Ernest Mario, an influential industry leader, researcher and philanthropist who graduated from the Rutgers pharmacy school that now bears his name, died Oct. 20 in North Carolina after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 86.
“He loved the profession of pharmacy,” said Joseph Barone, the dean of Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. “He said it was because the profession did good for patients. I know that sounds simplistic, but he always felt that the pharmacist had a very important role in patient care in all its different iterations, whether it’s community pharmacy, hospital, industry or at the FDA.”
Mario came from modest beginnings. He was born in Clifton, N.J., to immigrant parents. His father worked as a custodian and his mother, a house cleaner and they lived in a basement apartment. He graduated from high school at 16 and went on to graduate from the then-Rutgers College of Pharmacy in 1961.
His career spanned six decades. He began as a pharmacist and researcher and ultimately the CEO of Glaxo and then its worldwide corporation Glaxo Holdings, where he played a pivotal role in the company's growth. Most recently, he served as chairman and CEO until 2014 at Soleno Therapeutics, which specializes in the development of treatment of rare diseases. He remained its chairman until his resignation only two months ago in August 2024.
In 2007, he received the Remington Honor Medal, considered the highest honor one can receive in pharmacy.
Though his education and career took him all over the country and the world, Mario would always return to his roots in New Jersey and to Rutgers.
“He would call me and say, ’Hey, Joe, I’m going to be in New Jersey. Can I visit the school?’ and I’m like, ‘Ernie, your name is on the building. Of course, you can visit the school,’” Barone recalled.
Mario continued to offer guidance and advice to Barone and his predecessors. “He always loved being around the students,” said Christopher Molloy, former dean of the school currently serving as a professor of pharmacology and toxicology. Molloy recalled Mario’s appearance at a graduation ceremony. “He never used notes. He would be completely off-the-cuff. He spoke to the graduating students, talking about the way he progressed in his career, the kinds of things they should pay attention to. He was always very down-to-earth, not arrogant and always concerned about young people.”
He was also the founding chair of the Duke University Health System Board of Directors.
His service as a trustee of Duke University spanned 18 years, making him the longest serving nonfamily trustee in the school’s history. In 2009 he was awarded the University Medal for distinguished meritorious service, Duke's highest recognition of service to the school.
Mario leaves behind a legacy of giving. The Mario Family Foundation was created in 1997 as a charitable organization to support education and economic opportunities and historic preservation.
In recognition of his generosity to Rutgers, in December 2001, the school was renamed from the College of Pharmacy to the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. Barone said Mario supported innovative programs. For example, Barone said that Mario provided the seed money when the school created the Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowships, the largest of its kind in the country that is designed to provide training at pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.
He and his family’s foundation continued to endow scholarships for the pharmacy school’s dual degree program, which allows pharmacy students to pair their pharmacy degree with the medical degree.
“He never forgot where he came from,” said Barone. “The generosity that he had for our school, for our students, for scholarship support was immeasurable. Many of our students are first-generation going to college and to have those students be able to attend our pharmacy school is amazing.”
In 2012, Mario told the University of Rhode Island, from where he received his master’s and then his doctorate in physical science, the reasons behind his philanthropy.
“I don’t look at my philanthropic activity as necessarily giving something back,” he said in the video which was posted after his contribution to that school. “I look at it from the standpoint that I will provide funding and vehicles so that young people who are the beneficiaries of this are able to be as good as they can be.”
He also served in leadership roles in the nonprofit sector, including the American Lung Association, the President’s Council on Fitness, and Robert Wood Johnson Hospital among others. Dr. Mario also served on various university boards of trustees, including at Rutgers from 1986-1992.
He will also be remembered “for his love of family get-togethers, classic Corvettes, sitting in the sun working the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, and making enormous pots of his famous spaghetti Bolognese to be shared around a large table. He had formidable card-playing skills, which he continued to display and teach to his grandsons right up until his final weeks,” according to his obituary.
A public memorial event will take place at the Edith Memorial Chapel in Lawrenceville, N.J., on Dec. 7 at 2 p.m.
“He was a truly authentic individual,” Barone said. “He made you feel like you were a lifelong friend. He always took a sincere interest in people. Once you met him, you knew him, and you loved him.”
