Reflection on passing of Maureen Minielli

Notes from five continents filled Facebook feeds in reaction to the untimely passing of Dr Maureen “Mo” Minielli. The messages illustrated the impact one individual can have upon the world. Maureen passed away in her sleep on 25 February in Klaipeda, Lithuania where she was teaching for a semester. She had just returned a week earlier from London where she was celebrating her daughter Lauren’s sixteenth birthday with some quality international travel time, an appropriate rite of passage for the daughter of a woman who had traversed the globe on numerous occasions. Maureen was passionate about travel, but really, she was passionate about people. Well, people, family, Nixon, and sports perhaps! In 1965, Maureen was born to Dean and Marcia Montgomery in Chicago, IL. She had two siblings, Pete and Michelle. The other thing that was birthed in Chicago was Maureen’s enduring affinity for the Chicago Cubs. If you knew Maureen very long, you knew she was a Cubs fan and knew she loved sports. Maureen and her father found a common passion in sports. She later moved to Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, where she eventually graduated high-school in 1983. Maureen said, “He was mad when we moved from Chicago to PA in 1976 and had to PAY for CABLE TELIVISION [to watch the cubs]!” to a friend on Facebook. After the passing of her father in 2015 she would often reminisce about watching and attending Cubs games and other sporting events with her father, and made a point to go to Cubs games “with him”, though he was only present as a photograph and in her heart. While Maureen developed a love for sports that carried into her life in Pennsylvania where she became an avid Penn State fan, she also continually excelled academically. Starting at the Harrisburg Area Community College, she attained an associate’s degree in Liberal Arts. She then attended the University of Pittsburg where she studied Communication for a B.A. which she received in 1987, and where her fascination with presidential rhetoric began. While many were likely working on Theses about “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, Maureen was working with thesis advisor Dr Michael Weiler on “The Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan about El Salvador from 1981-1983.” She moved from Pitt to Penn State for her M.A. where she worked with Dr Richard B. Gregg on her thesis, “The Rhetorical Visions of Reagan and Bush in Selected Speeches.”