Mary Pivirotto Murley, known to fellow Princetonians and friends as Mimi, says Princeton is a felt presence in her life, every day. “I carry with me a sense of responsibility for the opportunities Princeton offered me,” she says. “In my mind, that translates into a life of service to the University and my community.”

Even were she not a dedicated volunteer, she has a lot of Princeton, past and present, in her life: Her grandfather, Albert H. Burchfield Jr.’25; her father, Richard R. Pivirotto’52, a former trustee and member of two undefeated Princeton football teams; her husband, Robert S. Murley ’72, a charter trustee and co-chair of the Aspire campaign; a brother, Richard R. Pivirotto Jr. ’77; and two daughters, Mary ’07, also known as Mimi, and Megan ’10. Son Scott attended Dickinson College.

Closely involved in the planning of Whitman College, she and her husband funded the Murley-Pivirotto Family Tower, which will serve as a beacon to generations of students, inspiring them to higher personal and academic accomplishment and, Murley said she hopes, to a strong connection to family.

When cataloging her Princeton volunteer service, it’s hard to know where to start. A tireless worker for the Class of 1976, Murley is a former class president, class agent, special gifts chair, and longtime Annual Giving volunteer. She was a five-year member of the Women in Leadership steering committee. She has served the University on its Schools Committee and the Alumni Council’s Committee on Athletics.

She is currently on the board of Princeton Project 55 (PP55), a nonprofit organization that offers alumni opportunities to improve society. She also is co-founder (with classmate Illa Sharlene Brown) of Spirit of Service ’76. This new initiative offers a public health fellowship in New Orleans, to be administered through PP55 and the Pace Center, which is the University’s central resource for civic engagement.

A member of one of the Princeton’s first coeducational classes, she was an undergraduate English major. “Princeton gave me so much intellectually,” she says, “and valuable life experience as well.” Among other extracurricular activities, she was involved with the Foundation for Student Communication and the publication of Business Today. “I learned a great deal about the corporate world but I learned even more about the supportive network of Princeton alumni,” she says.

Murley gives as much of herself to her community as to her alma mater. In Chicago she is on the board of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary; on the Founder’s Board of the Children’s Memorial Hospital and the hospital’s foundation board; and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago. In addition, she is a junior warden of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest, Illinois, where the Murleys live.

Aspire claims her strong support. The Murleys’ daughters, both dancers, have benefited already from the increased focus on the arts, and she points to the environmental initiatives that will be served by the Engineering and a Sustainable Society priority: “This really touches the core of our stewardship of the planet.”