Alumnus’ $25 Million Gift Transforms Manhattan College’s School of Business

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Thomas D. O’Malley, class of 1963, and a former chairman of Manhattan College’s board of trustees, has provided the largest gift in Manhattan College history—$25 million—to increase student scholarships and grants, support innovative teaching and research, and enhance learning opportunities at Manhattan College’s School of Business.

The college’s School of Business now will be known as the O’Malley School of Business, with a formal dedication due in September.

O’Malley and his wife, Mary Alice, are the most generous donors in Manhattan College history. They provided the leadership gift to build the O’Malley Library on campus, and donated $10 million to support the construction of the Raymond W. Kelly ’63 Student Commons, named for O’Malley’s classmate and the former police commissioner of New York City.

“Mary Alice and I are pleased to continue our support for Manhattan College,” O’Malley said. “It’s an institution that has remained faithful to its core values. It provides a top quality education in a dynamic and open environment while…maintaining its Catholic identity. A very substantial portion of the student body supports Lasallian traditions of service to those less fortunate by volunteering in local, national and international support programs.”

The gift will help make a Manhattan College education accessible to students from all backgrounds, and will support teaching and research focused on the economics of energy.

“The O’Malley gift takes our School of Business to a whole new level,” said Brennan O’Donnell, president of Manhattan College. “It allows us to expand and deepen our curriculum and research, encourage innovative pedagogy, and strengthen our support for experiential learning.  We are extremely grateful to Tom, Mary Alice and their family for their steadfast generosity in supporting students, faculty and programs.”

O’Malley, who grew up in a working-class family on Staten Island, paid for his education by working as a school bus driver, taxi driver, cafeteria worker and New York City lifeguard. He graduated from Manhattan College in 1963, and after six months of service in the U.S. Army reserves, he joined the commodity trading company Philipp Brothers, and spent nine years living and working in Europe.

O’Malley worked his way up through the Philipp Brothers organization, returned to the United States in 1975, and was eventually named president of its energy division. In 1984, he was named vice chairman of Salomon Brothers, which eventually became the parent of Philipp Brothers. He left Salomon in 1986 to pursue private business interests, which included a substantial investment in a small oil refining corporation in California called Tosco. He became Tosco’s chairman and CEO in 1990 and built it into the largest independent oil refiner and gasoline retailer in the United States.

The company was sold in 2001 to Phillips Petroleum, where O’Malley was appointed vice chairman. He left Phillips in 2002 to accept a job at a privately held oil refining company, Premcor, which he built into an industry leader and ultimately sold to Valero Corp. His career continued in the oil refining sector through 2016, when he retired as chairman and CEO of PBF Energy, a publicly held oil refining company.

Tom and Mary Alice O’Malley have served on the boards of educational, health and charitable organizations. He was the chairman of Manhattan College’s board of trustees from 2005 to 2012 and served as a trustee from 1987 to 2002. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Manhattan College in 2012.

The O’Malleys, married for more than 50 years, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren. They now reside in Palm Beach, Fla., and maintain a home in Greenwich, Conn.