Mr. Edward G. Venti

Edward G. Venti established the Venti Scholarships in memory of Maureen Tracy Venti. Maureen earned her B.A. in English from UMass Amherst in 1972 and later went on to serve as a member of the College of Humanities & Fine Arts Alumni Advisory Board and the College’s Scholarship Committee. Born in Pittsfield, MA, Maureen grew up in Lanesborough. She considered her time at UMass to be transformative, particularly when she participated in a program teaching on a Pueblo Reservation in Taos, NM. After graduating, Maureen moved to Boston and worked for Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation and the New England Life Insurance Company, while also earning a Master of Education degree from Boston College. Maureen then joined Microsoft Corp. Upon retiring from Microsoft, Maureen created a publishing company called Stella Luca Press where she was affiliated with Artists at the Amory in Key West, FL, an ai1istic and cultural community. During this time she received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. Her love of books and art in every form was the inspiration for Stella Luca Press. Maureen founded Stella Luca Press in 2010 with the notion that publishing is an art form, one that adds a third dimension to literature and works of art. Maureen was married to Eddie Venti for 39 years. She loved the outdoors and was passionate about hiking, biking, skiing, and she also participated in sprint triathlons. She enjoyed traveling abroad and visited many countries including Italy, Ireland, Spain, and Cuba. This is where her artistic abilities shined the brightest, as Maureen was able to draw on those travel experiences to inspire her many books and poems that she published with Stella Luca Press.