Marino Golinelli turns 99 and will blow out his many candles today at theBologna factory, in the citadel of knowledge and doing, created by the philanthropist with donations that, overall, are close to one hundred million euros. It is a privilege to live so long and so well, in physical and mental health, as Golinelli did and is doing; but it is an even greater privilege to be young and to meet this man and his concrete dreams, because one can live there and draw lessons and profit from them. We start as children and go on up to University and beyond, with business ideas that become real projects and products.
Golinelli with the Opificio has managed to create a world that reflects his loves and intuitions and to give it to the new generations, present and future. In fact, thanks to a trust, the Opificio is equipped with the resources to also look to the next 50 years. Science, technology, art and business come together in this imaginative training project aimed at students, researchers and teachers that is unmatched in Italy. His type of generosity, as he has repeatedly specified, is an Anglo-Saxon philanthropy. For those who don't know how to distinguish between one way and another of giving, it must be recognized that everything bearing Golinelli's signature is financed by him and driven by the desire to give part of what was given back to society.
In a beautiful interview with Marina Amaduzzi, in the Corriere Bologna, the philanthropist retraces the stages of this long journey that has led him to enter his hundredth year of life.
“At 19 – he says – they predicted that I would die, I had tuberculosis. Instead I made it and I'm still here. I have always tried to understand what life is and my slogan is 'live life'”. We are blood and heart, but also loves, relationships, fears, failures.
The traumatic experience convinced him to devote himself to healing the sick, but not directly, rather taking things from the beginning, from chemistry, from the elements that make up our bodies and our world. Since a degree wasn't enough for him, he also completed his studies in pharmacy and by mixing his knowledge, in a small laboratory, he put a multivitamin syrup on the market. From that seedling I biochemists Alfa flourished in 1948, which then expanded to Schiapparelli Farmaceutici, then to Wassermann. Today the branches of this company, which is called AlfaSigma, reach all over the world. Among its most famous products is Normix, one of the best-selling medicines in the world. With that drug Golinelli became rich and that could have been the end of the story. The beautiful parable of a poor man who could have died young but instead survived and made money thanks to his talent. Closing credits in the villa, among many people who pay homage to the landlord and take their bows. Instead Golinelli aspired neither to the villa nor to the bow, but to something more. TO understand others through art, to help young people to face an unpredictable world, to leave a trace more important than themselves. And this, perhaps, is the fuel that fueled him for the rest of the story.
“I come from a peasant family from San Felice sul Panaro – he recalls – My parents collected milk and eggs, I lived among the cows. Those who have had luck like me, and a little merit, want to give part of that fortune back to society and thus the Foundation was born".
The slogan he has chosen for his creation is “The intelligence of being there. That is, to be part of the growth process of all of us”. And Golinelli is there, with his experience, his strength, his generosity, his will to live and his youth. As it also demonstrates the exhibition that will be inaugurated at the Opificio on November 19 "U.mano". It is the “sum of the relationship between art and science. The entrepreneur has a moral responsibility and in the final minutes, when one wonders why one has lived, I will be able to say: because I have done things for others”.
