LATROBE, PA – After being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Saint Vincent College’s Charles G. Manoli Tribute Lecture Series will continue at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28, with a presentation by Joe Farrell, C’68, entitled “A Grave Injustice: America’s Founders and their Burial Sites.”
Presented by the Saint Vincent College School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Charles G. and Anita L. Manoli Scholarship Fund, the lecture is free and open to the public and will take place in the Fred M. Rogers Center on the Saint Vincent College campus.
Farrell is the co-author of the “Graves of our Founders” series, based upon his travels to the graves of more than 200 founding fathers (and mothers) responsible for the birth of the U.S. He also co-authored the “Keystone Tombstones” book series, detailing his exploration and research on Pennsylvania cemeteries and stories about those interred there.
Farrell has forged a successful career in both the public and private sectors, beginning with a stint as staff psychologist at a maximum-security correctional institute in Pittsburgh, before being promoted to the Department of Corrections headquarters in Harrisburg.
He later worked in the Governor’s office and then moved on to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), where he fought for consumers as the first director of the newly-created Bureau of Consumer Services. In his final six years at the Pennsylvania PUC, Farrell served as deputy executive director before leaving to work in the private sector as manager of customer satisfaction for two large electric companies. Farrell returned to public service and formerly served as executive director of The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
In addition to the “Graves of our Founders” and “Keystone Tombstones” series, Farrell also wrote the critically acclaimed 2009 memoir “Confessions of a Catholic Schoolboy,” a humorous look at growing up and attending Catholic schools in the tumultuous 1960s.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Farrell graduated from Saint Vincent College in 1968 with a degree in psychology. He would then remain in Pennsylvania to further his education, earning a master’s in clinical psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in public administration from Shippensburg University.
Reservations to Farrell’s presentation are recommended and can be made by phone at 724-805-2656 or email at denise.heydorn@stvincent.edu. Reservations will be accepted through Monday, Oct. 25.
The late Charles G. Manoli Sr., Saint Vincent College emeritus professor of history, taught at SVC for more than 40 years. He was a graduate of the Saint Vincent Preparatory School (1945) and Saint Vincent College (1951) and was honored by the college with an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 2005. After a brief illness, he passed away on Aug. 13, 2016, at the age of 89.
Given the evolving situation concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, all visitors to Saint Vincent College are required to wear a mask while indoors, regardless of vaccination status. Guests will be required to follow all COVID-19 mitigation strategies set forth in the Saint Vincent Health and Safety Plan while on campus. For the latest information about these protocols, please visit https://www.stvincent.edu/resources/covid-19-updates/index.html.