Primo and Sue Toccafondi
Rolando and Barbara Toccafondi
Indiana University of Pennsylvania graduates Primo and P. Suzanne (Sue) Kurtz Toccafondi and IUP graduate Rolando Toccafondi and his wife, Barbara Micks Toccafondi, have made a donation to IUP to establish a scholarship for full-time students pursuing an education degree or teaching certificate.
The gift creates the Toccafondi-Kurtz Scholarship, which is available for full-time students who are sophomores, juniors, or seniors. Primo and Rolando Toccafondi are brothers; Primo, Rolando, and Sue Toccafondi are all first-generation college graduates.
Primo and Rolando Toccafondi are originally from Creekside. Primo Toccafondi is a 1962 mathematics education graduate of IUP; Sue Kurtz Toccafondi, originally from Ligonier, is a 1963 speech pathology graduate of IUP. Primo and Sue Toccafondi both retired after 30 years in the education field and now make their home in Milton, Delaware.
Rolando Toccafondi is a 1965 education graduate of IUP; Barbara Toccafondi, originally of DuBois, is a graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville. Rolando and Barbara Toccafondi, who now live in Delaware, also retired after long careers in education.
“By providing this opportunity to future IUP education majors, the Toccafondi family continues to serve as role models for our teacher candidates,” IUP Interim Dean of the College of Education and Human Services Edel Reilly said. “Through their generosity, our students will not experience the financial burden often linked to attending college, and this will give our students the ability to focus their time on becoming strong educators. We are extremely grateful to the Toccafondi family for this gift.”
“Near the end of my high school senior year, I was awarded a tuition-only scholarship in the amount of $1,250 that, at the time, paid for my tuition for the entire four years at IUP,” Primo Toccafondi said. “That scholarship allowed me to pursue my professional career in education. It is an honor for us to join my brother and his wife in establishing the Toccafondi-Kurtz Scholarship for IUP students who are accepting the challenge to teach tomorrow’s youth,” he said.
“Our parents were determined that a lack of finances was not going to prevent us from getting an education,” he said. “My father was a coal miner and was almost killed in a mining accident, so our family had significant financial struggles due to our father’s mining injury and inability to work for a while. I thought my only options were to go to work in the mines or go into the military, so receiving a scholarship to pay for tuition for four years was life-changing,” Primo Toccafondi said.
“Our parents always talked about their children going on to college, and always encouraged us to get good grades,” Rolando Toccafondi said. “I worked summers and after school and on weekends to help pay for tuition to go to college. We were able to commute, which assisted in making it affordable to go to college. Our father did not want us to end up in the mines,” Rolando Toccafondi said.
“Fortunately, I attended IUP while tuition was quite affordable, and in my junior year, I received a monetary award from one of the IUP scholarship programs, which helped with college expenses,” Rolando Toccafondi said.
Both Primo and Rolando Toccafondi were commissioned as second lieutenants in the Army upon their IUP graduation; Primo Toccafondi served in the United States for three years, and Rolando Toccafondi served 20 months in Korea.
Sue Toccafondi started in Westmoreland County as a speech therapist. After Primo Toccafondi returned from the military and they were married, the couple moved to Delaware, and she had her first job in Delaware at the John Leech School for Special Needs.
Primo Toccafondi had his first job in education in the Newark, Delaware, School District. After starting out in Delaware, Primo and Sue Toccafondi came back to the Johnstown area to be closer to family when he was offered a position as the assistant superintendent at the Westmont Hilltop School District and then as an interim elementary principal. After five years in Johnstown, the couple returned to Delaware, where Sue Toccafondi completed her master’s degree in early childhood and family studies and Primo Toccafondi completed his master’s degree at the University of Maryland and his doctorate in education leadership from Nova University.
Primo Toccafondi’s career included serving as a teacher or administrator at every educational level: elementary, middle, and high school. He held positions at Christiana Junior High School and Newark High School, both in Newark, Delaware; as a federal project coordinator for the Newark School District; as curriculum supervisor in the newly organized New Castle County Delaware School District; as superintendent of Indian River Delaware School District; and as deputy state superintendent for curriculum and instruction with the Delaware State Department of Education.
Primo Toccafondi then moved on to higher education and was named assistant professor and coordinator of the master’s and doctoral degree programs in educational leadership at the University of Delaware.
During this same period, Sue Toccafondi continued to work in early childhood programs in southern Delaware school districts.
After his service in Korea, Rolando Toccafondi continued his military service through the US Army Reserves in various staff and command positions, retiring as a colonel while teaching, serving as a student teacher coordinator with the University of Delaware, and then finally retiring as an elementary principal in 2008. Barbara Toccafondi retired from teaching French at the University of Delaware in 2005.
“Barbara and I always felt a need to support our alma maters, and I have been proud to support the IUP marching band and the IUP ROTC program, as well as the education program,” Rolando Toccafondi said.
“The IUP marching band was my greatest experience on campus.”