Inducted in 1996
Financial Analyst; Financial Services Executive
Member, Prep Board of Trustees (1982-1999)
Father of Two Prep Graduates

Gabelli’s generosity to Fordham Prep, where he has served on the Board of Trustees, as well as to Fordham University, has been unstinting. In gratitude, the Prep’s third-floor computer center bears the Gabelli name. In 2010, the University’s College of Business Administration, from which Mario himself had graduated in 1965, was renamed the Gabelli School of Business in recognition of his continued support. Fittingly, in 2012, the Gabelli School of Business was relocated to the newly restored Hughes Hall, the very spot where Mario began his long association with Fordham.

Mario is the father of four children: Marc, Elisa, Michael and Matthew. Marc and Michael are Prep graduates, Classes of 1986 and 1996, as is a nephew, Michael Gabelli, Class of 2000.   

When Mario Gabelli talks about his success, he attributes it to hard work, the values instilled by his pragmatic parents, the discipline he learned from the Prep’s Jesuit and lay faculty, and the social mobility afforded by American culture. His measure of his own success, however, is not what one might expect. In his own words: “I’m a very lucky person. I get paid to come to work to do what I like doing” — the sort of success he believes is available to anyone in any field who is willing to make it happen.

Born in 1942, legendary mutual fund manager Mario J. Gabelli grew up in the Bronx, the son of Italian immigrants. His father, Giuseppe “Joe” Gabelli, was a cook at Lüchow’s and his mother, Giuseppina “Pina” Aranquillo Gabelli, was a homemaker. The Gabellis raised three children: Maria, Mario and John. 

Mario’s grammar school years were spent at three Bronx schools: Public School 4, then St. Joseph’s School on Tremont Avenue, and finally the School of Immaculate Conception on Gun Hill Road. Though without much formal schooling themselves, the Gabellis placed a great importance on their children’s education. From the very beginning, they took a practical, no-nonsense approach with their children’s academic progress.

According to Gabelli, his parents had some notion of the reputation of the Jesuits as “great thinkers, great educators and great disciplinarians.” And so, come time for high school, Joe and Pina saw to it that Mario took the Third Avenue El to Fordham Road and entered the Prep in September of 1957.

A member of the Class of 1961, Mario Gabelli spent his Prep years during the same era as several other members of the Fordham Prep Hall of Honor including Norbert Sander, William Magee and Eugene Pabst. In those days, of course, the Prep was still housed in Hughes Hall, as it had been since 1890, and the construction of Shea Hall, home of the Prep since 1972, was still years in the future.

At the Prep, Mario bowled some, swam some, ran some, and debated some.  By Mario's own reckoning, however, the main extracurricular activity of his Hughes Hall years was walking the jug line under the watchful eye of fellow Hall of Honor inductee, Rev. Arthur Shea, SJ, a man whom Gabelli still holds in the highest of respect.

But, in all fairness, the future financial analyst did more than serve detention in high school; he also worked to earn money to help his family pay for his tuition.

It has been said that as a Prep student, Gabelli first learned about investing while he caddied at golf courses across Westchester. Apparently, Mario’s peers had some insight into his developing financial sense. In a small, lighthearted, crystal ball prediction piece, tucked away in the back of the 1961 Ramkin, a classmate foresees “Mario Gabelli: chief stockholder of the Ford Motor Company.”

Gabelli remained at Rose Hill to attend Fordham University, graduating summa cum laude from Fordham’s College of Business Administration. He went on to receive an MBA from Columbia University, and would later be awarded several honorary doctorates, including one from Fordham in 2008. In 1977, Gabelli opened his own money management firm, which became known as the internationally-recognized GAMCO Investors, based in Rye, New York. He is both chairman and CEO of the firm, and has become a fixture in financial media, including numerous stints as co-host on Squawk Box, the CNBC television show for investors and traders.

Gabelli’s generosity to Fordham Prep, where he has served on the Board of Trustees, as well as to Fordham University, has been unstinting. In 2010, the University’s College of Business Administration, from which Mario himself had graduated in 1965, was renamed the Gabelli School of Business in recognition of his continued support. Fittingly, in 2012, the Gabelli School of Business was relocated to the newly restored Hughes Hall, the very spot where Mario began his long association with Fordham.

Mario is the father of four children: Marc, Elisa, Michael and Matthew. Marc and Michael are Prep graduates, Classes of 1986 and 1996, as is a nephew, Michael Gabelli, Class of 2000.   

When Mario Gabelli talks about his success, he attributes it to hard work, the values instilled by his pragmatic parents, the discipline he learned from the Prep’s Jesuit and lay Faculty, and the social mobility afforded by American culture.  His measure of his own success, however, is not what one might expect. In his own words: “I’m a very lucky person. I get paid to come to work to do what I like doing” — the sort of success he believes is available to anyone in any field who is willing to make it happen.