Donor Spotlight: Steve and Marie Guasco

Steve ‘76 and Marie ’75 Guasco enjoy a long history and deep connection with Saint Mary’s College. The two alumni got married in the Chapel, and their son Michael ’03 and niece Karyn Fonseca ‘95 are also alumni. 

“We are both so grateful for our Saint Mary’s education. We were encouraged to be independent. We were educated, not trained,” say Steve. “So back in 1982, a few years out of school, we set up an automatic payment to come out of our paycheck every two weeks.” That first gift was $20 and the Guascos have donated every year since. To date, they have made more than 240 gifts over the years.

Steve remembers, “Our first donations were designated to the library. An appeal letter was sent out for the library. I had worked with Brother Maurice to set up the College and Brothers’ archives and the library seemed a good fit. Future donations were designated to assist with the scholarship and general funds. When the Joe and Helen Crane Family Endowment was established, half of our donations were designated to that. The Crane Family Endowment provides scholarship assistance to help students from Stockton.” 

“It was important to both of us to be in a faith-based institution. The Lasallian tradition was a part of our lives early on and continues to be so,” said Steve. “I went to Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley. Marie looked into Saint Mary’s College on the recommendation of a high school teacher who was an alumnus. Marie was in the second class of women to attend four years and graduate from Saint Mary’s in the mid-70s.” After graduation Marie attended graduate school, earning a degree in Occupational Therapy.

While in graduate school, Steve planned to go into human factors engineering but ended up in health care by accident. He had an internship lined up following graduation but the company lost a government contract and his internship was no longer available. Marie had just started the Occupational Therapy Department at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton and through a chance conversation with their industrial engineer, learned of an available internship opportunity. Steve took the job and landed in hospital management engineering and ultimately in healthcare administration. In 1983, another chance encounter landed him back at Saint Mary’s when a friend in the extended education program told him of an opening for a statistics professor in the health administration program. He spent the next 10 years teaching finance, economics, statistics, and the American health system at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“Saint Mary’s is important to both of us. Marie and I donate to the College because we want to help as many students as possible benefit from the education we had,” says Steve. 

“We are so very grateful to Steve and Marie for their loyal support over the past 35 years,” says Lisa Moore ’96, vice president for advancement. “Tuition alone does not cover the cost of running this remarkable university. We rely on annual donations so that we can offer merit and need-based scholarships, update facilities, upgrade classroom technology, and the numerous student activities and enrichment programs. Thank you, Steve and Marie; you represent the Gael spirit.”