Donor Spotlight: Art and Pat Guzzetta
By Tony Scott
Art and Pat Guzzetta at Huskie Stadium, August 2024. (Photo by NIU Foundation)
NIU is where Art, ’67, M.A. ’71, and Pat (Caracci) Guzzetta, ’69, M.S.Ed. ’71, met for the first time, and they still keep NIU in their hearts. To them, no matter how much NIU has changed since they lived there as students, it is still family.
“I love the direction that Northern has taken,” Pat said. "Northern, it’s almost like coming back to your family. You come back, you look at campus, there are a lot of new things going on. Just like when new kids come into the family, it’s still our family.”
They are happy to give back to their alma mater, knowing that their assistance keeps students on track. Their giving has included supporting student-athletes and the Northern Fund, which allows the NIU Foundation to direct funding where NIU needs it most.
“Once you give, you have this wonderful feeling like I’m helping someone else,” Pat said. “That person may need that extra boost to get through school, and rather than they give up, we’d rather come forward and help.”
Art added, “Giving is sharing. We always felt like, if you give, you receive just as much in return or more.”
Pat was born in Chicago and moved to the northern suburbs when she was a teen. She was the first in her working-class family to go to college and attended NIU based on what her family could afford and that it was close to home.
She recalled her father sending her a weekly allowance in the mail, enough to pay for snacks, she said.
“He would write letters every week – my father had beautiful penmanship,” she said. “And he would send me my allowance, $2 a week.”
Art and Pat Guzzetta at their wedding in August 1967. (Photo from Art and Pat Guzzetta)
Art, too, came from a working-class family and grew up on Chicago’s North Side, attending Catholic schools and graduating from Loyola Academy. His dad, a World War II veteran, worked as a milkman for Bowman Dairy Company and his mom worked at the factory for Curtis Candy Company, which created Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars.
“I had too many of those,” Art joked.
The Guzzettas were undergraduate students at NIU when they met through Art’s pledging process while in the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Art was given the names of two students by his fraternity brother, Joel Delman, ’68, M.B.A. ‘71; he had to contact one of them and get her to sign his pledge book. The two women listed were Pat and Pat’s cousin Barbara Caracci, ’69, M.S. ‘74. Art decided to give Pat a call.
“It was through his pledging – you know how they do these crazy things,” Pat said. “One day I get back from class and I get this phone call, and he’s like, ‘Well, you don’t know me, but I want to know you and I have to have you sign my pledge book. Have a coffee with me.’ So, we met at the union. And I was still thinking, who is this guy?”
Yes, Pat did sign Art's pledge book, and he made it into the fraternity.
The couple dated for 10 months before Art proposed to Pat during her senior year.
The two would later finish their master’s degrees in the same year, an accomplishment that wowed their blue-collar parents.
“My mother was from Italy, and she didn’t know about master’s degrees, but she knew it was something to be proud of,” Pat said. “When they came that night when we got our master’s degrees and were walking around campus, all four of our parents were just delighted.”
In 1974, Pat received a call from a friend about a teacher vacancy for a medical leave at an elementary school in McHenry School District 15. It was supposed to be a temporary, three-month position.
“I went in, and what do you know, I stayed and taught fourth grade for 30 years,” she said.
During her teaching career, Pat received the Teacher of the Month award from Star 105 Radio in 1994 and the Those Who Excel Award of Merit in 1992 from the Illinois State Board of Education.
Art held various positions in the education field, first as a full-time substitute at Chicago Public Schools, then as a librarian and coach at Kirkland High School in Kirkland, Illinois, a full-time librarian at Algonquin Middle School, and as a media center director at Dundee Crown High School in Carpentersville. He retired from Algonquin Middle School in 1993.
Both have great memories of NIU, and while they can’t recall specific names, they were impacted positively by the university’s faculty.
“All of those professors were just magnificent, so personalized and helpful,” Pat said.
Pat Guzzetta, center, and friends in Douglas Hall, 1967. (Photo from Art and Pat Guzzetta)
The couple said they give because they want NIU to continue to grow and succeed.
“I’m hoping that our generosity helps Northern recruit students to come and continue to make a good name for NIU, and to help NIU keep up, whether it’s technology or facilities,” Pat said.
They want their fellow alumni to know that any gift helps, no matter the amount.
“I think people who are in a position to do that, no matter how small or how big, it’s important to do that, to come forward and say to students and to NIU, ‘We support you,’” she said.
The Guzzettas enjoy attending alumni and donor events, and for years purchased season tickets for Huskies Football games. From their enriching careers in education to friendships they say they have kept up with since leaving NIU, they appreciate everything that their alma mater has given them.
“We always think, wow, look at what NIU gave us the opportunity to do,” Pat said.
For more information on giving to support students or facilities, click here.