Lori Piccolo Bruno: Who Is Brian Piccolo’s Daughter?

Lori Piccolo Bruno is the daughter of popular American professional football player Louis Brian Piccolo. Lori’s father Brian Piccolo made a career in the National Football League (NFL) as a halfback for the Chicago Bears. He is known for his friendship with Bears teammate Gale Sayers, nicknamed the “Kansas Comet”.

Lori Piccolo Bruno: Bio Summary

Who Is Brian Piccolo’s Daughter, Lori?

Lori Piccolo Bruno is the oldest of three daughters. She is the daughter of Brian Piccolo (October 31, 1943 – June 16, 1970) and Joy Murrath. Lori was 4 1/2 years old at the time her father passed away in 1970. This means that Lori was born in the year 1965. She will be 58 years old in 2023. She has two younger sisters.

Lori’s sisters are Traci Piccolo Dolby and Kristi Piccolo. Traci helps run Dolby Packaging with her husband John. Kristi is a senior producer at MERGE. Lori works alongside her sisters and their mother through the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. Her mother Joy is the president of the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund.

The fund “supports innovative cancer research initiatives that improve care for patients and honor the memory of Brian Piccolo, the Chicago Bears running back whose life was cut short by cancer at age 26,” says their website. “Since its inception in 1970, the fund has committed nearly $10 million to the development of improved diagnostic tools and more effective treatments.”

Through research at its partner institutions, the Fund is “providing hope for cancer patients everywhere.” Lori’s paternal grandparents were Joseph Piccolo and Irene Piccolo. She became the stepdaughter of Rich O’Connell after Rich got married to her mother. Rich is the son of a Chicago cop. He made his livelihood in the ready-mix concrete business.

Rich O’Connell is said to have sold the ready-mix concrete business and began sales with a Chicago area company. Lori’s parents Brian Piccolo and Joy Murrath were married on December 26, 1964. They remained married until Brian passed away. It was three years after Brian’s death that Joy married Rich O’Connell.

Joy became Joy Piccolo O’Connell. Lori has two stepbrothers, Tom and Mike O’Connell, born from her mother’s marriage to her stepdad Rich O’Connell. Lori studied at Wake Forest University. She volunteered at The Catholic University of America’s Office of Advancement as a Member of, the University Advancement Social Justice Committee.

ALSO, READ: Kristi Piccolo: Everything About Brian Piccolo’s Daughter

Lori Piccolo volunteered as a Board Member at the Human and Civil Rights Organizations of America. As a board member, she participated in meetings discussing the finances, budgeting, planning, etc. of HCROA. She also volunteers at the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund as a Committee Member.

Lori Piccolo Bruno is a “fundraising expert with over 30 years of experience in a nonprofit fundraising, ranging from Washington, DC-based national and international advocacy groups to direct services organizations to universities,” according to her LinkedIn account.

Lori Piccolo Bruno’s specialties include “foundation and corporate relations, federal grants, major gifts, board development, fundraising mentoring, event planning, communications, branding, prospecting, fundraising and strategic planning, systems development, team building, and management.”

Lori has been working as the Vice President, Institutional Funding at the Covenant House International since September 2022. She had previously worked at The Catholic University of America as an Assistant Vice President, Institutional Partnerships, as an Executive Director, Institutional Partnerships, and as a Senior Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations.

Lori Piccolo Bruno was a development Director at the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. She was a senior fundraising consultant at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. She served as a Development Director at Children’s Law Center. She worked at the Washington Office on Latin America as a development director.

Lori was an associate director of Development, Foundations and Corporations at People For the American Way. She has worked as a Development Officer at the National Museum of Health and Medicine Foundation. She was a Major Gifts Manager for Public Citizen from May 1991 to March 1994.

Lori Piccolo Bruno is believed to be married but details of her marriage or husband are unavailable. She has kept her personal life away from the public domain. She is said to be a mother.

ALSO, READ: Traci Piccolo Dolby: Inside The Life Of Brian Piccolo’s Daughter

Lori Piccolo Bruno’s Father Lost His Battle With Cancer

Lori Piccolo Bruno’s father Brian Piccolo died at the age of 26, on June 16, 1970, in New York, New York, U.S. Brian died of embryonal cell carcinoma, a rare testicular cancer. He was buried at Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery in Evergreen Park, Illinois. After his death, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund was founded.

Brian’s family (his daughters and wife) became advocates for cancer research. They help raise awareness about the disease that had taken their beloved husband and father’s life. Since his death, over $13 million has been raised for cancer research in his name—about $10 million by the Brian Piccolo Research Fund and over $3 million by Wake Forest.

“It’s incredible, it really is,” Lori said. “When you think about somebody who died at 26, to have someone who made that kind of impact on the world and have so many people who loved him and cared about him and wanted to make sure that what happened to him never happened to anyone else again, that’s incredible to me.”

ALSO, READ: Joy Murrath: Where is Brian Piccolo’s Wife Now?

“That people rallied like that, organized all the fundraisers through the years. That the Bears organization was in from the get-go in terms of supporting everything that we did, it’s just incredible to me to think that that is one of his lasting legacies. What an incredible tribute to him.”

Lori Piccolo Bruno said of her father: “We lost him when we were so little … 4, 3 and 1. So to have all these tributes and to have all these stories that people share with us really helps fill in our own memories. On the one hand it’s sad that we learn more about him in death than we did in life, but the fact that we have the opportunity to do that is just invaluable.”