The Marinatto Family Scholarship Fund

John and Edith Marinatto raised their family in an apartment on Federal Hill facing Holy Ghost Church. “My mother could hear its bells and see the altar from her window and feel close to God,” says Edith’s son Peter Marinatto.

In 2016, Peter’s older brother John M. Marinatto (1957 - 2021) created the Marinatto Family Scholarship Fund with the Catholic Foundation of Rhode Island to honor the values instilled in their family by their parents. Each year in perpetuity, this permanent endowment fund will award a scholarship to at least one college-bound student athlete with financial need at every Catholic high school within the Diocese of Providence.

This fund will benefit generations of young people in the Diocese, home to John’s family and lifelong career. Rooted in Federal Hill, John’s cherished community grew to include his alma mater, Providence College.

John created the fund three decades after he graduated from the former Our Lady of Providence Preparatory High School. He named eight of its faculty and staff, including the basketball coach and athletic director, in his fund document. He wrote that their “hard, selfless work and determination” inspired his desire to help others gain “a value-centered Catholic education.”

In 1975, during his first year at PC, John became manager of the men’s basketball team. His mother often washed the team’s uniforms and while they were drying on the clothesline, recalls Peter, “Players would join us for a supper of pasta, beef braciole or eggplant parmigiana.”

John graduated from PC in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in business management and eight years later became the college’s youngest vice president/director of athletics. Administering a 21-sport department for 14 years, he impacted the lives and careers of countless student athletes, coaches and administrators during and after their days at PC. His leadership extended to the Big East Conference, for which he was the longest-serving chair of its Athletic Directors’ Executive Committee and from 2009 to 2012, its commissioner.

The magnitude of John’s career was no surprise to Peter, who deeply admired his brother. “When we were kids, he fixed up the basement and attic of our summer home, turning them into finished rooms,” says Peter. “I could see then that he was ambitious and always eager to make something better than what it was.

“And even at a very young age, John’s Catholic faith was important to him. At Holy Ghost Church, he was an altar boy and at Sunday dinner, John led us in saying grace. Back then, he thought he had a vocation; but gradually he found other ways to serve others. Instead of being a priest, he led a priestly life.”

John turned his enthusiasm for sports into a fulfilling career. “He saw team sports as a foundation for so many good things,” says Peter. “With his enormous talents, he found ways to make a big contribution.

“John’s work was his passion. He was a humble person who lived for others. He wanted to spread his impact and serve as many people as he could. Through this scholarship, he will benefit the community dear to his heart for generations to come. A big heart came natural to John. He was rooted in Providence.”