Caitlin Whyte (Host): Welcome to in Their Words, a podcast from the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation and UPMC in Central PA. This is where we honor powerful personal stories from patients, staff, and the generous donors who help shape the future of healthcare in our region.

August is National Make-A-Will Month, a time to reflect on what matters most and take steps to protect it. In this episode, we hear from Bob and Donna Pullo, influential members of the York Pennsylvania community whose generosity, vision, and deep commitment to service have left a lasting mark.

In their own words, they share how building a legacy through planned giving has allowed them to blend their lifelong passions for education and healthcare.

Bob Pullo: Ladies first.

Donna Pullo: Okay. I'm Donna Pullo. I'm his better half. We've been married now. It'll be 60 years in September, if we make it. No. So far so good. Yes. We are both from the Boston area. I'm from a little town called Winthrop, where I went to high school and grew up there. And you are Bob from?

Bob Pullo: I am Bob Pullo. I'm from the Boston area, Somerville, Massachusetts. Born and raised there. Lived there until I was about 35 years old, and Donna and I met. We didn't go to school together or anything like that. But we met in her first job or first career job across the expressway and in the Walkway across the expressway in Boston. And I was a teller in the bank, State Street Bank and Trust Company. And she was a clerk or secretary, administrative aide over in the insurance company.

Donna Pullo: New York Life Insurance.

Bob Pullo: Right. I thought she had money. Turns out it was her boss'.

Donna Pullo: Turns out it was the company's deposit, you know, so...

Bob Pullo: So, we married for love.

Donna Pullo: Yes. Yeah. And we did marry in our early 20s, and I had four children before I was 29, so I grew up with them. I'm still growing though. We're still growing.

A little background, and this goes right into the medical field of hospitals. When we were in Burlington, Massachusetts, our first home, Bob was on the finance committee in the town of Burlington. And he was asked by the president of the Lahey Clinic in Boston to buy land, a big track of land so that they could incorporate all their offices and hospitals that were all stretched all over Boston into one big place. And if you don't know the Lahey Clinic, it has the reputation of almost like the Mayo Clinic, but that's in New England. It's the Lahey Clinic.

So, Bob took on this project of trying to get people to say that they would okay this, and he got a lot of flack from residents mostly, because they didn't want the traffic, they didn't want to be bothered with all that. And now, they're really loving it. And we have friends that use it all the time. But Bob convinced them all because he said-- and he worked a deal with Lahey to what, Bob?

Bob Pullo: Well, We got the residents of Burlington, Massachusetts to get precedent in any of their health needs and so forth. And that overcame an awful lot of the outsiders coming in and things and, you know, the crowded and the parking and the traffic. They knew they could benefit from that, especially when you realize that the Lahey Clinic is very much like the Mayo Clinic, so it has that notoriety. They're great doctors, great surgeons, and great, great care.

So, difficult as it was through the finance committee to be the advocate for this to happen, I had to defend myself frequently at the grocery store or the gas station, you know, all the Knights of Columbus, and try to get out of there during daylight so they don't beat me up or anything, but sort of political. But it was a fine experience. And of course, one of the things that we became so quickly aware of when we moved to Burlington from our apartment in Somerville for the first time as a married couple. It was a community, but there was no real togetherness in the community on Powerhouse Terrace. Most people were older. Other people were working three jobs, and you just didn't get to see people that much. Burlington turned out to be a place where first time homeowners were young with children. So, our backyards all backed up to each other's in this six-house group, all of us having more than a quarter of an acre. So, you can see that's pretty wide open, certainly not the common wall kind of--

Donna Pullo: And Bob felt right at home because everyone's name either ended with an A or an O.

Bob Pullo: They're Italians.

Donna Pullo: They were all mostly Italian.

Bob Pullo: Well, that's what I was getting at, the community part of our life. It started to impress us as knowing what other people need, knowing what other people's issues were, and how much people need each other, and how much we as a society need to provide for the good care, not just for poor people, but for all people because no one's immune to getting the afflictions that the hospital folks take care of.

Donna Pullo: And at that time, if they had anything real serious, they would have to travel into Boston with the traffic and everything. So, it really was a blessing to have Lahey Clinic built there, which was really nice.

Bob Pullo: I wanted to mention one other thing about Burlington. That's where I first started being interested in nonprofits as well. And I was a volunteer for the United Way, and I handled the school department side of the annual campaign. And that was scary. I didn't quite get near where I was supposed to get until the very, very end. You know, we all procrastinate, me too. But we did it. We did a good job there. And I got really impressed with what the United Way does for people, because it is quickly obvious that one of every three people are touched by the United Way. You don't have to be a victim to be victimized. It can be a family, it can be a work employee, and it can be a neighbor. And we found more out about the community of the neighbors through that.

Donna Pullo: And then, when we did finally make the move here, I guess Bob, still, he was asked to be on the board of Memorial Hospital. He served there for quite a few years.

Bob Pullo: Yeah. I was the chairman of the first public community campaign that Memorial Hospital ever had. And it was a smashing success.

Donna Pullo: And then, a doctor that I was seeing got me involved with-- we didn't have a lot of money back then, but we were comfortable and we could give quite a nice donation to Memorial Hospital as they were doing their almost state-of-the-art, right at the beginning, and it's called-- first, it was the simulator, it was a teaching hospital too, so they taught the residents how to use this simulator to do laparoscopic surgery. And they had this machine with the camera and everything, and they could simulate how to train the residents how to do it. And at the same time, it was called the da Vinci robot.

Bob Pullo: Another Italian.

Donna Pullo: And it was a computer screen to operate with, and it was teaching, with this robot man, how to work there, what they did, right? Whether it was plumbing or electricity or heart or whatever. They called us in because, of course, we had donated for these things. And we were the first to see how they worked. So, we were just thrilled with that.

Bob Pullo: Oh, it was really incredible, because you could see how the hospital would grow, how the, class would grow, how the patients could get better care. And we felt really good about it.

Donna Pullo: We were just really thrilled to know that memorial went with UPMC. And, of course, their flagship hospital and teaching is in Pittsburgh, but they have branched out everywhere, and a very fine, fine hospital. So, we were thrilled that Memorial was not left floundering.

Bob Pullo: Well, the community allowed to have choices, and we recognize, particularly me being on the board, doing research, hearing the research being done, and understanding what the patient care and demand was, and where the shortfalls were in the community, either in terms of doctors, nurses, or facilities, you know, but plenty of patients. So, it's good for a community to have competition. So, there was this middle hospital, and then there was the very big York hospital. And then, York began to grow and it's become the WellSpan of today. Then, we all began to grow and became UPMC of the region of the state.

Donna Pullo: It's starting to go international. Then, when I needed this special surgery, they scooted me up by ambulance to Harrisburg to the UPMC there, which was a very fine, specialized doctor who could help my situation.

So, we've decided in our will-- we've used the hospital quite a bit and we think it's wonderful and it'll always be one of those things that are needed everywhere. So, we're fortunate enough to want to leave a legacy for UPMC.

Bob Pullo: I think the decisions we make day by day and then plan by plan and phase of life versus other later phases of life. But I'll tell you a story about an event we went to and we were fortunate to be named one of two couples who got the State Philanthropy Award. And the lady that was there, I think her name was Bayshore. She was quite up there in age and very witty. And someone asked her, she said, " Why does she give her money away like she does, or so much money to so many places?" And she says, "You know, I never saw hearse pulling a U-Haul." So rather than leaving it all behind--

Donna Pullo: You can't take it with you.

Bob Pullo: We want to figure out how we can help some people in our absence. And more important, I think, how we can give by example, be charitable by example. Because when we came here, we had pretty much nothing. So, what we have today is very much a part of our whole community's participation as clients, as employees, as vendors, as coworkers. All of that stuff is so important and so, so good.

So, we quickly got to know the various places that had the biggest needs. And we wanted to make sure we took care of as many of them as we could, because we've been living a good life, because of all that and all of the connections and the people and being able to serve the people. It's the people who you administer to, the people that you tweak up their health, that's so important. I look at a community like family. There are three forms of family. First is your blood family. There isn't anything you wouldn't do for your blood family. Number two, you go to work every day, and you're with that workforce family more than you are with your blood family, you know? So, wouldn't it be nice if maybe we were just nice to each other and let alone help take care of each other and be there for each other? And then, finally is the community, I mean the community family. You do realize that you don't have to look far over your fence to see someone else who has more difficulties than you, or in fact has some current difficulty that you really could help with if you would engage, if you would put your hand out to help. So, those are the three forms of family. That's why I have this white rose, I'm not even from York, but which is the White Rose county, city, and so forth. And I don't know too many Yorkers that wear it, but I do. And it reminds me-- I put this on every morning, like people put on their shoes to remind me I can help people, I can get things done for people, I can be valuable to people whether they like it or not.

Donna Pullo: And I think when we were fortunate enough to make larger donations, we were just so impressed with the whole nonprofit field. And we just felt like, oh my gosh, they put in so much time and so much work and devotion to what they do that we felt our money was in the right place because their hearts were in the right place. It's a little tiny thing to us maybe, but it's everything to them when they need it.

Bob Pullo: Growth and the ability to keep together the very, very important staff that you have at the hospital and the people who have the hands on with the clients. It wasn't long ago at 9/11, we always admired police environment and so forth, but you admired them more when we went through that all together at the same day, the same hour, the same morning, seeing all that had happened and the people who died. And God bless the firemen, the police women, the policemen, the doctors, the nurses, the hospitals. I mean, God bless them all. We admire them, the first responders.

So as I sit and think about after all these years about first responders and then how I've been engaged in so many nonprofits here in New York. Then, I realized that the nonprofit organizations or sector of the community are another most admired, underpaid, overworked, underappreciated, but they too are heroes for what they do for people with the afflictions.

So to me, spending our money on them or our time on them as contributors and as mentors, and financiers, that's really, really important. So, I think what goes through my mind is what is this recipient of our funds going to do with it? And I would urge you to celebrate your employees, celebrate the people that are providing on behalf of us.

Donna Pullo: And of course, we've always been big on education, and I know that education is where everything comes from.

Bob Pullo: So, by way of thinking, and I think Donna feels the same way. But I mean, we both believe in education, but neither one of us are educated. So, I mean, well, we have straight sense. You know, we've been there, we've done that. So, scholarships in education, I do believe there's a lot of money pushed out at that, but it only goes to a smaller focus of two people who probably won't be in our community after they get their degrees and do their thing. So, how do you keep it at home?

We like to give unrestricted so that we're not necessarily stuck with the 5% spending policy that comes out of a foundation or an endowment type of restricted funding. And i'd rather see the hospital management, the hospital employees making the decisions about how much money they're going to spend out of the available cash that they can get.

So, what I view the hospital staff, the hospital officials, professionals, and all of that, I compare them to the first responders we admire so much. But I look then very quickly back to the next responder. The next responder is the nonprofit community and the people that continuously, for the rest of our lives, try to make us comfortable with whatever we've had to deal with. Whereas that first responder went in at risk of their life, thank God they did that, but then they're gone to the next tragic event and then into the next one and the next one. So, there's continuity in that they're there on an emergency basis to help. You are there on a community basis to stay and to make sure that people beyond what they have just been impacted by.

And I learned from the employees-- actually first I learned about philanthropy from Bill Wolf who was my mentor, the chairman of my board, founder of my bank and a wonderful family-committed, take-action kind of guy and family and our employees, then learn what I learned from him, well, how do you find a passion? So, we would talk a lot and then say, "Look, you might have a passion for-- your mother had breast cancer, so you're into women's cancer treatments and so forth" or anything else. But as you go along, you just see who's around you, what's happening to them, wouldn't you want to help them? And those passions keep developing. And then, maybe as you make money, become more fortunate, become wealthier, then you can give back to the things you are most passionate about.

Donna Pullo: Yeah. I will tell them it feels very good to give and to give back. You know, Bob made his money here in the community, and it was good to return that and give back.

Caitlin Whyte (Host): As we recognize national Make-A-Will Month, we are deeply grateful to donors like Bob and Donna Pullo. Their decision to leave a legacy gift to the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation will create lasting life-changing impact for patients, families, and communities across central Pennsylvania.

To help you begin your own legacy planning, the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation offers Free Will, a fast, secure online tool that allows you to create a legal will in just 20 minutes, completely free of charge. It's available to patients, staff, donors, friends and family of the foundation. And it's an easy, meaningful way to protect what you love while supporting the causes that matter to you.

To learn more about free will and legacy giving, visit upmcpinnaclefoundation.org. And thank you for listening to In Their Words. We hope you continue to be inspired by the voices of those who give, heal, and leave a legacy of hope.