SIDEBAR Summer/Fall 2020 - 42

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The MBA's 19th Admendment Project
Continued from page 41

Association and longstanding Executive
Director of the Montgomery Child
Advocacy Project.
Mary and her legions of volunteer
attorneys provide exceptional legal services
to children caught in the Judicial System
through no fault of their own.

MARIA MACALUSO

women in our society. All through her
life, she encouraged each of her children
to pursue their own path, in my case to be
the first in the family to finish college, let
alone law school. I consider myself truly
fortunate to have been raised by such an
inspirational woman.

She is truly an inspiration and credit
to us all.

Submitted by Colleen Dych
Maria Macaluso serves as the Executive
Director for the Women's Center of
Montgomery County Domestic Violence
Project. Since her appointment in January
1998, Ms. Macaluso has dedicated her
career to making sure that inclusive and
responsive services are being provided
to all victims and survivors of domestic
violence. Since the non-profit agency's
founding in 1976, Ms. Macaluso
continues to embody the strength, spirit,
and determination of the three original
founding women, referred to as the
"founding mothers." A staff member
writes, "Maria is the driving force of the
WCMC; whether it's writing grants or
lending a hand in the thrift shop, Maria's
constant positivity and persistence to
ensure the best quality of care to victims
possible is the heart of Montgomery
County's first domestic violence agency. I
don't know where we would be without
her exemplary leadership."

MARY C. PUGH, ESQ.
Submitted by William H. Pugh, IV, Esq.
I have been and continue to be
inspired by my lovely daughter-in-law
Mary Coyne Pugh, Esquire, a Past
President of the Montgomery Bar

42 SIDEBAR

BARBARA VETRI, ESQ.
ANNA F. TINARI
Submitted by Anthony P. Tinari, Esq.
Anna Frances Palermo was born in
1912, the sixth daughter of an immigrant
Italian blacksmith and his wife. She grew
up in Bethayres, Montgomery County,
and was a proud graduate of Lower
Moreland High School - later to become
a member of its inaugural Hall of Fame
class. She married her school sweetheart,
Frank Tinari, at the height of the great
depression. Together they went on to
establish Tinari Apiaries to supply the
military with honey for the war effort
during the sugar embargo, and later
Tinari Greenhouses, well known growers
and hybridizers of African violets. One
horticultural magazine described them
as the "rock stars of the African violet
world." She raised four children all while
building the family flower business as
a full partner to her husband, writing
extensively in plant journals, and serving
as one of the first women presidents of
the African Violet Society of America.
With her characteristic strength and
grace, she once even personally lobbied
the U.S. Postmaster General to issue
a postage stamp commemorating the
African violet. Anna was an entrepreneur
and accomplished businesswoman in a
time when that was extremely unusual for

Submitted by The Honorable
Risa Vetri Ferman
My mother, Barbara Vetri, Esq., is my
hero. Mom graduated from Temple Law
School in 1960, one of only two women
in her class. Despite her exceptional
performance in law school, not a single
law firm was willing to hire a woman.
Eventually she secured a job as counsel for
a real estate development company and
later, in 1975, opened Vetri and Laskey,
the first law firm in Montgomery County
led exclusively by women. In 1980,
she ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat on the
Montgomery County Court of Common
Pleas. At that time there had never been
a woman on the bench. She remains
involved in the law through volunteer
work in elder justice and her service as
an arbitrator. Throughout her life, she
has run her own law practice, negotiated
leases for family businesses, raised three
kids, dotes on her eight grandchildren and
just renewed her wedding vows with my
Dad after sixty years of marriage. She has
always been an indomitable force, a hard
charging, fearless powerhouse who led by
example and charted a course that guided
the women who followed her, like me, to
be able to achieve their dreams.
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