Rain poured down as Patrick Cesarano, B.B.A. ’35, the youngest of nine born to Italian immigrants in western New York, stood hitchhiking at a crossroads in the Deep South. A young driver, also headed for the University of Alabama, gave Cesarano a ride that would seal his destiny. When the poor health of Cesarano’s new friend forced him to transfer to the University of Miami’s warmer climate, Cesarano decided to go too.

At UM, Cesarano managed the football team, was elected to several leadership positions, and met fellow New Yorker and future wife Beryl L. “Bunty” Chapman, A.B. ’33, who had moved to Florida with her family after the stock market crash. “When Dad got to the University of Miami, he really blossomed,” daughter Toni MacAulay says. The Cesaranos went on to have four children and resided just a few miles from the Coral Gables campus for the rest of their lives.

“I grew up knowing the Miami fight song and alma mater and singing them lustily,” recalls Toni, who attended UM briefly but eventually graduated from Georgetown University. The Cesaranos’ school spirit also rubbed off on Toni’s siblings Gregory, J.D. ’76, and John “Chris” Cesarano, A.B. ’73, cousin Alex Marchioli, B.B.A. ’54, and daughter Darrell MacAulay, A.B. ’92.

Patrick Cesarano, who once worked as a teen splitting railroad ties, rose to the rank of division president at Ryder System. He was elected UMAA president in 1956 and spent more than a decade on the Board of Trustees, serving as board chairman from 1978 to 1980.

By the time Patrick died in 1996 at age 84 and Bunty a decade later at 93, the couple had committed millions to their beloved university. The School of Business Administration’s Patrick J. Cesarano Plaza and Bunty Cesarano Fountain mark their continuing UM legacy.

“His education gave him the opportunity to become a successful businessman, and he appreciated that,” Gregory says of his father, whom he followed as both a trustee and, in 2005, a UMAA president. Being president was “fantastic,” Gregory adds. “It was a real thrill to have the same position my dad had. I’m only sorry he wasn’t around to enjoy it.”