Mary Rallo Obituary

Rallo, Mary age 93, died Saturday, July 18, 2009, with two of her sons by her side. She was born November 23, 1915 in West Virginia. Mrs. Rallo and her family were longtime residents of West Orange, New Jersey, until she and her husband retired to the Silver Ridge community of Toms River, New Jersey. After a few years, they came to Grayslake, Illinois. Mary Rallo, a registered nurse, was a 1936 graduate of St. James Hospital, Newark, New Jersey School of Nursing. She was employed by the Newark, New Jersey Board of Health until her marriage in 1940. After raising four sons, she returned to the public health area as a field investigator for the New Jersey Radium Research Project in West Orange, New Jersey, which was conducting a study funded by a grant from the former Atomic Energy Commission. Its purpose was to locate and study former employees known as radium watch dial painters and others exposed to radioactive materials in the raw form, particularly painters of products for commercial use, on instrument panels in equipment used by the Armed Forces, and to the future benefit of uranium miners safety standards. The radium industry thrived in the early part of the twentieth century when many employees were unwittingly exposed to radioactive materials and its dangers were unknown. Lester Barter, Director of the Radium Research Project, stated that without Mrs. Rallo's contributions, "we would not have been able to attain such great success in studying the radium cases and our knowledge of the effects of radiation on man would be far less than it is today." In 1967, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which was conducting parallel studies in the New England area, established a satellite station, administered by Mrs. Rallo, in St. Mary's Hospital in Orange, New Jersey. Within a short time, this office became an extension of a longer research study based in the Argonne National Laboratory located in Lemont, Illinois. Today, the study of radioactivity on humans is part of the standard curriculum in medical schools throughout the country. In 1971, Mrs. Rallo retired for health reasons, until 1977 when, at age 62 she became a supervising nurse at the Memorial Center for Woman, a nursing home, to assist her son Douglas with the costs of his law school education. She was a 1994 nominee of the National Women's Hall of Fame. She is preceded in death by her husband, Vito Rallo, and an infant son, Vito. She is survived by four sons: Thomas V. (Bernice) from Succasunna, NJ, Louis from Port Momouth, NJ, David from Tuscon, AZ, and Douglas (Christine) from Libertyville, IL, nine grandchildren (Daniel, Sarah, Benjamin, Joseph, Peter, Juliette, Renee, John, and Robert), three great-grandchildren (Nicollette, Tyler and Nathanial), and beloved nieces Marilyn Furze, Paula Ford, and Beverly Krai. Services are private and will be held at BURNETT-DANE FUNERAL HOME, 120 W. Park Ave., Libertyville, IL. ln lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Cub Scout Pack, 95 c/o Douglas Rallo, 611 S. Milwaukee Avenue, Libertyville, Illinois 60048, or the Juvenile Diabetes and Research Foundation. Info: 847-362-3009.