Note: This message was originally sent on April 6, 2022
Siblings………
Before I get started, allow me to get a song stuck in your head: picture Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in their matching blue dresses with giant feathered fans singing in harmony as Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye looked on:
🎶 “Sisters…sisters…there were never such devoted sisters…”🎶
The Gonzaga family has siblings of all stripes among the community—some like peas in a pod, others simply cordial and kind, some knowing each other since birth or childhood, and still others came together later in life—sibling relationships are often the longest a person will have in their lifetime. For generations now, sets of siblings have had an impact on the University and its students through their generosity—in honor or memory of parents, friends, or each other—and just as many have experienced the impact of your gifts as students.
Take for example, the Giaccobi siblings, who I have had the honor of getting to know over the course of the past five years—Alex (’21), Megan (’22), and David (’24). Coming to Gonzaga from Arizona, these three have all served the University Advancement (UA) division as work-study students. You may have encountered them yourself during visits to campus, as they could often be found behind the front desk in the BARC’s south lobby. They’re a delightful crew who’ve brightened our days and made quick work of many projects—from mailings to videos, notes of gratitude and more, UA has been lucky to have these Zag siblings on our team.
Alex (center) recently graduated with his Bachelor of Science in computer science and is now a software engineer at Expedia Group in Seattle. Megan (left) will be graduating this May and is planning to pursue a career in which she can apply her mechanical engineering degree to biological projects. She spent a summer in South Carolina performing research at Clemson and has been a member and officer of Gonzaga’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers—experiences that have been truly meaningful to her path. David (right), the youngest sibling, is following in Alex’s footsteps, studying computer science while working in UA.
It was a surprise to learn that another Giacobbi had some history with Gonzaga nearly a century before these three siblings were born. According to the History of the State of California Biological Record of Coast Counties, Rev. Dominic Giacobbi, S.J, oversaw the Novitiate of the Sacred Heart in Los Gatos. He was born in Corsica and came to the United Stated in 1872, spending three years serving in the “scholasticate” (residence for scholastics) in Spokane sometime around 1912. He was not a fan of the “four seasons” we often consider a major selling point of our region, but was a cheerful person for others, nonetheless.
The colleague who discovered this connection in Gonzaga’s history shared the story with Megan, who had no idea that she and her siblings shared a surname with a turn-of-the-century scholastic. “Pretty cool,” she said, which is exactly my sentiment when thinking of how we are all connected to one another as Zags. It’s a pretty fantastic family we belong to that connects us as siblings by blood or by bond.