Few stories lingered about the business pioneer. Instead, those who stuffed The Cathedral of St. Patrick in Harrisburg Thursday chose to honor Rocco Ortenzio in the most appropriate way.
With tales of generosity beyond measure. His love of family. A man of conviction and faith.
• Sign up for PennLive’s daily high school sports newsletter “I always admired Rocco’s generosity. He was a man who reached out to others,” said Carmen Finestra, a 1965 Bishop McDevitt graduate and two-time Emmy nominated writer and executive producer. “He came to my mother’s viewing, and he came to my wife’s mother’s viewing.
That’s the kind of man he was. He was a man who shared his faith, helped others, and stood by you. A man of strength.
A man, as they said today, who was simple, and that simplicity was his strength. We will miss him.” Ortenzio died Saturday at the age of 91 , leaving a legacy that stretched nationwide as an entrepreneur in the field of health care and countless philanthropic works.
Through the Rocco and Nancy Ortenzio Foundation, his contributions are attached to the Heart Center at Holy Spirit Hospital, the Select Medical Digital Cinema at Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and Penn State’s new Milton S. Hershey Medical Center Children’s Hospital, built in 2013. And his lifelong commitment to his alma mater never wavered.
Ortenzio’s pledge to create opportunities at every turn was instrumental in the cr.
