Maryrita F. "Rita" Sweeney

Sweeney Maryrita F. "Rita" Former President and COO of Dorland Global, a leading healthcare communications company based in Philadelphia, passed away surrounded by family after a sudden illness on November 17, 2025. She was 85. A trail blazer in the healthcare marketing business, one of the first women in the industry, a tireless worker and outspoken women's rights advocate, avid traveler and devoted family woman, Rita was defined by her can-do spirit and the maxim she lived and worked by, borrowed from Benjamin Franklin,"When you're finished changing, you're finished." Born in Washington, D.C. in 1940, to Camille Cottini Fortuna, a homemaker, and Joseph William Fortuna, an expert leatherworker and small business shoe repair owner, Rita was raised, along with her beloved brother, Dr. Joseph Fortuna, in Bethesda, Maryland. Rita attended Ursuline Academy for high school, and Georgetown Visitation Junior College and George Washington University, excelling in liberal arts and developing a keen interest in interior design. She was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. In 1960, through her lifelong friend, Nancy Howar O'Sullivan, Rita met Harry A. Sweeney, Jr. of Ventnor, NJ, a man Rita says, "I knew right away would never bore me." Rita was right. She and Harry were married in 1961 and set their sights on New York City where they moved and raised three daughters while Harry worked as a copy writer and creative director in the heady days of Madison Avenue advertising and Rita worked as a literary publicist serving such storied clients as Gloria Steinem and Ms. Magazine. In New York, Rita was also a proud member of the New York Junior League whose mission is to advance women's leadership for meaningful community impact. Always maintaining a summer home on Absecon Island in NJ, in 1971, Rita and Harry purchased the Dorland ad agency, founded in 1853 and based in Atlantic City. As entrepreneurs Rita and Harry built their business there before moving the company and their family to Philadelphia in 1977. Together with Harry and talented colleagues, Rita helped transform the company into a global healthcare communications enterprise. Her pioneering work integrating public relations with traditional advertising resulted in award-winning campaigns and success for her colleagues and clients, including the international product launch for the first-ever blockbuster drug, Tagamet, and extensive work in the rapidly changing field of vision care with clients such Bausch and Lomb, Ciba Vision and VISX. Embracing the continuously-changing environment of healthcare marketing, at 52, Rita attained a business degree at University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. She was instrumental in working with the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) to create the annual Institute for Advanced Advertising Study. She was also a fierce advocate for women in the workforce, championing and encouraging women with opportunities for career advancement, and creating an environment where Working Moms would thrive. Rita was a national board member of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA), named one of the Top 50 Business Women in Philadelphia and received the Philadelphia Region Small Business Person of the Year Excellence Award. She also demonstrated her dedication to community by spearheading several pro bono projects, which included SCAN (Stop Child Abuse Now), NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression), and both she and her husband Harry were passionate educators in the Margaret Roper Forum, a Catholic faith community concentrating on the religious education of children, social action, and life-long learning for adults. Through it all, Rita was a strong family matriarch with a generous spirit and sense of humor providing loving counsel, motivation and hospitality for her family, extended family, numerous friends, former co-workers and clients. Rita is pre-deceased by her husband of sixty three years, Harry A. Sweeney Jr., her brother, Dr. Joseph A. Fortuna, and is survived by her beloved family: daughters Celeste Sweeney Richardson, Camille Sweeney (husband, Josh Gosfield) and Margaret Sweeney Fortier; four grandchildren, Isabella Richardson, Harry Richardson, Roxana Gosfield and Everett Fortier (father, Michael Fortier); in-laws Mary R. Fortuna, Paul and Carol Sweeney, Peggy and Tom Sykes and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. If you are so inclined, in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Saint Joseph's University at Giving in Memoriam Rita and Harry Sweeney or can be mailed to University Advancement, Saint Joseph's University, 5600 City Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19131.