Bernardo (Bernie) Franceschi - Trustees

Biographical Info

I was born and raised in a small coal mining town in NE Pennsylvania to which my grandfather, Domenico, who was the first of seven brothers to emigrate to in the 1890’s. They were from the Trentino-Alto Adige region in the far northern and utterly beautiful Dolomite mountains (the southern Alps really.) My paternal grandmother was from that same area, but she emigrated many years later. There were nine in my father’s family, and he had many American first cousins who were the offspring of his several uncles, as well as several Italian cousins who were the offspring of my grandfather’s sisters who did not emigrate. However, as is the case with some immigrants, they chose not to pass the language and culture on to their American children. So, none of my dad’s siblings or very few of his cousins had any interest in their Italian heritage. However, my father did have such an interest and even found a way to visit his parents’ birthplace and relatives when stationed in Italy during World War II thankfully after the Italian surrender to the Allies). He passed that love for his heritage on to me.

It wasn’t until after graduating from college and my grandmother passing away (my Italian grandfather died several years before I was born) that I developed an interest in my heritage and traveled to Italy to meet my cugini Italiani. I have made 6 visits there over the years, during one of which I studied Italian at La Universita’ per Stranieri a Perugia. This enabled me to communicate and develop real and lasting bonds with the relatives and land from which my paternal grandparents came.

In terms of my life in the US, I have an undergraduate degree from Boston College, the area where I lived until moving across the country to Portland, OR. I lived, got married (and later divorced), had four kids, co-founded a successful personal financial advisory firm, and generally had a good life for another 36 years there before moving back to Boston and Providence for five more. I moved to Grand Rapids in April of 2018 to live near my older son and his wife who have my first 3 grandchildren. Of my other 3 adult children, my two daughters still living in Portland and my younger son, Domenico is married and living in New Orleans. All four of them have been back to visit our Italian relatives in Trentino. I have one other grandchild, the daughter of my younger daughter, who is in this photo with me.

My wish in joining the IACWM Board is to draw on my love for, ties to and experience of Italy and Italian to the benefit of the membership and the Greater Grand Rapids community.