Inductees from 2008

James Burrill Angell (1829-1916)
Categories: Architects & Designers, Education & Universities, Famous RI Families, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Literature / Writers / Newspapers, Technology & Science

James Burrill Angell had a remarkably diverse career-- Brown University graduate, professor of languages, newspaper editor, university president, and diplomat. He is best known as the longest-serving president of the University of Michigan where he aspired to provide an 'uncommon education for the common man.'

Born on January 7, 1829, in Scituate, Rhode Island, Angell was the eldest of eight
children of Amy and Andrew Angell, and a member of an old-line Rhode Island family that traced its lineage to Thomas Angell who came to Providence with Roger Williams.

Although reared on an outlying farm, Angell had an excellent early education including a
year at the University Grammar School under the instruction of Henry Frieze, a teacher who would spend many years as professor and interim president of the University of Michigan. Read more >
George Byron Champlin (1851-1946)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Industry - Jewelry, Philanthropists

George Byron Champlin (1851-1946) was born in Providence on September 11, 1851, just after his old-line family had left their farm in southern Rhode Island to pursue new opportunities in the state's expanding capital city. George's father, Stanton B. Champlin, opened a produce business on Pine Street in the Downtown, but soon his interest turned to the jewelry industry. In 1872, twenty-one year old George joined his father to establish Stanton B. Read more >
LeBaron Bradford Colt (1846-1924)
Categories: Famous RI Families, Government & Politics, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Law / Legal Pioneers

LeBaron Bradford Colt was born in Dedham, Massachusetts to Christopher and Theodora (DeWolf) Colt. He and his equally famous brother, Samuel, had very influential forebears. On their maternal side, they were the grandsons of General George DeWolf of Bristol and the grandnephews of U.S. Read more >
Samuel Pomeroy Colt (1852-1921)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Famous RI Families, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Law / Legal Pioneers, Military

Samuel Pomeroy Colt, a brother of U.S. Senator LeBaron Colt, shared his sibling's impressive lineage. Born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1852 as the youngest of six children, he received his early education in Hartford, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1873, and from Columbia Law School in 1876. Read more >
Monsignor Charles Dauray (1838-1931)
Categories: Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Religion & Churches

Dauray, Charles, 1838-1931

Monsignor Charles Dauray, regarded by his contemporaries as the Dean of Catholic clergy in the Diocese of Providence, was born in Marieveille, Quebec on March 15, 1838. At the age of thirty-two he was ordained a priest and assigned to teach at a local college.

Dogged by ill-health and overwork, Dauray was granted a leave of absence and traveled southward to his brother's home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to recuperate. Soon, he began to immerse himself in the spiritual needs of the rapidly-growing French-Canadian population in that city. Read more >
Joseph R. DiStefano, Esq. (1938-)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Law / Legal Pioneers

Cities and states do not progress and prosper randomly. To thrive, they need leaders whose creative vision is matched by the drive, energy, and diplomatic skills that can draw together diverse people and disparate factions into a common – and ultimately successful – undertaking. Such a leader is Joseph R. DiStefano. Read more >
Maud Howe Elliott (1854-1948)
Categories: Artists & Painters, Famous RI Families, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Literature / Writers / Newspapers, Women

Elliott, Maud Howe, 1854-1948

Maud Howe Elliott lived a very long life and certainly made the most of it. She was born at the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston on November 9, 1854. Her father, Samuel Gridley Howe, a noted physician and social reformer, directed the institution, but most people became familiar with her mother, Julia Ward Howe, who wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic and later battled for the cause of women's rights.

Maud was the driving force behind the founding of the Newport Art Association and served as its secretary until she was eighty-seven years old. Read more >
Mayor John J. Fitzgerald (1871-1926)

John J. Fitzgerald (1871-1926) was born in Pawtucket where he attended local public schools. A brilliant student, he was one of the state's first Irish-Catholics to graduate from Brown University (Class of 1893). Fitzgerald earned a law degree at Georgetown University, established a hometown law practice, and in 1899 ran successfully for state representative. Read more >
Mayor John J. Fitzgerald (1871-1926)
Categories: Government & Politics

Fitzgerald, John J., 1871-1926

John J. Fitzgerald was born in Pawtucket where he attended local public schools. A brilliant student, he was one of the state’s first Irish-Catholics to graduate from Brown University (Class of 1893). Read more >
Dr. Ernest S. Frerichs
Categories: Education & Universities, Religion & Churches

Ernest S. Frerichs is a man of three careers and a graduate of three New England universities: Brown, Harvard, and Boston. Born in Staten Island and educated in the public schools of New York City, Dr. Frerichs served with the U. Read more >
Governor Lucius F. C. Garvin, M.D. (1841-1922)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Government & Politics, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Medicine & Health Care

Garvin, Lucius F. C. (Lucius Fayette Clark), 1841-1922

Lucius Fayette Clark Garvin's life was one of compassion, political struggle, tragedy and service to all. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee on November 21, 1841 to educated parents, his father, James, died when Lucius was only four and his mother, Sarah, a school teacher moved to Greensboro, North Carolina where she remarried and bore two more children. Read more >
John Milton Hay (1838-1905)
Categories: Education & Universities, Government & Politics, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation

Hay, John, 1838-1905

John Milton Hay was an Illinois native with deep Rhode Island roots that prompted him to select Brown as his college. Providence was the early home of his mother, Helen Leonard, whose father, Rev. David Leonard was in the Brown Class of 1792. At Brown, Hay was described as having “a retentive memory, a vivid imagination, and an ability to get along with the ladies. Read more >
Ira Magaziner
Categories: Government & Politics

Ira Magaziner grew up in New York and first came to Rhode Island as a student at Brown University. He graduated in 1969 as valedictorian of his class.

As an undergraduate student activist, Ira was instrumental in changing the curriculum at the Ivy League school. He subsequently attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar. Read more >
Mayor Patrick J. McCarthy (1848-1921)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Government & Politics, Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Immigrants: Irish

McCarthy, Patrick Joseph, 1848-1921

Mayor Patrick J. McCarthy was the only immigrant ever to serve as mayor of Providence. Born in County Sligo, Ireland in 1848, his family fled the Potato Famine in 1850 only to be quarantined on Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Both his parents died there. Read more >
John J. Partington (1929-2006)
Categories: Civic Leaders, Law / Legal Pioneers

Partington, John, 1929-2006

John Partington was born in the Valley Falls section of Cumberland, the son of the late Williard F. And Mary C. (Hogan) Partington, and he remained a lifelong Cumberland resident. From 1955 to 1967 John served as a police officer in his native town. Read more >
James Procaccianti
Categories: Business / Entrepreneurs

By almost any measure, James Procaccianti is an American success story. His pre-eminent position in the world of real estate reflects the strong set of values and work ethic instilled in him by his parents, combined with his own instincts for profitable real estate deals and his round-the-clock passion for excellence.

Jim learned the basics of real estate, not from a textbook, but from his parents, Armand and Eve, who began acquiring residential and commercial real estate in 1964. At age fourteen, Jim began spending time after school collecting rents or working on maintenance crews. Read more >
Sen. John Francis "Jack" Reed (1949-)
Categories: Government & Politics

U.S. Senator Jack Reed was born in 1949 and raised in Cranston. His father, Joe, was a Cranston school janitor who worked his way up through the ranks to become the custodial supervisor of the city's school system. Read more >
David R. Stenhouse
Categories: Civic Leaders, Sports - Baseball

David R. Stenhouse’s well-rounded career includes playing high school, college, and professional sports; college coaching; business; fundraising; and community service. For his athletic attainments, he has been inducted into the University of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island College Halls of Fame.
A native of Westerly, Dave was a star athlete at Westerly High School before enrolling at URI in 1951 on a baseball and basketball scholarship. Read more >
Chief Justice John Henry Stiness (1840-1913)
Categories: Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Law / Legal Pioneers

John Henry Stiness (1840-1913) was born to a family with strong New England civic and military roots. His great grandfather, Samuel, served in Colonel John Glover’s famous maritime regiment during the American Revolution, and his grandfather was sailing master aboard the schooner Growler on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812.

In August, 1861, after attending two years at Brown and teaching at Hopkins Grammar School in what was then North Providence, Stiness enlisted in the 2nd New York Artillery, eventually seeing Civil War action at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was discharged honorably on physical disability in 1862, returned to Providence, studied law in the offices of Thurston and Ripley, and was admitted to the Bar in 1865. Read more >
Marjorie Joy Vogel (1930-2007)
Categories: Architects & Designers, Artists & Painters, Women

Born in Dayton, Ohio on October 31, 1930, the daughter of Theodore and Margaret (Burke) Suman, Marjorie received her B.Sc. in Business/Psychology at Kentucky’s Bowling Green University. Her early years gave little indication that she would become the most prolific artist ever of Rhode Island’s architectural, or built, landscape. Read more >
Simon Willard Wardwell (1849-1924)
Categories: Historians/Historical Accounts, Preservation, Industry - Textiles, Inventors & Inventions

Simon Wardwell, 1849-1921, was a 19th-century visionary industrialist, patenting numerous machines for improving the manufacture of textiles and clothing items.

The manufacture of textile machines in the Blackstone Valley was a crowded field, not for the faint of heart; it was like making cars in Detroit or steel in Pittsburgh. However, for Simon Willard Wardwell, it was a place not only to build products for other producers but also a place to build a reputation.

During a lifetime of bright ideas Wardwell amassed one-hundred-and-seventy patents. Read more >
John A. "Jack" White, III (1942-2005)
Categories: Literature / Writers / Newspapers, TV & Radio

Jack White (1942-2005), a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter known for his investigative skills, began his long and distinguished career at the Newport Daily News in 1969. He then became a member of the Providence Journal's reporting staff where he exposed President Nixon's underpayment of income taxes. His articles prompted Nixon to utter his infamous line, “I am not a crook,” and caused the president to pay $432,787.13 plus interest in back taxes. Read more >