Philanthropies
In the early 1990s he pledged $13 million of the $20 million required to build the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a hotel at the Vatican where cardinals and other dignitaries would stay on visits to the Vatican (and where they stay during elections of Popes). When he made the pledge his shares of President Casinos were worth $107 million but by 1996 his share of stock was valued at $14.7 million. He cut the pledge to $7 million and received a contract to exclusively sell reproductions of Vatican art in the United States. However the deal was eventually halted after he could not market the art beyond Pittsburgh.
His donations to Saint Louis University resulted in the school renaming the main dividing street for the campus from "West Pine Mall Boulevard" to "John E. Connelly Mall".
Read more about this topic: John E. Connelly