Mary Galvani Dies At 96

Mary Galvani

Mary Moriarty Galvani of Manhattan and Southampton died on Friday, June 17, from an aortic aneurysm. She was 96.

Born March 30, 1915, in Shakopee, Minnesota, to Judge Joseph J. and Margaret Henrietta Moriarty, she graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1940 with a Bachelor of Science in medical technology during the depths of the depression. Her father, a renowned Minnesota judge, and her mother, an early 1900s graduate of Morehead Normal School, a teacher, and one of the first presidents of the Minnesota League of Women Voters, always encouraged her to confront challenges in a gender-blind manner. Upon graduation, Ms. Galvani moved to Bakersfield, California, to work as a medical technologist. After World War II broke out in Europe, she moved to the Chicago area and became a bacteriologist in the Michael Reese Research Institute, where she was the only female among the 140 chemists working at the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant in Indiana. There she met her husband, Vincent J. Galvani, who was then the chief chemist at the Kingsbury facility and was later commissioned for military service and involvement with The Manhattan Project, where he was instrumental in developing the triggering mechanism for the deliverance of the atomic bomb. In 1949, she settled with her husband and family in St. Paul, Minnesota.

After raising her children in St. Paul with the same ethic as her parents, she continued her trailblazing in 1967, long before the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s was well-defined, by responding to a “Help Wanted: Male” classified advertisement searching for a chief bacteriologist at the St. Paul Water Department. As reported in the St. Paul Pioneer Press feature at the time, she reasoned, “It didn’t say a woman need not apply. So I did.” As the highest ranking candidate interviewed at the Civil Service Bureau, she won the job and became the only woman at the city’s waterworks filtration plant. There she patented a process and media for the speciation of strep, which became a much-cited patent in the investigation of e-coli contamination, and has led to the saving of many lives.

Upon retirement Mary moved to Southampton and later to Manhattan to enjoy her grandchildren and imbue yet another generation with the Moriarty Minnesota ethic. There she lived until her death. Ms. Galvani was also an avid collector of Chinese and Korean porcelains and she instructed classes in their beauty and authenticity.

She is survived by her children, Patrick of Chicago, Ann Galvani Esq. of Florida, Gail Bell of Manhattan, and her son-in-law, David Bell, who was like a son to her; five grandchildren, Dr. Alison Galvani, Amy Schneiderman, Jason Tyler, Ashley Bell, and Andrew Bell; three great- grandchildren, Sarah, Evan, and Emily Galvani-Townsend; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband, Vincent J. Galvani; her sister, Dr. Harriet Burns; and three brothers, Mannix, Louis, and Patrick Moriarty.

A funeral Mass will be held at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church in Southampton on Saturday, June 25, at 10 a.m. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the O’Connell Funeral Home in Southampton.