A. Paul Lanzillotta, 90, an Arlington attorney who was a longtime donor and volunteer with Catholic Charities and a former board member of Marymount University in Arlington, died Jan. 30.
Paul and his wife, Ann Gallagher Lanzillotta, were among volunteers who founded the annual diocesan Catholic Charities Ball, which has raised millions of dollars to benefit the community over the past 40 years. Ann died in 2020.
Stephen Carattini, president and CEO of diocesan Catholic Charities, said Lanzillotta was “an ardent and faithful supporter of Catholic Charities for decades, and served as a member of the Special Gifts Committee for many years. We are grateful to God for his life and his generosity.”
Lanzillotta served on Marymount’s Board of Trustees from 1979 to 2004, and received an honorary doctorate of letters in 2007. He helped shape the institution as a former faculty member and generous supporter, the university said in a statement.
“I had the honor of getting to know both Paul and his wife, Ann,” said Marymount President Irma Becerra. “The Lanzillotta family will always be a model for our university’s core value of service to others, as they put that value into practice every day.”
“In the over 40 years that I knew Paul, he was a role model for his tireless efforts to serve his church, his community and his family,” said Julie Atkins, a retired Marymount professor and fellow parishioner of St. Ann Church in Arlington. “There are certainly many people in Arlington who are better for having known Paul and Ann.”
A native of Revere, Mass., Lanzillotta graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s in business administration in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army on active duty from 1953 to 1955 and in the Army Reserves until 1961. After marrying Ann in 1959 and moving to Arlington in 1962, he worked for what is now the U.S. Government Accountability Office traveling the country auditing various government facilities before starting law school. He graduated from Georgetown University in Washington with a juris doctor in 1961 and masters of law in taxation in 1964.
Lanzillotta started and ran for almost 35 years the Trust Department for First Virginia Banks, Inc. (formerly BB&T and now Truist) where he served as a mentor to many over the years. He joined the law firm of Manning, Murray, Barnett & Baxter in 1996 and retired in 2020. He taught at George Mason University Law School in Fairfax and Marymount University, and lectured at the Georgetown University Law Center. He served as an expert witness in estate and trust administration litigation. He was a longtime member of the Trust and Estate sections of the American Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar and the Arlington Bar Association.
His other community and professional service activities have included serving on the board of Virginia Hospital Center; as a past president and board member of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia; as a board member of Capital Caring and as co-chair of its Planned Giving Committee; as a past president of the Northern Virginia Estate Planning Council; and as a member of the Arlington County Supplemental Retirement System Board. He was active in the Arlington Kiwanis Club and president of the Arlington Kiwanis Foundation. He received the Arlington County Inter-Service Club’s Man of the Year Award, among other honors.
An avid golfer, Lanzillotta played at Washington Golf and Country Club in Arlington and at Cripple Creek in Bethany Beach, Del., where his family had a summer home for 45 years.
He is survived by his children, Mary Katherine Lanzillotta (and husband, Lee Becker), Susan Lanzillotta, and John Lanzillotta (and wife, Stacey Lanzillotta); grandchildren, Morgan and Keegan Lanzillotta; step-grandchildren, Michael Becker (and wife, Rachel Becker) and Bryan Becker (and wife, Lara Berenji); and great step-grandchildren, Lindsey, Emmett and Milo Becker.
A funeral Mass will be Feb. 12 at 11 a.m. at St. Ann Church in Arlington, with in-person attendance limited to extended family. The Mass will be live-streamed.
The family said an outdoor celebration will be scheduled in early fall. Memorials may be made to diocesan Catholic Charities or to the Lanzillotta Family Scholarship at Boston College.
