Sixty-three years ago, Velia Rigione, born and raised in Boston’s North End, declined her admission to Boston University and became, instead, Mrs. Carlos Tosi. But “Carlos’s gain was not our loss,” as Chancellor John Silber said in January as he presented her with an honorary degree. “You became and remained a dedicated member of the Boston University community.”

Velia (Hon.'03) and Carlos Tosi just before the convocation in her honor. Photo by Fred Sway, University Photo Services.

Of her many University activities over the years, the majority have been with the Friends of the Boston University Libraries and the Boston University Women’s Council, an organization that promotes knowledge of the University, maintains a residence for women graduate students, and raises money, particularly to support the needs of women students and athletes.

The Tosis live virtually on campus — their town house is on Bay State Road and they attend University events regularly. Most recent of their major gifts to the University were funding restoration of the Bay State Road building that is now La Carlos H. e Velia N. Tosi Casa Italiana and endowing a scholarship in the modern foreign languages and literatures department at the College of Arts and Sciences in memory of Carlos Tosi, Jr., a member of the Class of 1970.

Enthusiasm for BU runs in the Tosi family. Daughter Luisa Tosi Claeys is a 1963 graduate of CAS; her husband, Richard Claeys, graduated from the College of Communication in 1964. Daughter Linda is the mother of Marc A. Minotti (CAS’91) and of Tod Robert Tosi Minotti (CAS’90), who is married to Jennifer A. Gold Minotti (COM’91).

“More devoted to Boston University than most of her graduates,” Silber said at a special convocation on January 29, Velia Tosi’s birthday, “today you become an honorary alumna. With gratitude and affection, we proudly confer on you the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.”

— Natalie Jacobson McCracken