Education a family affair
Susan Vitali-Lovell and her father, Jack Vitali, are pictured together during Easter 2008, just a few months before they both succumbed to cancer.
For the big tight-knit family of the late John (Jack) Vitali, Western and education are family affairs.
An electrical engineer by trade, Jack moved to London in 1975, where he became the highly successful owner of Highbury Ford. Over the years, he and his large family developed a strong connection to Western — located just a few blocks from their home.
Though not a Western grad, Jack’s wife Frances is. She returned to school while raising their six children, earning a degree in 1991. Four of their children earned Western degrees, and nine of 17 grandchildren (so far) have joined the ranks of the “purple and proud.”
Frances says education was a life-long pursuit for Jack. As he was nearing retirement, she remembers him auditing engineering and mathematics classes on campus with some of his grandchildren.
“One year he wanted to teach his grandchildren about computers,” recalls Frances, “so he set up a classroom in our garage. During the first month they built their own computer, and in the second month they learned how to use it.”
In 2008, tragedy struck twice in the Vitali family. Their eldest daughter, Susan Vitali Lovell, died of cancer, followed just months later by Jack, also from cancer.
Frances describes her late daughter as a giving person who was fun to be around and always told the best jokes. Susan attended university in Toronto to become a pharmacist before the family moved to London. She worked in London for 30 years, most recently as a drug information officer at London Health Sciences Centre.
When Susan died, Jack talked to Frances about leaving money in his daughter’s memory, and now through a gift of $400,000 left in his will, the Vitali family is ensuring Jack’s wish comes true.
A large portion of Jack’s gift will go to Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry to renovate laboratories used for studies in fetal programing, where Physiology and Pharmacology students will research what happens in the womb that predisposes people to diseases. An exam room in the clinical skills building will be named after Susan, a student award in Family Medicine will be funded, as well as the Susan Vitali-Lovell Gold Medal for a student having the highest academic performance in fourth-year Honors Pharmacology.
Susan’s husband John Lovell (DDS’82) notes the family he married into is close, adding the reason Western has likely played so prominently in their lives is because it’s so close to home.
“We have a world-class university right here in our own backyard. So we have the benefit of everything – a great education and a great family close by.”