The Boston Globe
Anthony and Louis Maglione of Malden beloved public tv. Their posthumous donation is GBH’s largest unrestricted reward ever.
Anthony and Louis Maglione had been inseparable, and the brothers shared three passions: rooting for the Pink Sox, investing in shares, and watching their favourite reveals on WGBH.
The Sox thrilled them, however extra ceaselessly, I’m guessing, broke their hearts. They made a small fortune shopping for blue-chip shares. And now that they’ve died and their monetary affairs are settled, all their financial savings — $6 million between them — are going to the Boston public media outlet now often known as GBH.
GBH mentioned on Wednesday that the brothers, working-class guys from Malden who lived their entire lives within the three-family home the place they grew up, are liable for the group’s largest unrestricted reward ever.
That’s a ton of tote baggage.
“They beloved the straightforward issues in life,” mentioned Linda Giallongo, who grew to become associates with the brothers by way of their mother and father, Rocco and Rita. “Being at residence, a very good meal, their associates. They had been all the time collectively. They had been finest associates.”
And so they had been lifelong GBH viewers who particularly preferred documentaries, together with these featured on “American Expertise.”
Louis, the youthful of the 2, died first in November 2019 at 67. He left every part to Anthony, who died in March 2021 at age 70. The brothers by no means married or had kids. Anthony, having mentioned the plan with Louis, bequeathed their financial savings to GBH, together with $1.5 million from Louis.
Louis was a voracious reader who volunteered as a self-taught historian on the Malden Public Library.
“He all the time a carried a dictionary in case he didn’t know a phrase,” Giallongo recalled.
After graduating from Boston’s Don Bosco Excessive Faculty, the place he was a observe star, Louis went into the US Air Drive through the Vietnam Conflict, serving stateside and rising to the rank of second lieutenant. He went to Lowell State School and later joined the Veterans Administration in Jamaica Plain, the place he labored till his retirement.
Anthony was the DIY investor who shared his recommendation freely and whose enthusiasm for stock-picking rubbed off on his brother.
“He purchased conservative, dividend-paying shares like Gillette, Common Mills, and the phone firm,” mentioned John McLaughlin, a accomplice at regulation agency Berluti McLaughlin & Kutchin, who dealt with Anthony’s property. “He didn’t purchase any high-flying shares.”
In that regard, Anthony differed from Edward Avedisian, one other native novice investor who scored huge and donated $100 million to his alma mater, Boston College, shortly earlier than his demise final 12 months. Avedisian, a retired clarinetist with the Boston Pops, supercharged his income with dangerous methods comparable to betting on inventory choices and utilizing borrowed cash to extend his holdings.
Anthony Maglione, a 1968 graduate of Malden Excessive Faculty, labored at Gillette in North Andover for 25 years. Like his brother, he was a frequent fan at Fenway Park, and his information of the Olde Towne Workforce was encyclopedic, mentioned Giallongo, the household pal.
At GBH, Anthony’s resolution to donate nearly every part he and his brother had saved — just a few small bequeaths went to others — got here out of the blue.
“We had been greatly surprised by the generosity of those two males,” mentioned Susan Goldberg, chief government of GBH. “That they had been pledge donors. We’re honored by the belief positioned in us.”
Goldberg mentioned GBH will steer the unrestricted reward to bolster its efforts in three areas: group outreach, together with occasions and programming at its studio on the Boston Public Library’s most important department; content material distribution; and GBH Information’ push into digital platforms comparable to YouTube.
The biggest restricted reward in GBH historical past was $16 million from the Mellon Basis to help the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a collaboration with the Library of Congress.
The Maglione brothers beloved life and lived it modestly, at the same time as their wealth grew. Considered one of their favourite occasions was Eddie Andelman’s Annual Sizzling Canine Safari, a fund-raiser for cystic fibrosis analysis and affected person help.
“I’ve by no means seen any individual of such modest means accumulate all that wealth and provides all of it away,” McLaughlin, who has been a lawyer for 40 years, mentioned of the brothers. “It’s the simplicity that makes it such a compelling story.”