`GCC frosh to be carrying family baggage — literally`

By Kara McConnell
Herald News Intern

Everyone wants to leave a legacy.

William Lombardo is ensuring his legacy with his great-niece by passing on his suitcase.

In 1947, the Hermitage man went to Grove City College with three pairs of pants, three shirts and a sweater in his suitcase. He carried a portable typewriter in his other hand.

As the first in a family of six kids to go to college, Lombardo said he was a little worried because he didn’t know what to expect.

“I was more afraid to go to school than I was to go into the military,” he said. Lombardo, who was drafted, spent two years in the Army and then used benefits under the GI Bill to pay for his tuition.

It allotted veterans about $65 a month which they could use for living expenses. Lombardo said he paid $5 a week in rent and walked a mile and a quarter to campus. He worked at a local coffee shop to pay for his meals.

“If we wanted to go home on the weekends, we would hitchhike,” he said, because many students couldn’t afford the 98-cent bus ticket.

The retired teacher and principal, who worked in Farrell and Sharon schools, said he took about 20 minutes to pack for college. By comparison, his great-niece, Julie Mulcahy of Conway, Pa., has been working all summer to organize all of her belongings for her freshman year.

A lot has changed for students since Lombardo carried his suitcase onto the Grove City campus. Miss Mulcahy will be living in a dorm and will be supplied with a laptop computer and printer. And because both of her parents and her three older siblings went to college, she isn’t worried about “surprises” as her great-uncle was.

However, Miss Mulcahy is the first one in the family to go to Grove City College, which is why Lombardo decided to offer her the honor of carrying his suitcase.

She is also majoring in political science, his major in 1947.

“I hope she passes the suitcase on to her children,” Lombardo said.

The suitcase still carries the Grove City College decal Lombardo put on it nearly 52 years ago. Lombardo attended Westminster College, New Wilmington, and Slippery Rock and Pennsylvania State universities as well, but said he was very dedicated to Grove City and didn’t get a decal from any of the others.

Miss Mulcahy said she plans to pack her dictionary and other personal items in the suitcase when she goes to Grove City in the fall.

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Updated August 13, 1999
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