Armando Oreste Donaruma

b. 2 January 1889 in San Valentino Torio, Salerno, Campania, the son of Generoso Donnarumma (1869-1945) and Andriana Salerno (1869-1908). Generoso may have participated in the typical cyclical labour movements of the time: he appears to have arrived in New York first in June 1886 aboard the Olympia. Armando's siblings (all of whom also migrated to America) were Ernesto Tarquinio (5 January 1893- 24 March 1978; clothing merchant; m. Natalie nee Delillo); Alfonso (5 April 1895-30 April 1978; barber, m. Carmela) both of West Roxbury, MA, and their sister Fausta Maria (b. 28 Dec 1891-d. 1962; on 8 September 1918 she married Biagio R. Curelli of Rivalta Bormida (prov. Alessandria), Italy, and lived at Roslindale MA, and later East Greenwich, Rhode Island). Generoso seems to have arrived on 14 April 1909, on the San Giorgio, with Amalia and Faustina, though on her naturalization form, Fausta nominated that she had arrived in Boston on the SS Canopic on 14 July 1913. Fausta's children were baptised, and all the siblings were buried, according to Catholic forms, so it appears that Armando's conversion was singular.

Armando (or 'Armand' as he later styled himself) was educated at the University of Naples (with a degree "in law and philosophy", 1911) and then took a PhD (1922) at Boston University. He then studied for the ministry at the Boston University School of Theology. He arrived in the USA in 1920 and in the interim worked as a translator on Boston's main Italian newspaper, though he listed his occupation in city registries at the time as 'lawyer'.

On 10 Jun 1922, Donaruma married Virginia nee Castelli (b. 30 Jan 1895), who had arrived in Boston from Naples in March that year aboard the SS Colombo, possibly in the company of her brother, Giacinto. In 1924 he graduated with his PhD, and was ordained. He went on to serve in Methodist churches in Lynn, Methuen and South Boston.

On 29 June 1927, Armand and Virginia applied for naturalization. In the same year, when Sacco and Vanzetti were condemned to death, Donaruma helped lead a mass protest meeting against the verdict, and petitioned (unsuccessfully) the governor to overturn the verdict. By 1930, Donaruma was ministering on the staff at First Methodist Church, Boston. In 1931 he commenced a Daily Vacation Bible School in the Church, which was run by Grace Marshall Fraser. From 1932 he also taught Italian over radio on station WOR, on behalf of the YMCA Radio Language Institute.

On 5 October 1930 Donaruma took over the Methodist Church of the Saviour, Yonkers, taking over from Pietro Campo. He seems to have stepped down from this position by 1937 (possibly due to financial pressures during the Depression - he mentions families leaving the area due to lack of work), as he was described in the press as the former minister of the Church, now the instructor in Italian language at Ardsley High School. He continued to preach regularly in local churches, however, in a range of episcopal and Protestant denominations, often on themes of the fruit that God expected of the consecrated life, and the duty of good works to Christian people and communities.

After the war broke out, in 1942 he was living at 24 Glenbrook Ave, Yonkers, NY, working for the New York City Missionary Society. While there, he taught Latin and Italian at Columbia University and remained connected to Italian community concerns. In 1943, for instance, he gave an address to the Italian American Civic League (in the Elmsford Fire House, Westchester County), in which he protested against the refusal of schools (presumably because of Italy's wartime enemy status) to allow the introduction of Italian into schools.

By 1948, Donaruma had returned to pastoring at Evangelical Methodist Church of the Saviour. He took advantage of the new openness after 1950 (when his nephew Augusto and his nieces Amalia and Pierina were living with them) to visit Italy and reconnect with family. Between 1954 and 1962, he was in Italy at least four times, and possibly more. We have records for the trips in:

1954 - travelling in Europe, returning to the USA on the SS Queen Mary, arriving 2 Nov 1954 in New York.

1956 - travelled to Italy, returning on the SS Independence, arriving 17 November 1956.

1959 - flew back from Italy, arriving in NY in June 1959.

1962 - travelled to Italy, returning in June on the TV Leonardo da Vinci.

He never forgot the Sacco and Vanzetti, and remained outspoken on issues such as the death penalty. In 1967 - drawing on the thought of enlightenment jurist Cesare Beccaria in his Dei delitti e delle pene - Donaruma wrote to the Boston Globe protesting the use of the death penalty in the state. Jails should be 'schools of redemption' not of further crimes. (Boston Globe 8 Sep 1967, p. 12). Ten years later, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis would declare the execution of Italian anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti to be based on an unfair trial.

After retiring, he and Virginia lived at 304 K Street, Boston. Donaruma died of a heart attack on 8 March 1976, in a nursing home in Weymouth, South Boston. He was buried at Forest Hills Cemetery. (Boston Globe 9.3.1976, p. 38) Virginia followed him shortly afterwards, passing away on 19 March 1976.

Sources

Ancestry.com

newspapers.com

New York Times Timesmachine.

Italian Presbyterian Ministers' Who's Who, MSS, 301.7.12 Italian File, Dept of City, and Industrial Work, Emigrant, Board of National Missions, Presbyterian Historical Society (NY).