michigan, where she initiated a speech pathology program and worked for two years. Upon the couple’s return to Buffalo, she worked in the Kenmore schools and then moved to the Sweet Home District, from which she retired in 1988. She worked as a speech-language pathologist for more than 40 years in total. She enjoyed traveling, especially to Europe and China.
She bestowed the gift to the college when she died in 2010, to be disbursed upon the death of her husband. He died last year, Felsenfeld said.
“We are extremely grateful to Marie Gagnon Marillo,” said Buffalo State President Katherine Conway-Turner. “This is a transformative gift that will have a profound impact on our students and on our entire community that relies on vital services at the Buffalo State Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.”
“Mrs. Marillo’s legacy lives on through this gift,” added James Finnerty, vice president for institutional advancement. “It’s clear that she was passionate about her career, and she is now ensuring that current and future Buffalo State students will be well prepared to follow in her footsteps as speech-language pathologists.”
The money will allow the department to do many things, Felsenfeld said. First and foremost, it will give SLP students the opportunity to learn in cutting-edge facilities, with the tools to pursue high-level training. That includes creating state-of-the-art teaching and clinical labs.
The gift will also enable the department to increase the diversity of the population that SLP students serve, augmenting the services of the Buffalo State Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. The clinic provides services for individuals of all ages who present with many types of communication disorders, including articulation and phonological disorders; language impairments; aphasia; voice, hearing, and fluency disorders; and traumatic brain injury. Clinic services are provided by graduate students under the direct supervision of clinical faculty who are licensed by New York State and who hold the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
The gift will also provide opportunities for students to receive more specialized trainings and attend more conferences, as well as to bolster recruitment efforts, including a new stipend—the Marillo First-Year Fellowship—for first-year graduate students.
“What [Marillo] decided to do, really, will have such an impact on so many,” Felsenfeld said. “I think she wanted future students to have the type of training and the benefit of training that she received, because she loved her career.”
