On Pearl Harbor Day, The Motts58 Foundation - named for Mario "Motts" Tonelli, a Notre Dame alum and football great –was established. Motts was a remarkable man and hero who led an exceptional life despite the odds that were often against him. His life story takes him from the streets of Chicago as a first generation Italian American to Notre Dame and their storied football team, then drafted to t
he Chicago Cardinals (now Chicago Bears) of the NFL. Army and served in WWII. He was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and also spent four years in the pacific in the Japanese death ships. The Motts 58 Foundation is dedicated to honoring the legacy of a true American hero by providing funding for education and research in the Medical Sciences. The foundation seeks to promote the qualities exemplified by Motts - courage, perseverance and dignity - in supporting the academic goals of students, medical investigators and health care providers. Our goals are to provide scholarship funding for a medical school graduate from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine pursuing a career in primary care and an educational stipend for a nurse at Northwestern Memorial Hospital pursuing an advance degree. Motts cared a great deal about education and this is one way to honor his legacy. In addition, we are also committed to supporting research focused on esophageal diseases, such as esophageal cancer, swallowing disorders and gastroesophageal reflux. Motts lost his life to Esophageal Cancer and we hope to help fund research focused on prevention and treatment of this devastating disease.
