Mary
is the only daughter of Norman and Lucy Rump. Born at St. Joseph's Hospital in the Pittsburgh's
Southside on August 21, 1952, she grew up in Whitaker,
a small town next to West Mifflin. Mary's father is of German decent and her mother is Italian.
Mary
graduated from West Mifflin North High School
in 1970. After graduation, Mary went to the
Pittsburgh Beauty Academy where she trained
as a cosmetology teacher. After working a few years as a hair stylist, she found this profession different from what she had expected. Mary then decided it was time for a new career, and she became an administrative assistant.
For Mary, she found this profession a little more interesting, and became employed working for the Drug Enforcement where she learned about how drugs can cause such an array of problems.
Soon after,
Mary was married and had her first child, Nicole,
on June 18, 1976. Nicole was two weeks late,
but what a beauty. Her eyes were so wide, bright
and beautiful, and right away, Mary could see
that this child was going to be a spitfire.
Eight
years later,
on March 26,1985, Natalie was born. Natalie
is totaly different from Nicole. While Nicole
is fair skinned like her German ancestors and blue-eyed, Natalie is dark skinned like her Italian ancestors and brown-eyed.
After
Natalie was born, Mary decided to begin a new
life as a single parent. That was a very difficult decision but a necessary one. It was a marriage that seemed destined to fall apart from the beginning. As a single parent,
Mary felt it important to get a college degree in order
to support her two children. So, she enrolled
at Carlow College and graduated with honors
in 1991.
Before
graduation from Carlow, Mary worked as an intern at the gift shop
at Pittsburgh's Mercy Hospital. There she met Steve
Dunn and they began to date. Two years later, they
married on February 5, 1993 and the Dunn Family began.
Mary
felt it important to continue her education
and enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University's
Master's program for Public Management. In 1996,
Mary graduated with distinction and received
her Master's Degree.
Mary
has a diverse background as she has worked in
many positions that included a major utility
company, and a regional planning organization as well as a non-profit organization. Mary has even worked as a freelance writer for the Pittsburgh
Post Gazette. You can see some of her articles
at the Post
Gazette web site.
Recently, Mary began writing a travel column for Heartbeat Magazine, and one of Mary's artworks "Desolation" was featured in Infuze.
Now, Mary is working for a professional engineering company as a project manager.
Some of Mary's interests include:
- First
and foremost, God and her family
- Genealogy
- Oil
Painting, Charcoals, and Watercolor
- Cooking
- Designing
Websites. (She just completed a site for Pittsburgh
Region Clean Cities)
- Most recently, Mary opened her very own online store featuring some of her artwork.
