Holy Name Press Releases

Holy Name Medical Center honors: Joseph C. Parisi, Jr, and Charles Vialotti, MD

ounder’s Ball at Gotham Hall raises funds for hospital programs and services

October 17, 2014

The Holy Name Medical Center Foundation held its 2014 Founders Ball at Gotham Hall in Manhattan on Saturday, October 11. Friends, benefactors, community officials, physicians, and hospital staff attended the annual event, which raised $585,000 for the programs and services of Holy Name Medical Center. During the evening's highlight, two members of the Holy Name family, Joseph C. Parisi, Jr., and Charles Vialotti, MD, were honored with the hospital's Spirit of Healing Award.

The event space, site of the former Greenwich Savings Bank, with its majestic Roman-style architecture, elliptical design and massive central dome, provided a dramatic backdrop for the evening’s program, which featured a cocktail hour, speeches, awards ceremony, dinner and dancing. After an invocation delivered by Sister Antoinette Moore, CSJP, Michael Maron, Holy Name Medical Center's President & CEO, thanked the guests for their "commitment of time, wisdom, skills, professionalism, expertise and generosity."

Mr. Maron acknowledged the presence that evening of "some of Holy Name's strongest philanthropic partners," including Lucia Palestroni and Kristine Sayrafe of the Alfiero & Lucia Palestroni Foundation, Carmen Unanue of the C & J Foundation, Dr. Frances Hoffman of the Winifred M. & George P. Pitkin Foundation, Bob Boland, the Creamer family, Mike and Elaine Adler, and David Khym, founder and CEO of Southpole.

Two Spirit of Healing Award Recipients

In describing the two Spirit of Healing Award recipients, Mr. Maron said each had chosen "to live life as an active participant" and to "be the light for others and the spark of goodness."

When introducing Joseph C. Parisi, Jr., Mr. Maron commented that while one might not characterize the honoree as "a healer in the classic sense, when you look at his core values, he is the spirit behind [healing]." Mr. Parisi, perhaps best known as the mayor of Englewood Cliffs and for his extensive civil service, has said, "Whether I'm mayor or CEO it comes down to taking care of people-whether they're clients or patients. You're there to protect the people you're responsible for." Mr. Parisi, who is chairman of the Holy Name Medical Center Foundation and a member of the hospital's board of trustees, is chairman and CEO of Otterstedt Insurance Agency and co-founder and director of ConnectOne Bank. In his comments Saturday evening, he answered the question, Why is Holy Name so special? "It's all about the mission," he said. "It is the people, their caring and their passion."

Mr. Maron began his comments about Dr. Charles Vialotti by declaring, "If any individual comes close to fulfilling the definition of an angel on earth, it is he." Dr. Vialotti is associate medical director of Holy Name's residential hospice, Villa Marie Claire, in Saddle River, where he is both a physician and a loving, reassuring presence to patients at the end of life, and their loved ones. He has defined healing as "an ongoing process of nurturing people and acknowledging their feelings" and called Villa Marie Claire "a family-centered oasis" in his remarks last Saturday. Following his own loved ones' negative experiences with end-of-life care at other facilities, Dr. Vialotti said he "resolved that no family would [have] a negative death experience," and that he would seek to eliminate the "pain and trauma" so often associated with dying. The architect of Holy Name's Department of Radiation Oncology and chief of that division from 1996 through 2010, Dr. Vialotti continues to treat cancer patients at the Medical Center three days a week.

For information about making a donation to Villa Marie Claire or to any of Holy Name Medical Center's programs and services, please contact the Holy Name Medical Center Foundation at 201-833-3187.




Holy Name Medical Center’s Spirit of Healing Award recipients Joseph C. Parisi, Jr., and Charles Vialotti, MD, at the Medical Center's Founders Ball on October 11.

Photo courtesy of Holy Name Medical Center.




Michael Maron, President & CEO, Holy Name Medical Center, with Lucia Palestroni of the Alfiero & Lucia Palestroni Foundation, at the Holy Name Medical Center Founders Ball on October 11.

Photo courtesy of Holy Name Medical Center.