URI QuadAngle Fall 2016

FALL 2016

Kelp, the New Kale

QUADANGLES

Host to critical ecosystems, it’s also a locavore trend. Sea-to-plate veggies, anyone? | 20

The POW Propaganda Experiment Captured German intellectuals worked a top-secret mission at what is now URI's Bay Campus. | 26

Soldier. Student.

Page 12

innovate for the future In November, Rhode Island voters will be asked to support a $45.5 million bond referendum for engineering and innovation. Just over half, $25.5 million, will help URI complete new and updated engineering facilities to support the work of researchers like Otto Gregory. The rest will support a University-affiliated Innovation Campus.

Together with state leadership, community and business partners, we envision a campus where universities and businesses will collaborate on cutting-edge research that can be applied to create new products and services that will benefit the Rhode Island economy and the world.

Your vote is a vote of confidence in our faculty, students and business partners, their ability to engineer and innovate, and in Rhode Island’s economic revitalization.

YES ON QUESTION 4 IN NOVEMBER.

Professor Otto Gregory is working to make the world a safer place.

The chemical engineering expert has developed a game-changing sensor able to sniff out traces of triacetone triperoxide, or TATP—an explosive commonly used by suicide bombers.

QUADANGLES FALL 2016 | VOLUME 24, NO. 1 FEATURES

12 The War Gap Amid an influx of veterans not seen since WWII, the University seeks ways to support a mission-driven, but far from standard, class of students.

BY ELLEN LIBERMAN

20 Kelp Me It’s everywhere, and we finally noticed.

Inside the left-coast politics of kelp forests, and one man’s sustainable sea-vegetable venture in Narragansett Bay.

BY TODD MCLEISH

26 The Secret POW Camp that Fought Nazi Ideology An incredible and little known story from WWII: the University’s Bay Campus was host to a prisoner-of-war camp with a top-secret mission to re-educate other captured soldiers.

BY PAUL KANDARIAN

MORE ONLINE

uri.edu/quadangles

Ondrej Honka '18 at the Rio Olympics A student athlete blogs on what it’s like working at the games.

Low Tide Love Student Tommy Schubert with his band Tipling Rock went viral with a single that rose to the top of Spotify's Global Viral 50 chart.

BY BARBARA CARON

DEPARTMENTS 4 PRESIDENT'SVIEW 5 ALUMNIWRITE Mystical thrills from Uganda to China 6 NEWS&VIEWS 10 PRESSBOX 30 CLASSACTS News from your classmates 33 CLOSEUP Damita Davis ’97, M.S. ‘02 37 CLOSEUP Emily Pisano ’14 40 BACKPAGE Grooming an ornery ram On the cover: Alex Reppe ’16 and his service dog Icey.

COVER AND IFC PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; CONTENTS: COURTESY TODD MCLEISH; DAVID BLANEY

CONTRIBUTOR Rhode Islander Todd McLeish has been speaking and writing about the environmental for more than 20 years, including a stint at URI—and his recent “retirement” has seen him busier than ever, doing things like working as a naturalist guide on luxury cruises. So we were surprised when he told us how David Blaney ’03 caught him off guard during an interview aboard his fishing boat: I naturally asked about his customer base and whether people in Rhode Island would be willing to try a dish containing seaweed. As he talked about the foodie movement here and how everyone is a potential customer, all I could think was, ’Not me.’ I’ve eaten the same meal at my favorite pub every Friday for 26 years.

That’s when Blaney turned to the small refrigerator behind him and pulled out a salad on a china dish. It was quite attractive in green and gold and maroon, and I could smell the oil and vinegar. But I didn’t want to eat it. So I continued our interview, asking questions and typing into my laptop.

Eventually, I could think of only one more question. ‘You’re wondering when I’m going to eat that salad, right?’

‘Yup.’ I poked at the green sea lettuce, which he said was the entry level seaweed. It wasn’t bad. With the dressing, it was actually pretty good.

The next was crunchier but not difficult to get down. I struggled mightily with the third, however. I think I was picking pieces of it from my teeth as I drove away from the marina.

It wasn’t the first time I was forced to eat something challenging during an interview. While in northern Greenland to learn about the role of Arctic whales in the culture of the Inuit natives, I was offered a piece of muk-tuk—raw whale blubber—as part of a celebration following a successful narwhal hunt. I smiled and said yes, of course, since my health and safety during my week in Greenland was entirely dependent on the graciousness of the hunters.

By comparison, David Blaney’s seaweed salad was scrumptious. But let’s just say that I’m still far from what anyone would call a foodie.

For more on McLeish, who has published books on humpbacks, narwhals, and imperiled New England wildlife, visit toddmcleish.com.

FEEDBACK Write to us: pjack@uri.edu Read more online: uri.edu/quadangles Update your email address: pjack@uri.edu Dear Readers, If you served in the Peace Corps, or have historical memorabilia and stories, we’re still hoping to hear from you. We want to share your stories, and to do it, we need your help.

And to all those who already contacted us: Thank you! What a wealth of interesting tales. We look forward to presenting them in the magazine’s upcoming issues.

As always, email me about these things, or anything else on your mind, at pjack@uri.edu.

Thanks for reading.

—Pippa Jack Editor in Chief

Nannying No-No

I would like to comment on the letter from Brian McCarthy in which he castigated you for publishing a photo of a man in the bucket of a tractor [Feedback, June 2016].

You did nothing wrong, and neither did the man in the bucket.

The man has little risk of falling out of the bucket, since the bucket is tipped back and affords him a secure pocket-space. He does not need a harness, which is designed for use in cherry-picker buckets, where workers necessarily are leaning over the edge to do work. He does not need a flotation device, since the tractor, which is not amphibious, cannot be in deep water.

Finally, there is little risk of the bucket falling or pitching him out, since it is a stable hydraulic platform. But besides all this, the man depicted is an adult, as was the operator of the machine. Even if the action had been ill-advised, we need to let adults take responsibility for themselves. Let’s show a little respect for someone else’s judgment.

—Phil Noss, B.S.M.E. ’78 Puyallup, Wash.

Correction In the story Art of Argument in the June 2016 issue, we incorrectly referred to Professor of Communication and Film Studies Steve Wood as emeritus. Wood is still teaching and we apologize for retiring him early.

2 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

That Steelers Connection

I’m writing about your article about the Steelers that mentioned my brother Steve Furness [Back Page, June 2016]. Very interesting to learn about the history of how the Steelers came to URI. From my point of view, I can tell you it is part of a fascinating Rhode Island story of the relationship between our family, URI and the Steelers. We grew up in Warwick with my mom as disciplinarian. She wouldn’t let Steve play football during his first year at Hendricken—instead he played baseball, wrestled and marched in the band at football games, playing the clarinet or sax. He went on to have a stellar high school football career as a “big” fullback and linebacker, which continued with the help of a scholarship to attend URI. Steve was the first in our family to attend college, and we all spent a lot of time—like most URI families—attending football games and track meets and participating in various URI events. These were the days before the stadium was constructed and the “bubble” appeared, and we would take turns retrieving his hammer after throws in the scruffy open fields.

Steve played several years as fullback and eventually made a fateful decision to move to defensive line. Although considered by other pro teams, he was thrilled to be drafted by Pittsburgh in the fifth round in 1972, beginning his long relationship with the Steelers. Fortunately, the Steelers recognized his potential and helped develop him into a four-position defensive lineman. Over the years, the small town kid participated in a pro-football dynasty and obtained four Super Bowl rings.

As a result of our family experiences at the University, I also became a URI grad.

I then went to Pitt Law and was very fortunate to live for many years in Pittsburgh toward the end of Steve’s football career, allowing our family to continue to share in the many memorable events that resulted from the relationship created between the Steelers and URI long ago.

—Peter Furness ’79 Saunderstown, R.I.

Steelers Serendipity

A few weeks before school started, I, with other members of the cross-country team, reported to the University for early practice sessions. It was a pleasant surprise to share the Butterfield cafeteria with the Pittsburg Steelers, who were also doing training sessions at the URI facility.

Years later, at the most recent Golden Grad Reunion, I went to the newly renovated Butterfield Dining Hall and talked with the manager, Tom Cronin. He indicated to me that I was one of the few who remember the Steelers practicing and eating at URI—and he also said his father was the chef at that time! The Steelers gave his father an autographed football to thank him.

When I got home that evening and read QuadAngles, I was quite surprised to read Shane Donaldson’s article on the Steeler’s summer camp at URI. Kudos to Donaldson for refreshing our memories.

—Bill Masuck ’65 Pawtucket, R.I.

The Importance of Planners

I just got my copy of QuadAngles and read the lifeguard article [On Guards, June 2016] . I appreciated the way author Dave Lavallee mixed the present with the past. I also enjoyed his father-son article. My son is now 19 and not a lifeguard, but he does work full time at Narrow River Kayaks, so the water is in his blood too.

I have already gotten some ribbing for the picture. One guy MADE ME autograph his copy. I am semi-famous!

It’s ironic that I made it into QA based on my lifeguard career and not my 30 years as a town planner. Not complaining, mind you, but I have always admired the accomplishments of those graduates who have been highlighted for their contributions to engineering, nursing, the environment, etc.

I never thought my time in the orange would get me there.

On a serious note, the subject of city and town planning may be worthy of an article.

URI’s city planning program was dismantled in 2006, but there is talk of bringing it back.

What planners do is somewhat of a dying art: project community needs into

QuadAngles is a quarterly publication of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association.

The URI Alumni Association informs and engages current and future alumni as committed partners of the University, its mission and traditions.

E xecutive Editor Michele A. Nota ’87, M.S. ’06, Executive Director, URI Alumni Relations; Secretary, Alumni Association Executive Board Editor in Chief Pippa Jack, pjack@uri.edu

the future and work with decision-makers to prepare for the necessary tasks and funding to make things possible. It is often overlooked in local growth management, but can be the key step in setting of capital budget objectives and in managing (sometimes against public opposition) the process of making sound decisions for the entire town or city. Many graduates have gone on to become influential in the public domain, at both the town and state level, in Rhode Island and beyond, and I think readers would like to hear who they are, where they have gone and how they have influenced their communities.

It’s not a sexy profession, I’ll admit, but my colleagues and I toil in the trenches of public policy with the singular purpose of helping people live and work in a better environment than before. Almost everyone I work with as director of community development in Narragansett Town Hall says they would not want my job for anything. We try to make sense of every situation and find consensus—it’s a little like herding cats.

Anyway, thanks again for highlighting the work of the young people who keep our families safe in the summer. They are truly a special breed.

—Michael J. DeLuca ’80, M.C.D. ’88 Narragansett, R.I.

On On Guards

I loved the lifeguard story [On Guards, June 2016]. The page design and photography work nicely together, and the story reads equally well. I thought it was most successful in weaving the old guard, like Mike DeLuca, with the new.

As a former lifeguard myself—and the son of one—I can tell you that everyone who has ever guarded here knows, likes and respects Mike.

I bet the story resonated with many others, too, especially East Coasters— Rhodies of course, but also the N.Y. and Jersey alums who come here partly for the beach culture the University and area offer.

—Dean Welshman South Kingstown, R.I.

Art Director Kim Robertson

Contributing

Editors

Barbara Caron Dina M. Dionizio ’91 Shane Donaldson ’99 Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87 Kate O’Malley Elizabeth Rau

Contributing Johnson Ma

Designers Bo Pickard Verna Thurber Photographer Nora Lewis Digital Media Janine Squillante ’14

Marine Affairs Massachusetts

The latest edition of QuadAngles is great.

I enjoyed reading it on the plane this week while on a long flight across the country for a work-related trip. I especially enjoyed the articles on the Human Zoo film (shocking but important) and nanotechnology [Human Zoo, The Tiny Tech That’s Changing Everything, June 2016]. It was also nice to see a short article about the important work my program, marine affairs, is doing [A Missing Piece in Environmental Rights, June 2016].

I have worked for NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in Gloucester, Mass. for the past 16 years. Initially, I worked directly on fishery policy issues (11 years), but over the last five years I have taken on a broader role as special assistant to our regional director and leader of our communications team. So I’ve put my marine affairs degree to great use! In fact, we have a few other URI marine affairs grads working at our office.

I miss R.I. and try to get back down there as much as I can. I was just down there a few weeks ago helping a friend who works for the Narragansett Lab collect biological samples at the Snug Harbor shark tournament.

—Allison R. Ferreira Gloucester, Mass.

Our online readers told us that they particularly liked the lifeguard [On Guards] and nanotech [The Tiny Tech That’s Changing Everything] stories from our June issue. If you haven’t had a chance to read them yet, check them out at uri.edu/quadangles under the Past Issues link.

Editorial Board Kelly Mahoney ’03, Executive Director, External Relations and Communications Linda A. Acciardo ’77, Director, Communications and Marketing Tracey A. Manni, Director, Communications, URI Foundation

URI Alumni Angela Brunetti, Executive Assistant Relations Staff Alexis Giordano, Program Assistant Christina Haas ’05, Assistant Director Karen LaPointe ’77, M.B.A. ’84, Associate Director Kate Maccarone ’08, Assistant Director Nicole Maranhas, Associate Editor Mary Ann Mazzone, Office Assistant Amy Paulsen, Web/Print Editor Samantha Rodrigues ’11, Specialist Karen Sechio ’99, Assistant Director Amy Simonini, Assistant Director Samantha Stevens, M.S. '15, Specialist

Alumni Susan R. Johnson ’82, President Assocoiation Daniel G. Lowney ’75, President-elect Executive Board Louise H. Thorson, M.B.A. ’85, Past President Patrick J. Cronin ’91, Vice President Kathleen P. O’Donnell-White ’90,

Vice President Steven R. Frazier ’07, Treasurer

Alumni Assocoiation Councilors-

at-Large

Laurel L. Bowerman ’77, M.B.A. ’84 Matthew T. Finan ’11 Colleen M. Gouveia Moulton, M.B.A. ’98 Mackenzie K. Hofman ’12 Sulina M. Mohanty ’07 John J. Palumbo Sr. ’76 Joseph F. Penza Jr. ’69 Perry A. Raso ’02, M.S. ’06 Karen E. Regine ’81 Thomas F. Shevlin ’68

Alumni Assocoiation Representatives: Arts and Sciences, Nancy J. S. Ferrara ’88, M.B.A. ’97 Business Administration, Jordan D. Kanter ’99, M.S. ’00 Feinstein Continuing Education, Bianca S. Rodriguez-Slater ’10 Engineering, Anthony J. Rafanelli ’78, M.S. ’85, Ph.D. ’95 Environment and Life Sciences, Catherine N. Weaver ’82, B.L.A. ’96 Health Sciences, Christine S. Pelton ’84 Nursing, Silifat “Laitan” Mustapha ’97 Oceanography, Veronica M. Berounsky, Ph.D. ’90 Pharmacy, Henrique “Henry” Pedro ’76 URI Foundation, Lorne Adrain ’76 Faculty Senate, Diane E. Kern ’84, M.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’03 Student Senate, Cody Anderson ’17 Student Alumni Association, Anthony Kennedy ’17

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 3

PRESIDENT’SVIEW The 2016-2017 academic year will be a time for Thinking Big. That’s only fitting as we welcome the illustrious class of 2020, students who were selected from the largest—and most qualified—pool of applicants in URI’s history.

We’re thinking especially big this November, when we turn to Rhode Island voters to ask their approval for a bond that has the potential to further solidify our position as a premier public research institution.

Approval of Question 4—a $45.5 million bond leveraging higher education to create 21st century jobs—is all about making capital investments in higher education-related projects that foster innovation and economic growth.

Of the $45.5 million, $20 million will fund the University of Rhode Island Affiliated Innovation Campus. What is an innovation campus? We envision a center where universities and businesses will collaborate on cutting-edge research that can be applied to create new products and services. The state plans to run a competitive selection process to determine the location and type of campus or campuses to build. The winning proposal must involve URI, more than match the state’s investment with private and/or federal funds, include at least Arielle De Souza ‘16, whose parents grew up in one business partner, and spur a Grenada and Trinidad, spent the summer as a lead engineering instructor at a math and science camp substantial number of new jobs before leaving to start her masters at a top French at a variety of skill levels. engineering program in Paris. Her twin Annelle We couldn’t be more pleased is doing a masters in international business in that thanks to our strong relaBarcelona, so the sisters plan to see each other tionships with the state’s govoften. While working on ocean engineering in ernment, business, and higher France last year, Arielle also took a cooking class: education communities, URI “I make a mean quiche,” she says, “along with pretty great macarons.” Her message: “I hope URI can has been designated as the lead continue to push us millenials to think big.” institution in the innovation campus. It’s a testament to our increasingly visible commitment to Rhode Island’s economic development.

The remaining $25.5 million in the bond will allow us to embark on phase two of the College of Engineering renovation for which voters overwhelmingly approved $125 million in 2014. We remain extremely grateful for the role our alumni played in that victory. New bond funds will help us to construct an addition to historic Bliss Hall,

4

QUADANGLES FALL SPRING 2016 2016

the oldest College of Engineering building. We also plan to restore the building and upgrade building systems, improve classrooms, modernize teaching laboratories, and provide advanced research facilities for the next generation of engineering students and faculty.

I’ve written extensively in these pages about engineering, one of the pillars of our academic strength; each entering class has a stronger academic profile than the last. I want to share just one example of why investing in engineering through Question 4 matters.

Last May, Arielle De Souza received the prestigious French Consulate in Boston Excellence Award, which is given every year to a New England college student who has promoted French language and culture. The only woman selected in the award’s three-year history, Arielle graduated in May from our five-year International Engineering Program with impressive academic and co-curricular achievements. French was a new language for Arielle, but she pursued it with a passion. As part of the International Engineering Program, she spent six months at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne and then interned for six months at a French engineering company analyzing storm surge on the French Atlantic coast. Arielle, who has returned to France to pursue her master’s degree, beautifully summed up how she was shaped by her IEP experience: “It’s so important as a millennial to become a global citizen. You can’t fully understand yourself as a person until you’ve experienced another culture. We live in a global world.” The IEP prepares scholars like Arielle not only to live, but also to lead, in a global world.

Your vote in November will make a difference.

David M. Dooley

PHOTOS: JOE GIBLIN; COURTESY ARIELLE DE SOUZA

ALUMNIWRITE

ENTREPRENEUR,

How an international engineering career morphed into a three-book series

BY NICOLE MARANHAS Three years ago, civil and environmental engineer John Butziger ’91 had already traveled all over the world as a former partner of an innovative advertising technology company and the current chief operating officer of a medical device start-up. But unfinished business nagged at him. “I had always wanted to write,” says the East Greenwich, R.I. resident. “I started to feel that if I didn’t start now, I would never realize that dream.”

He began mapping out a plan for a three-book series, spending mornings and rare free hours (he is also a married father of three) researching and working on the page-turning first book, The Second Tree, a mystical thriller set partly in Uganda, that combines three of his passions—exotic locations, food, and supernatural phenomena—and draws heavily from his own travels and technical expertise.

Encouraged by his wife and friends, the first-time novelist relied on the discipline and problem-solving skills he first began honing as an engineering student at URI. “I’m not a fast writer,” he says.

“You can’t get overwhelmed. You have to take it in chunks and move at your own pace.”

He recently published the second book in his The Order series, Eden’s Revelation, and is working with the Uganda chapter of the African Film and Writer’s Society to develop The Second Tree as a film, all while plotting the third and final book of the trilogy and taking advantage of the booming self-publishing industry to release an audiobook version of the series. “It’s a lot of work to balance everything, but it’s a dream,” says Butziger. His advice for other aspiring writers: “Some people would hesitate because they don’t feel like the most fantastic idea has hit them, but once I started writing, other pieces of the story began folding in,” he says. “Don’t downplay the ideas you have now—they will lead into places you’d never imagine.”

Butziger shared the following excerpt from The Second Tree, after main character Andrew has been at work in his greenhouse, where he is growing an unusual fruit brought back from his travels in Uganda.

PHOTOS: COURTESY JOHN BUTZIGER

Andrew slowly opened his eyes, the muscles of his face resisting the crust that glued his lids together. His head was foggy as he awoke from unconsciousness. The shadows had lengthened and several hours must have passed since he fell from the ladder and onto the hard, packed earth of the greenhouse floor.

His glasses lay near his face and he reached for them, reflexively putting them on his face while he sat up. The nyoka trees and greenhouse blurred through the lenses of his glasses and he squinted hard. The lenses were just too powerful and hurt his eyes. He lifted them up above his eyes and saw clearly again. He switched back and forth a few times and removed them from his face. He must have a concussion—he wasn’t seeing clearly with his glasses at all.

His arm! He swiveled his head and clasped the pierced bicep with his good hand. Expecting a sharp pain, he felt nothing but his fingers gripping his upper arm. Had it been a dream, a hallucination? He removed his hand and studied the bloodied slit in his shirt sleeve. He opened the fabric with his fingers. Again blood stains, this time on his skin, but no cut. Not even a scar. Something glinted in the dying sunlight and caught his eye. Lying on the floor next to his leg, the blood-stained shears smiled menacingly up at him. It was no dream, no hallucination.

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 5

NEWS&VIEWS

Innovate for the Future Question 4, Engineering and Innovation Bond New Building

Bliss Hall & Addition

Kirk Improvements

This new engineering complex will bring disciplines together to transform research and teaching for our 1,500 (and growing!) students.

What is Engineering at URI

6  QUADANGLES  FALL 2016

u Undergrad degree programs: biomedical, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial and systems, mechanical, ocean; minors in nuclear engineering and engineering entrepreneurship u Innovative courses of study include 5 dual-degree engineering and foreign language programs at both the undergrad and graduate level; and a 5-year accelerated B.S. to M.S. degree u Grad students come to study in our engineering departments: chemical; civil and environmental; electrical, computer, and biomedical; mechanical, industrial, and systems; and ocean engineering RENDERING: COURTESY OF URI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ; ILLUSTRATIONS: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

$25.5 $20

Leveraging higher education to create 21st century jobs.

million for 2nd phase of new College of Engineering complex

million for public/private Innovation Campus See President's View, p.4

$63,300

Average engineering starting salary, highest in STEM fields (Forbes 2016)

96%

Class of 2015 employed or in graduate school

academia + industry = ECONOMIC GROWTH

57%

Employed in Rhode Island

49%

Growth in URI engineering enrollment since 2003

4,000+

750+

URI engineering alumni living in the Ocean State

R.I. companies employing URI engineers

Senior Projects, Engineering-Style A SAMPLING OF UNDERGRAD INVENTIONS IN 2016: Residential wind turbine that can supply power to refrigerators and other household appliances Drone that takes off and lands on water

Improved plastic-cutting machine

Device to prevent ice dams in winter

Small off-road car

Submersible that can inspect the core of nuclear reactors

Improved heat exchanger for potable hot water

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 7

NEWS&VIEWS

ove r h eard Hurricanes generate strong surface waves, which in turn create drag, slowing the surface winds.

Oceanography Professor Isaac Ginis on improvements his team has made to modeling for the 2016 hurricane season.

I am encouraged that you are here, and I hope you are, too…By coming together today, and looking at each other’s faces, we see that there is nothing to be afraid of.

President David M. Dooley, during one of the campus vigils held this summer following violent incidents across the country.

There were students who said they were struggling with their weight, with eating disorders, with sexual assault… These are things that are happening in our schools, and yet nobody wants to talk about them.

Elizabeth Miceli ’17, about talking to students at her former high school in North Kingstown, R.I., following the release of her novel Barren. A sequel, Consumed, is expected this fall.

France is a wealthy country but under pressure to change. The entire country of Cuba is now a laboratory for social change…Cooperativism may hold promise for both.’

Professor Richard McIntyre, chair of URI’s economics department, who has received the Visiting Chair of the Americas at the Institut des Ameriques in Rennes, France.

8 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Which brings us to the philosophical question: Are we in control of our personalities and consciousness, or are we simply under that impression while the chemicals and neurotransmitters control our personalities? And what really is consciousness, if it can be altered through ingestion of different substances?

Bailey Mallon ‘15, who will examine how recreational drugs can change someone’s personality at the National Institute for Drug Abuse this year.

PHOTO: NORA LEWIS.

The tremendous burden of brain disease in human suffering, its high cost to society and the paucity of new treatments are contributing to an emerging health crisis.

Research advances over the past decade illuminate the critical importance of neuroinflammation as exacerbating or causing brain disease. This missing link opens an entirely new area for therapeutic development.

Stevin Zorn, president and CEO of MindImmune Therapeutics, a Rhode Island drug discovery venture that will work with URI’s George & Anne Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and College of Pharmacy.

This year’s squad was more than half novice.

So we reset to create 100 percent novice crews.

Men’s Rowing Coach Bob Gillette, explaining how the club sport finished its 50th anniversary season with regional and national gold for its novice eight.

Pick a Price: Undergraduate Vicky Ferraro of Hopkinton, Mia Rao, the owner of Mia’s Kitchen in Kingston, and URI Assistant Professor of Mar keting Stephen Atlas gather for a photo during their research studying consumer purchasing behavior at Mia’s Kitchen.

Lunch: Would you pay if you didn’t have to?

A business professor explores a very different approach to dropping the check Naming your price isn’t usually a menu option, but an experiment

by Assistant Professor of Marketing Stephen Atlas shows it might leave both diner and restaurant owner feeling satisfied.

Atlas, whose research specialty is consumer-purchasing behavior, had heard of the phenomenon of pay-what-you-want pricing in some urban restaurants. Armed with a $15,000 URI grant to help offset potential business losses, he roped in Mia Rao, the owner of Mia’s Kitchen in Kingston, to explore a twist on the model: rebatedriven pricing.

In other experiments, Atlas explains, customers have been asked to simply set a price for their soup or sandwich. “They often elect to pay less than the menu price,” he says. “Although this may generate valuable news coverage, goodwill and customer feedback, it’s typically not a sustainable business practice.”

He wanted to know what would happen if customers first paid full price, then decided how much they got back. So he worked with Rao to set it up.

Diners came into the restaurant without suspecting they were being studied. Then, at the end of the meal, servers included a card with the check. Each card explained a randomly assigned tweak on the usual payment system. Some diners were offered the option of choosing to pay any portion of the menu price; others could request a full or partial rebate instantly; and others were asked to mail in a rebate form for any amount, including a full refund.

The results: After accounting for discounts, diners paid the most if they needed to mail in a rebate. They paid less if they picked their own price directly, and they paid the least when they picked their own instant rebate.

But the big surprise, Atlas says, was that in all three scenarios, diners still paid up—handsomely.

“After accounting for tips, diners averaged payments that were more than the asking price,” Atlas says, “despite being told when they received their bill that they could have received a free meal.”

In fact, of nearly 150 diners, nobody paid $0. Only four diners, or 3 percent, paid less than half of the asking price.

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 9

PRESSBOX

Persistence Pays Off for Coaching Fellow Rhode Island cornerbacks coach Diamond Weaver interned with the Steelers during training camp this summer through the NFL’s Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship.

Weaver, who is entering his third season as a member of Jim Fleming’s staff at Rhode Island, was in camp with the Steelers in July and August as an assistant defensive backs coach, working closely with Carnell Lake, the team’s defensive backs coach.

Now in his fifth season as a coach, Lake played 12 seasons in the NFL and was a five-time Pro Bowl selection.

It’s an opportunity that Weaver put old-fashioned work into creating. He hand-wrote letters to all 32 teams, and had letters of recommendation from Fleming as well as University of Rhode Island Director of Athletics Thorr Bjorn.

Weaver cold-called each organization to express his interest in the fellowship program.

“I knew going in I was going to have to be persistent,” Weaver says. “I got some good feedback and responses from several teams, and that only motivated me more.”

The approach paid off when Weaver received a phone call on a Tuesday late in April from Pittsburgh Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Line Coach John Mitchell. Mitchell asked Weaver to tell him a little about himself. Mitchell then asked what Weaver knew about Mitchell.

“I was honest, and I said I didn’t know much,” Weaver said. “So Coach Mitchell told me we would talk again that Friday, and in the meantime he wanted me to research his background.”

Weaver studied up, finding that the veteran coach was the first African-American to play for Alabama, where he was named a team captain in his second season. Mitchell also was the school’s first black assistant coach, as well as the youngest coach ever 10 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

hired at Alabama, when he joined the staff a year after his playing career ended.

Later he became the first black defensive coordinator in the history of the Southeastern Conference. Mitchell played for and coached with the legendary Bear Bryant, and during his 43-year coaching career also coached with legends Lou Holtz, Bill Belichick and Bill Cowher.

On Thursday of that week—a day earlier than expected—Mitchell called Weaver back.

“I told him it was an honor just to have the opportunity to speak with him,” Weaver said. “And actually spending time with someone of his character and experience is a special opportunity.”

It’s also an unusual one. While every team can invite up to seven interns through the program—last year there were a record 134 participants, including the first female, Jen Welter—most teams don’t bring in young candidates. Weaver is the first coach under the age of 30 to go through the program with the Steelers.

Weaver also will be working with Mike Tomlin, one of three current head coaches

in the NFL who are graduates of the Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship.

Tomlin was the defensive backs coach at the University of Cincinnati when he participated in the fellowship program with the Cleveland Browns in 2000.

“He is the face of this internship,” Weaver said. “As an African-American in this profession, Mike Tomlin is the trailblazer you want to follow. He is the exact example of what I want to become, and I could not be more excited to have the opportunity to learn from him.

“As a player, I wanted that opportunity to play in the NFL, but those doors didn’t open for me,” Weaver adds. “Now this opportunity as a coach. I am fortunate and blessed to have had the chance to represent the University of Rhode Island and put my best foot forward.”

Established in 1987, the program is named for the late Bill Walsh, the Pro Football Hall of Fame coach who conceived the idea. During the 2015 season, there were 61 graduates of the program serving as full-time coaches on NFL staffs in 2015.

Helping Vietnamese Kids Stay in School

Another Honor for Title IX Pioneer Lemaire Celebrating more than 40 years of service to women’s athletics, longtime URI Senior Associate Director of Athletics Ellie Lemaire was one of 15 individuals inducted to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Hall of Fame this spring. Lemaire, who worked here from 1976–1992, was honored during a ceremony at the Matrix Conference and Banquet Center in Danbury, Conn.

Throughout her career, Lemaire served as a teacher, coach, official, and administrator, while volunteering her time on numerous state and national committees.

She was an early and longtime advocate of Title IX and a respected consultant nationally in sports equity matters. Her dedication to championing opportunities for young women and her continued fight for the support of women’s athletics touched the lives of thousands of women.

In 1979, Lemaire became the fifth URI administrator to receive the school’s coveted Administrative Excellence Award, and in 1994, she was inducted into the URI Athletics Hall of Fame. The URI Athletics Department named its fundraising arm for women’s athletics after Lemaire in 2011, as the University’s most generous financial contributors in support of women’s athletics became part of the Ellie Lemaire Society. She was also this year’s honorary chairperson for An Evening of Grapes and Grain. Entering its eighth year, Grapes and Grain is the preeminent fundraiser for URI’s women’s athletics programs.

Lemaire came to Rhode Island in 1976 to serve as assistant athletic director. Under her leadership and guidance, women’s athletics grew to national prominence. A founding member of the Rhode Island chapter of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), she was appointed to the group’s national Committee on Men’s Athletics in 1977, and was president of both AIAW’s Eastern Region and Rhode Island organizations, among other appointments. She was recipient of the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators District 1 Administrator of the Year Award in 1994.

PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; COURTESY URI ATHLETICS

For most college undergrads, the summer break is a chance to head home and relax or make money working a part-time job. Some stay near campus to take classes.

For Rhode Island student-athletes Drew Siflinger and Meghan Ellis, this summer presented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity filled with new challenges, lifechanging experiences and personal growth.

Siflinger and Ellis were two of 65 college studentathletes from around the United States who spent time working with underprivileged children in Vietnam through the Coach for College program.

The Vietnamese children in the program are low-income, rural youth who are at risk of dropping out of school. The families of the children rely on farming and make the equivalent of $200 to $300 per year, according to the Coach for College information site. Nearly all (94 percent) come from families in which the parents have a high school education or lower, and 65 percent of the children have at least one parent who did not advance beyond the ninth grade.

Both Siflinger and Ellis were in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam.

Ellis, a sophomore on Rhody’s women’s rowing team, was there in May and June, while Siflinger, a redshirt sophomore football player, was there in June and July.

They spent their days teaching academics, coaching the children in sports and providing life skills counseling, each part of teams of U.S. and Vietnamese college students.

“I enjoy traveling, but what really drew me to this opportunity was the idea of working with kids,” Siflinger said. “I’ve worked as a camp counselor before, and it is a rewarding feeling to have a positive impact on the kids you work with.”

Siflinger and Ellis both applied for the program after receiving an email about it from URI Student-Athlete Affairs Coordinator Brittney Cross.

Ellis said she was shocked when she got the email confirming her selection.

“When I looked at the list of people going, I saw student-athletes from Stanford, Duke, Princeton and Harvard,” Ellis said. “There were a lot of prominent schools represented, and we are the first two from Rhode Island to participate. That’s something to be proud of.”

Since 2008, Coach for College has had a significant impact on keeping Vietnamese children enrolled in school. The program has served nearly 1,500 Vietnamese youth from eight middle schools. The percentages of Coach for College participants still enrolled in schools after ninth grade was 71 percent, compared to 42 percent for the students who did not participate in Coach for College.

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 11

U.S. colleges, including the University of Rhode Island, are seeing the biggest influx of military veterans since WWII. But soldiers adjusting to civilian life don’t always find school a welcoming place.

Student activists are shedding light on the services—and sense of camaraderie—that could make a difference.

BY ELLEN LIBERMAN

“When I was in the Army, I was in charge of six-milliondollar vehicles—and lives. I get out, and I’m not qualified to make a latte.” —Chad McFarlane, 32, who spent five years stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia, serving two tours in Baghdad. He was homeless for a time before moving to Providence. The veterans advocate has served on numerous committees, including the Rhode Island Military Organization, a support group that hopes to create a military lounge at T.F. Green Airport, and has worked as a veterans affairs coordinator in Congressman David Cicilline’s office.

Among his civilian and military honors, McFarlane received an Army Commendation Medal and two Army Achievement Medals, and was CCRI’s 2014 student commencement speaker. His research examines the economic cost of allowing veterans’ skills to go untapped.

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UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 13

Alex Reppe, 31, grew up in Jamestown, R.I. His service dog, Icey, a 5-year-old rescue pit bull trained to work with veterans suffering from PTSD, is his constant companion. She was originally named Isis, after the Egyptian goddess, but current events overtook that name: one day as Reppe was calling for her, he realized he didn’t want to cause “unnecessary weirdness” in his neighborhood. Reppe is a Purple Heart recipient.

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t was just after dawn, and rounds were coming from every direction.

Alex Reppe ’16, a sniper with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, was hunkered over his M24 bolt-action rifle on the roof of a house in YahyaKheyl. The small Afghani village in the southeastern Paktika province was a portal for Taliban fighters who crossed the border from their training camps in Pakistan to use American soldiers for target practice. Reppe had positioned himself onto the rooftop in the middle of the night with his team leader, Matt Moore, and another sniper, Mitch Ellison, on a mission to ambush the enemy. But someone had seen them. Barely half an hour after their position had been compromised, the team was pinned under fire.

Reppe, who had never touched a gun until he joined the U.S. Army in 2007, became a sniper because “the professionalism of the snipers always attracted me—to be calculated in the battlefield amid the confusion—it seemed really interesting.”

Miscalculations, on the other hand, were risky. The team returned fire, but the bullets striking the rooftop told Reppe that the Taliban was closing in. His leader took some shrapnel in the face, screamed and jumped off the roof. Reppe prepared to do the same.

The Taliban favor sniper rifles and the cheap and hardy AK-47; both use M43 projectiles that have a reputation for superior penetration and bodily damage. This one grazed the back of Reppe’s face, passing through his helmet and cheek, breaking his orbital bone and nose before exiting. Reppe passed out and dropped to the courtyard, 12 feet below. When he woke, “blood was flowing crazily over my gear. I was so confused, I didn’t know what happened.”

Ellison looked down at him and swore, “Oh f***.”

“I knew that couldn’t be good.”

Reppe pauses in his account to stroke the flank of his service dog Icey, a gregarious, smoke-gray pit bull absorbed in the obliteration of a chew stick. Some veterans don’t tell war stories—because they aren’t just stories. But Reppe doesn’t mind. He recovered from his physical wounds, and a

PHOTOS: NORA LEWIS; COURTESY ALEX REPPE

Alex Reppe served as a sniper with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division based in Afghanistan.

casual observer would find no trace of the bullet that ruptured his face in November 2010. Three months after being wounded, he re-joined his company until his tour ended in 2012. He’s telling this story in the rear of the empty Memorial Union, just before graduating with a double major in anthropology and psychology. He also told it for a public speaking test in a communication class.

“But I don’t bring my military experience up very often,” he says. “Most people don’t think anything of it. I think a lot of people are afraid to ask, and some people just don’t care.”

Today’s 18-year-old freshmen were building towers with blocks when the Twin Towers fell and the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. They were 4 years old in 2003, when the U.S. started a war in Iraq. With one Navy and two Coast Guard bases, the military does not have a large footprint in Rhode Island. Reppe perhaps overstates the apathy, but the disconnect between the University of Rhode Island and its student veterans has been a challenge that the former and the latter have been working together for the last three years to address.

In May, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Mary Jo Gonzales made a “compelling case” before the Strategic

Budget Planning Council to create a fulltime student veteran coordinator position quartered at the Kingston campus. This fall, the Student Veteran Center will open, unveiling a newly kitted-out gathering space and resource center in the lower level of Adams Hall.

“We as a campus needed to be more educated, and in the past year we attempted a joint student veteran coordinator position at the Providence and Kingston campuses to figure out the real needs of student veterans. We know that there is a strong need for holistic support services,” Gonzales says.

For example, the vet who just completed multiple combat tours in Iraq may need disability services to obtain academic accommodations for a traumatic brain injury. The vet entering with a clutch of previous credits may need help getting a URI program to accept them. The vet entering with a weak high school record may need tutoring to handle college-level academics—or any combination of these services.

The University needs to create one place “to serve as the center of that wheel and provide the appropriate wrap-around services so students don’t have to go from office to office to office,” Gonzales says.

“But this is a national conversation. It is not unique to the University of Rhode Island.”

In the last decade, U.S. institutions of higher learning have seen the largest influx of military veterans since 2.2 million GIs returning from World War II went to school on the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944. Last year, the U.S. Veterans Benefits Administration reported that more than one million military veterans or their dependents were accessing federal education benefits.

But the first wave of vets transitioning from Operation Enduring Freedom (the conflict in Afghanistan) and the Iraq War found that most colleges were not equipped to meet their needs, and that the then-current Montgomery GI Bill had not kept pace with rising tuition, says Walter Tillman, vice president of programs for the Student Veterans of America. In 2006, a small group of student veterans got together to lobby Congress for better education benefits and their schools for better services. In 2008, what is commonly known as the Post 9/11 GI Bill was signed into law and the Student Veterans of America (SVA) was officially established. The organization now boasts 1,300 chapters nationwide.

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Lisa Garcia, 27, grew up in Chula Vista, California, before joining the Navy.

Like many veterans, she lives off-campus; she and her boyfriend have a cool converted mill apartment in West Warwick. She plans to start a Crochet for Cancer chapter in Rhode Island.

“The experience of student vets varies drastically depending on where they go to school,” Tillman says. “Some campuses create very welcoming environments to ease that transition; others don’t do as great. But most are trending in the direction of creating more robust services, especially when you have students organizing to provide that user-level feedback.”

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2,416 veterans were using their education benefits in Rhode Island last May, 374 of them at URI. As a group, they are older than most students, generally ranging in age from 22 to 29. They are 75 percent male and 25 percent female, coming from every branch of the service.

Annually, they bring $1.9 million in revenue to the University. Many have spouses, children and a sharply defined career focus.

They are, as Gonzales describes them, “mission driven.”

For some, the move from the military to URI is nearly seamless. Last year, Navy vet Lisa Garcia ’17 followed her boyfriend, who teaches firefighters at the Newport Naval Station’s Officer Candidate School, to Rhode Island. Garcia found a perfect fit for her ambitions in the University’s biotech program, where she studies “how medicines work in the body,” with an eye on a master’s degree and a career in research.

The program accepted the 56 credits she earned from Skagit Community College and courses she took while working as a machinist on an aircraft carrier. And she found a work-study job at the Veterans Affairs Office on URI’s Feinstein Providence campus.

Socially, it was often awkward, being surrounded by undergraduates glued to their phones or chatting about topics far removed from Garcia’s experience or interest. There were few other veterans, and she wasn’t one to “boast about being in the military,” she says. “It makes me shy.”

Then there is the military code of stoicism and the habits it can instill. “It’s hard to ask for help,” Garcia says. “I broke my leg on the ship and they said that they couldn’t do anything for me because we were in the middle of operations. So they wrapped it and I walked around like that for six weeks.

Suck it up, buttercup. That’s how it is in the military.”

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That tendency to quietly soldier on was one reason why veterans had no organized presence on campus when Don Ruggieri ’15, a Marine who served in Iraq, entered URI in 2011.

“I was shocked that URI didn’t already have a chapter” of SVA, says Ruggieri, who founded one in 2012 and graduated with a bachelor’s in animal and veterinary science.

“I thought, I can’t be the only student veteran on campus. I wanted to create a place to talk with other people who had the same experience I had.”

He eventually worked with Lucas Marland ’16, then a sophomore and an active-reserve Coast Guard chief petty officer, to join staffers from departments across campus on the URI Supports Student Veterans Committee. The committee tackled matters large and small, practical and cultural. For example: Students’ habit of parking their motorcycles at the concrete base of the flagpole by the Memorial Union rankled Marland.

“That’s not a parking space,” he says. “It’s disrespectful.”

The administration agreed, posting a no parking sign and ticketing violators. But getting an official meeting space for the fledgling group proved much more difficult. The 73-year-old student union began in a fraternity house, then moved to five Quonset huts. In 1954, the first official Memorial Union building opened, dedicated as a memorial to 187 members of the URI community killed in World War II and the Korean conflict. Despite its origins as a monument to veterans, the Union had no space for SVA’s URI chapter, save for a closet-sized room. It took three years of pushing before the University secured a space in Adams Hall.

“They kept telling us ‘No no, no.’”

Ruggieri recalled. “But in the last year they have reversed course and are doing so much more, it’s mind-boggling.”

Student veterans have always found strong support at Enrollment Services, where staffers Roy I. Jones, a veteran who also served on the support committee, and Sharon Lee Charlton certify to the VA each semester that individual veterans are using education benefits and housing allowances properly.

“It gives us a chance to meet with them regularly and find out how it’s going—and get a sense if they are in trouble,” Jones says.

“If there’s a hesitation, or a look on their face, you know that something is up.”

Lucas Marland, 34, was raised in Richmond, R.I., and lives in West Kingston with his wife Melyssa and two sons Landon, 8, and Elijah, 6. He has been a prominent leader for veterans on campus, both in bringing them together, and in raising visibility for their needs. This summer he started a job at Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., as a senior material planner; he continues to spend one weekend a month as an active reservist at the Coast Guard station in Castle Hill, Newport.

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Michael Steiner, 29, grew up in Scituate, R.I., feeling that “service is part of what people should do.” That feeling owes much to a father who served as an infantryman in Vietnam and whose best friends are fellow veterans. Steiner traveled all over the world during his station on the USS Nimitz.

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They may steer veterans to Pell grants or refer them to tutoring or disability services.

Last year, at least 16 student veterans were receiving academic accommodations, like extra time taking tests, but Pamela A. Rohland, assistant dean for accessibility and inclusion, suspects that twice as many are eligible and would benefit from disability services.

“When it comes to being in the service, disability at the outset is an exclusion. It’s a reason to be discharged,” Rohland says.

“In college, disability is a way to be included and have an equal opportunity for success. But a lot of veterans hesitate to identify themselves to us, even though it’s confidential.”

Meanwhile Ruggieri and Marland looked for veterans on campus missing the camaraderie of service. The SVA chapter started with four members; Marland would scan the Quad looking for people carrying an Army backpack, wearing a Navy T-shirt, or walking with a military bearing, hoping to persuade them to join the group. Many, it turned out, weren’t interested.

“They just want to go to school and get it done,” Marland says. “But a lot of them need a friend, a guide or an advisor—someone to make their transition into the school easier.”

Chad McFarlane ’17, on track to graduate with a degree in applied economics, is examining what happens when vets don’t get the support they need. “What is the cost of a non-maximized veteran?” he says. “I want to study the economic impact.”

“The government invests the time and funds in training you, and you leave and you’re told that with your basic skill set, you’d be a great mechanic, security guard or janitor.”

His route to URI was circuitous. During 2003 and 2005 tours of Iraq, Sgt. McFarlane was a tank gunner until he was medically discharged after a motorcycle accident that shattered both his knee and his plans to reenlist. He worked in Florida as a mail carrier in a neighborhood so bad, he jokes, “I got shot at about as much at the Post Office as I did in Iraq.”

McFarlane eventually moved to Rhode Island to be with family, and enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island with the goal of becoming an engineer. But the

math was difficult and he was academically unprepared. He failed his first semester, but persisted, and entered URI in 2014 while still slogging through an engineering program. A stint as president of CCRI’s SVA chapter, however, had ignited an interest in studying the economics of veterans. And at URI, other veterans and veteran advocates helped clear his path, connecting him to disability services and academic coaching, and encouraging him to reach out to his professors.

“I’ve been assessed for PTSD and they are tracking me for a traumatic brain injury. It’s hard to deal with the wounds of war on top of being dropped into this isolating environment,” he says. “But I started using services last year to get myself on track. It put me on firmer ground.”

This is the network of support and caring that current student veteran activists hope to build upon. And here’s where they’ll do it: On a May afternoon, Michael Steiner ’19 unlocked the door to the stillunfinished Student Veterans Center. It’s the little patch of campus they fought for, complete with gray cinderblock walls, ceilingheight windows, a conference table, a couch and some chairs, and a dehumidifier humming loudly in the corner. No, a basement room in a freshman dorm wasn’t ideal, especially for adult learners, some of whom have PTSD. But, Steiner and Marland say, it will do for now.

“We aren’t a group that needs to have our hands held, but the military gives you that sense of family that you don’t have on the outside,” Steiner says. “That’s why we get together on campus—to try and foster that.”

Steiner, who served in the Navy from 2005 to 2011, is the URI SVA chapter treasurer. An economics major, he also had a few challenges adjusting from regimented military life to the “burden” of choice as a civilian. But he found a sense of purpose in helping other veterans navigate the nuances of GI Bill benefits, and in raising the SVA’s profile on campus. The chapter now has about 30 members, and Steiner plans to continue lobbying for space in the Memorial Student Union and for the installation of another bronze plaque, this one dedicated to all veterans.

“You just have to be patient—what you plan on seeing might not happen in your tenure here,” Steiner says of the pace of change at the University. “But looking

back, I see what we have accomplished.

And I want to give back to a community that gave me so much.”

Alex Reppe was an indifferent student in high school; his first attempt at college only lasted three semesters. The Army taught Reppe how to study—one test failure could get you cut from a training program. And it gave his intellectual curiosity a focus.

Living and working amid people with an ancient culture inspired him to learn more.

He wasn’t a religious person, but his time in Afghanistan “made me question all of that.

Every time people said someone’s watching over you, it really made me think.”

When you arrive at a combat zone, everyone’s scared, he says. Death is so close.

A soldier’s first firefight is confusing and surreal. Battle eventually becomes a rush, then that fades, too. His injury stripped him of the feeling of being bullet-proof.

“It changes how you see combat,” he says, “and you feel shaky when you go back out.”

Those feelings followed him to URI, where anxiety and depression paralyzed him at times.

“It’s hard to process those traumatic experiences and once you’re out of the Army, there’s nobody who understands,” Reppe says. “You feel abandoned and lonely. It can get sad sometimes.”

Once, in the spring of his sophomore year, he got so depressed he didn’t go to school for three weeks, and turned an A-plus in a math class into a C-minus.

“I didn’t talk to my professors about it because I felt like it was my problem,” he says. “I didn’t want special treatment for being a veteran.”

But he powered his way through, acquiring Icey during his senior year, and graduated with honors. This fall he enters the University of Colorado at Boulder to pursue a master’s in religious studies, a stepping stone to a Ph.D. in cognitive anthropology. He didn’t walk at graduation here this May; he worked his regular shift as a line cook at Newport’s Salvation Café.

He just wanted to get on with it.

Mission driven.•

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 19

Kelp Me

More than just the new kale, kelp is delicious, nutritious, a vital host to an immense variety of marine life on both U.S. coasts, and sustainably farmed right here in Rhode Island. Seaweed salad, anyone?

BY TODD MCLEISH

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I

t used to be plain old seaweed. But now it’s a “sea vegetable,” and lauded for the role it plays in marine environments. Yes, we’re talking kelp, a family of large, fast-growing algae that has been around at least five million years and thrives in shallow oceans around the world. With its solid grip on the ocean floor and the small bladders that keep its brown fronds aloft, it’s a familiar sight—or brush against the leg—for anyone who swims in Rhode Island waters.

Kelp is enjoying a moment in the culinary sun as the oceanic equivalent of kale—it’s hearty, good for you, and pretty easy on the palate (ok, it might take a little getting used to). Its vast marine forests are now being actively restored because of the key role they play in important ecosystems. And in a strange twist, kelp might just save the Rhode Island fishing industry.

Kelp, in fact, is many things to many people, and for two URI alumni, it’s become the focus of their work. For Rhode Island fisherman David Blaney ’03, it’s a commercial enterprise long in the dreaming; while for Tom Ford ’94, it’s at the heart of the work he directs at a California nonprofit. >>>

Main photo: kelp in Santa Monica Bay; inset: Tom Ford scuba diving

PHOTOS: TOM BOYD, THE BAY FOUNDATION

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 21

The Problem with Urchin Barrens

Tom Ford ’94

You can hear the smile and sense of wonder in Tom Ford’s voice as he describes the experience of scuba diving in a kelp forest in Southern California.

He paints a picture of being on a boat on a quiet sunny day, the water sparkling and clear as the tops of butterscotch-colored kelp fronds undulate at the surface. And then he drops over the side into 50 feet of water.

“It’s like shafts of golden light shooting down to the ocean floor, like flying through a cathedral comprised of algae and thousands of fish, like stained glass windows ­ of extraordinary color,” he said. “It’s an unbelievably gorgeous and wildly dynamic environment, and it’s unlike any other experience I’ve ever had.”

That experience goes a long way toward explaining Ford’s complete devotion to ­protecting the region’s forests of giant kelp, which can grow more than 100 feet tall from the seafloor to the water’s surface and host an immense variety of marine life, from starfish and anemones to octopus, rockfish and sea otters. It’s the reason he became the executive director of the Bay Foundation, which works to protect the water quality and marine life in Santa Monica Bay by conducting research,­ ­ engaging in restoration projects, and investing in infrastructure to reduce pollution.

“We work from the mountains to the beaches and into the ocean itself,” he said.

“So on any given day, I’m looking at a ­project to remove bridges that no longer allow fish to migrate upstream, working with kids on educational programs, exploring wetlands to find ways to protect them, or using oceanographic equipment to monitor marine protected areas. It’s terrifically enriching, and there’s no shortage of work to be done.”

But his work begins and ends with kelp.

According to Ford, California’s kelp ­forests began to decline in the mid-1800s, when sea otters were hunted to near extinction. Without the otters to prey upon the abundant sea urchins, the urchins con-

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sumed the entire kelp forest, forcing the rest of the marine life that lived there to move elsewhere or die.

“Once that happened, we entered an alternative stable state ecosystem where urchins can remain in this barren community supporting little of anything but themselves,” he explained, noting that since the urchins are undernourished, fishermen cannot harvest and sell them. “And it can persist for decades. If we don’t actively manage it, the urchin barrens will stay that way. But if we reduce the density of urchins, we can get the kelp forest to return.”

With sea otters still absent from the area, Ford is using a strategy for reducing urchin numbers that isn’t found in most conservation manuals. But it works: After mapping the urchin barrens and monitoring the density of urchins, he arms teams of fishermen and volunteers with hammers.

They smash the urchins, more than 3.3 ­million to date.

“In the past two and a half years, we have spent nearly 7,000 hours underwater and have cleared 34 acres of the ocean floor

from overly-dense urchins, from 70 urchins per square meter down to the preferred density of 2,” he says proudly. “That area wasn’t just a little messed up, it was way messed up.”

His target is to dramatically reduce urchin numbers in a 150-acre area of the bay, which will allow the kelp forests to return on their own. Ford’s early success in this effort has found him in demand in Canada, Japan, Norway, Australia and Greece, among other locations where sea urchins have wiped out kelp, put fishermen out of work and raised concerns about food security.

“We’re working up a focused fix with intensive scientific monitoring to prove this case for other countries and other industries,” he says.

Ford’s enthusiasm for kelp emerged in midcareer, but it spawned from his childhood love of the water and his URI marine biology coursework.

“I grew up in Pennsylvania, landlocked in cattle and corn. But I was an avid swimmer and Jacques Cousteau brought the

ocean into my living room and I was sold,” he said. “I was a marine biologist long before I even saw the ocean.”

It was Professor Frank Heppner—who taught ornithology, not marine biology— who especially challenged Ford’s thinking and became his mentor. “He was switched on and taught me how to commit to the discipline,” Ford says.

After graduation, he worked as a ­quahogger, baited lobster pots for Point Judith fishermen, and assisted with sea ­turtle research before landing a job at the Norwalk Maritime Aquarium, where he was responsible for collecting fish and other marine life from Long Island Sound to exhibit.

He eventually yearned to explore another ocean, so he moved to California to collect marine life to exhibit at the aquarium on Santa Monica Pier.

“I started scuba diving to see the environment and to collect the animals that I needed,” Ford said. “And that’s where I met my first kelp forest.”

>>>

Sea otters, a sea urchin predator and keystone species in kelp forests, were decimated by the fur trade of the 1800s, says author Todd McLeish, who is working on his fourth book (due out next year,) “Saving Sea Otters: The Cutest Animal on Earth.” A small group survived the fur trade at Big Sur, and their offspring have expanded their range to within 50 miles of Santa Monica Bay, but thriving great white shark populations haven’t allowed them to expand further. Why haven’t conservationists taken steps to reintroduce them? Sea otters eat clams, crabs and other commercially fished seafood, which complicates the marine politics. So for now, groups like The Bay Foundation are trying to restore kelp forests without the help of otters—or until they return on their own.

PHOTOS: TOM BOYD, THE BAY FOUNDATION, TODD MCLEISH

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 23

Why You’ll Eat SeaVegetables

David Blaney ’03

David Blaney’s introduction to kelp, like Ford’s, came later in his career. He comes from a commercial fishing family, one that has fished Rhode Island waters for more than 300 years.

He worked as a lobsterman, trawled for cod, captured tuna and swordfish on longlines, and dug for shellfish, among other maritime pursuits. He even started a consulting business to advise commercial fishermen on boat safety.

At age 50, Blaney decided to enroll at URI to earn an engineering degree. “As fish stocks continued to dwindle and commercial fishing got tougher, I decided to go back to college,” he said. “I had gone for a couple semesters back when all I wanted to do was go to sea. It opened my eyes to a broader world, so I always wanted to go back. And ocean engineering seemed like the natural way to go.”

During his time at the Narragansett Bay Campus, he found himself working in a marine algae lab with Professor Scott Nixon and Marine Scientist Steve Granger studying eelgrass restoration.

“Steve picked up a handful of eelgrass and said you could eat it raw, and so I tried it,” Blaney says. “That got me interested in seaweed, and it’s been percolating ever since.”

Now at age 67, after figuring that it had percolated long enough, he started Point Judith Kelp, a company based on his 38-foot fishing trawler, whose mission is to grow and harvest fresh sea vegetables. He started out collecting wild seaweeds like sea lettuce, Irish moss and sugar kelp near the Galilee jetty, cutting it off the rocks by hand but leaving enough of the plant attached so it would regrow. Now he’s trying his hand at kelp farming.

According to Blaney, kelp has been cultivated in Asia for thousands of years. So after investigating the shellfish aquaculture industry in Rhode Island and thinking it

David Blaney’s boat, the Oquim, at Snug Harbor Marina in Rhode Island.

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too crowded, he began looking for locaabout 8 feet long between October and tions that would be suitable for farming May, when it is harvested. kelp. He expects to have a permit for a farm “Kelp has a flavor the Japanese call in the Harbor of Refuge in Galilee later umami—a salty and sour taste on your this year. tongue,” Blaney said.

“Rhode Island is a “My favorite time to huge foodie state, so eat it is when it first almost everybody is a comes out of the potential customer,” he water.” says. “I primarily sell to He recommends consumers now, though using kelp as part of I have some big commera seaweed salad or as cial accounts outside the a stock for soups or state. And if my farm is other dishes. It’s successful, I’ll produce highly nutritious and Scallop crudo with sea vegetables at such a volume that I’ll contains no fat, and it The Ocean House in Watch Hill, R.I. need to sell wholesale, has many environtoo.” mental benefits as Blaney says farmed sugar kelp, a species well, since it absorbs nitrogen and carbon native to Rhode Island, starts out as spores and requires no fertilizer or fresh water. grown on spools of string in an aquarium.

Blaney also makes a syrupy plant food by The string is then tethered to weights and soaking kelp in hot water to release its buoys and dropped into water at least nutrients. And he’s working on animal feed 20 feet deep, where the kelp will grow applications as well.

SUMMER POTATO AND SEA VEGETABLE SALAD

While he prefers to sell his seaweeds fresh—they sold out the first day he brought them to a local farmer’s market— he is also experimenting with a frozen product.

“Most seaweed in the tidal zone freezes and thaws in the winter with the ebb and flow,” he explained. “That’s what their cellular structure is designed for. When the tide goes out in winter, they freeze, then thaw when it comes back in.”

So why is he undertaking such a major venture at an age when most people are retiring? To provide the next generation of fishermen with an alternative industry that will keep them working on the water.

“I’m trying to develop a new industry for fishermen to expand into,” Blaney says.

“They drag seaweed up in their nets, and I tell them to save it and I’ll buy it from them. But they can’t quite get their heads around it. They don’t quite get it yet.

“I’m not going to get rich at growing kelp in my lifetime,” he adds. “But I’m hoping these new guys can expand into it, because everything else they’re catching is disappearing.” •

2 1/2 lbs local new potatoes 1/3 lbs fresh local sea lettuce or kelp, chopped 1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1 tbsp sage 1/2 tbsp thyme Hard boiled egg and red onion to garnish Salt and pepper (and a dash of hot sauce if you like it) Boil or roast potatoes till tender. Mix with remaining ingredients in a large bowl while still hot. Serve warm.

S

LE VEGETAB AND SEA R E D N U FLO SUMMER nder fillets

mmer flou 1 lbs local su , trimmed ttuce or kelp 1/2 lbs sea le n ly sliced onio 1/4 cup thin ly sliced 1 lemon, thin rgin olive oil vi 2 tbsp extra and per to taste per to taste, Salt and pep salt and pep d on ad es , ic sh sl fi mon Rub oil on ill. Arrange le gr on Preheat grill. il fo m e. aluminu is just opaqu place fillets on tes until fish u in m and onion.

10 to bl sea vegeta es t fish. Cook 5 il w b. d an t, ille rn on the co heat oil in sk serve with co d an es Meanwhile, bl ta over sea vege Arrange fish

PHOTOS: COURTESY DAVID BLANEY, THE OCEAN HOUSE

Above: David Blaney’s potato salad

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 25

The Secret POW Camp That Fought Nazi Ideology

In an amazing and little known chapter of World War II, a prisoner-of-war camp called The Idea Factory sought to change the hearts and minds of German prisoners—using other German prisoners.

The classified mission to spread democracy took place right here at what is now URI’s Bay Campus.

BY PAUL E. KANDARIAN

The editorial staff of Der Ruf, circa 1945.

26 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

T

he part Rhode Island played in World War II, most notably Quonset Point in North Kingstown, is no secret.

But just down the road in Narragansett, on waterfront land now home to the University of Rhode Island’s Bay Campus, was an installation that until recently was a forgotten appendix to the Second World War: Fort Kearney, which from February 1945 to April 1946 was a German prisonerof-war camp.

Why isn’t this common knowledge?

Well, it was hardly the usual POW outfit.

Originally built in 1908 as part of the state’s coastal defense sites, Fort Kearney became a top-secret operation under the federal Prisoner of War Special Projects Division.

At the time, some 380,000 captured German soldiers were housed in U.S. camps. The project, an attempt to leverage that fact, was called “The Idea Factory,” later shortened to the Ludlumesque “The Factory.” It was charged with the daunting task of “de-Nazifying” POWs. The idea: Military officials rounded up the most intellectually elite prisoners they could find, including teachers, professors, artists, writers and editors, many of them conscripted as soldiers against their will and already critical of Hitler. The sympathetic POWs were to help re-educate their fellows across the country via the publication of a POW newspaper, Der Ruf (The Call in English).

That effort’s rich history is laid out in a fascinating 8,000-word article, “The Top Secret World War II Prisoner-of-War Camp Kearney in Narragansett,” by Christian McBurney and Brian Wallin. The article can be read at their aptly named website, smallstatebighistory.com.

“I had never heard of it before until Brian brought it to my attention,” McBurney, a Kingston native, says from his law office in Washington, D.C. “I was fascinated.”

Der Ruf was produced and written at Fort Kearney, printed in New York City, then distributed to hundreds of other POW camps. The Rhode Island camp was a

“casual place,” from which no one wanted to escape, McBurney says, because “all the prisoners were on board with the concept of re-education and preparing other Germans to return to a new Germany based on democracy and respect for human rights.”

On their website, McBurney and Wallin detail how it came into being. “With ­barracks, a kitchen and administrative buildings already in place, and with grounds shielded from public views, Special Projects Division inspectors liked what they saw and on Feb. 27, 1945, Fort Kearney was reclassified. Almost immediately, the ­special prisoners were transferred to the new location.”

A group of 85 prisoners all passed ­evaluations confirming their anti-Nazi bent—some had spent time in Nazi ­concentration camps. Several later rose to become influential postwar writers and thinkers, including Alfred Andersch and Hans Werner Richter, who were key players in Gruppe 47, an association formed in 1947 that for 20 years was a famous part of Germany’s postwar literary establishment.

But during the war, secrecy was paramount. “Kearney’s commander, U.S. Army Capt. Robert L. Kunzig, was instructed to keep the camp’s role secret for several ­reasons,” say McBurney and Wallin. “For one, many Americans had lost loved ones in the war in Europe and understandably hated Germans. Fueled by Allied war propaganda, the ­public often did not distinguish between Nazis and other Germans.

Thus, there was concern the public would express outrage upon learning that some ­prisoners were being coddled.”

While the camp was surrounded by barbed wire, it had no armed guards or towers, and Kunzig’s discipline was relaxed.

The pair dug up a quote from the commander: “We had almost no problems at Kearney. Once in a while we’d have to sort of jack them up and make sure they kept their beds neat, try to keep it very military and correct. We had inspections, but at the same time there were no real pressures.”

PHOTOS: EDWARD DAVISON PAPERS, YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY; NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Cultural Gatekeepers The prisoners at Fort Kearney had several important missions beyond publishing Der Ruf. One was to monitor the newspapers and books proposed for use at other camps.

Because about 85 percent of POWs nationwide spoke only German, they also acted as translators, both of classic U.S. novels—“They sold like hotcakes,” McBurney says— and of pamphlets describing North America’s institutions, history, and people.

Finally, The Factory inmates screened hundreds of radio programs and movies. They recommended against those that showed the dark side of American life, such as gangster films; and those they deemed overly propagandistic. They even advised not to show films with bad acting or poor plots, to forestall Nazi POW accusations that American culture was shallow.

Top: POWs laying out Der Ruf. Bottom: Lt. Col. Edward Davidson, later a noted poet, led the US Special Projects Division. The unusual department of war was reportedly born of Eleanor Roosevelt’s outrage at reports of Nazi adherents bullying other POWS inside US camps.

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 27

No one escaped Kearney, and no one tried. POW Andersch later recalled that a loudspeaker on the mess hall roof woke them up every morning with a Duke Ellington version of “Lady Be Good.”

There was almost no interaction between POWs and local residents at first, although that would change after the war ended. “On occasion,” McBurney and Wallin write, “prisoners (presumably working in camp administration) would jump into Army trucks and be driven over the bridge to Jamestown and then travel by

Kearney staff entrance. The military guards were unarmed.

Fort Kearney even had a bar for its prisoners.

A drawing, by German POW Walter Junge, of the Jamestown Bridge and Fort Kearney on the left, and Fort Getty in Jamestown on the right.

Note the double-decker barracks at Fort Kearney.

28 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Another personal account the pair found: Charles “Ted” Wright’s ­family used to live at the corner of Boston Neck and Saunderstown roads, and as a 13-year-old, he and his brother snuck through the woods and up to the mesh fence around the fort to chat with POWs who spoke English.

One gave them cigarettes until a U.S. officer shooed the boys away.

Wright said he saw POWs in prison clothes—stamped with PW—walking along Boston Neck Road to, he suspected, Twin Willows bar.

Lulu and Betty Sheldon, now 91 and 93, spoke with “We used to go down to the camp, McBurney recently, recounting pay 10 cents and watch current the days when they summered at the family’s shingle-style home in movies with the prisoners.”

Saunderstown, right on the Bay, ferry to Newport to pick up supplies for as college-age women. Officers would their camp. On the ferries, they would sometimes visit for dinner, and afterward, socialize with the other passengers.”

Capt. Kunzig would play the piano, “I know this was true at Kearney,” Lt. Robert Pestalozzi the accordion, and Kunzig is quoted as saying, “because I everyone would sing along. All the officers sent them.” they met spoke fluent German. An accomMcBurney and Wallin’s meticulous plished sailor, Lulu recounted how she was research dug up gems such as this quote, once sailing her 15-foot boat alone “when I from Saunderstown resident C. Michael came upon a man swimming far out from Hazard, who was 14 when the POW camp Fort Kearney. He said, ‘Guten tag!’ jovially, at Kearney opened: “It was no secret to and I waved. Might he have used my sailthose of us who lived in its vicinity. I don’t boat to escape? Probably not, but it’s an remember seeing prisoners outside the amusing thought!” camp, but I did get inside the facility on a The first issue of Der Ruf was sent to regular basis and the prisoners appeared to 134 POW camp canteens on March 6, 1945, be a happy, well-fed group. We used to go priced at a nickel. “It created an immediate down to the camp, pay 10 cents and watch sensation,” McBurney’s research shows. current movies with the prisoners.”

“Nazis at a few camps bought the issues and burned them; at other camps, they threatened fellow prisoners who intended to purchase the newspaper. Yet prisoners at many other locations received the publication with overwhelming enthusiasm and responded by purchasing all of the copies at their camp canteens.”

One issue, intended to show that Americans were “not uncultured brutes as Germans had been taught,” had pages of excerpts from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, Thornton Wilder, and Thomas Wolfe.

Another described the German tradition of free labor unions going back to the nineteenth century. Still others focused on the strengths of the American political system and culture.

“One interesting thing was that the government gave these men absolute carte blanche to communicate about American culture and democracy, with little censorship,” Wallin says. “They tried once; a guy came from Washington, which at the time wanted all Germans to accept responsibility for the Nazis, but the writers at the paper said ‘We’re not writing that, it’s not true.’

And the government backed down. That was surprising.”

After the war ended and German repatriation began, Der Ruf stopped publishing.

Fort Kearney shut down in April 1946; the buildings went to Rhode Island State College, the forerunner of URI. In the short run, the barracks served as housing for

graduate students and their families. Now expanded to more than 100 acres, the site houses URI’s renowned Graduate School of Oceanography.

The Fort Kearney story continues to be told; McBurney and Wallin give talks on the topic, and the Small State Big History staff is writing a book on Rhode Island in World War II, with Fort Kearney a vital chapter.

All of the camp’s POWs have since died, but the pair uncovered an account of Alfred Andersch’s 1970 tour of the Saunderstown countryside surrounding Fort Kearney. He found “old farms, weather-beaten frame houses surrounded by scrub oak and negligently harvested fields.” They must have been there when he was taken to the camp in “tarp-covered trucks” in 1945, he reflected, “yet strange to say I had always imagined the countryside around Fort Kearney exactly as I finally saw it on that day in October 1970.”

Andersch later reflected: “At the time, my old camp meant a great deal to me, everything in fact…After all, it was in the seclusion of Fort Kearney, after years of fear and trembling, that I decided to become a writer.” He also learned about democracy, in the “germ-free environment of that luxurious prison camp.

“The idea,” Andersch wrote, “appealed to me.”•

An Obsession is Born Brian Wallin first read about the secret POW camp in Walter Schroeder’s book, The Defenses of Narragansett Bay. He told McBurney, who was so captivated that he ended up devoting hundreds of hours to researching it, including trips to the National Archives and Yale University.

“I enjoyed it,” McBurney says. “I have written a number of books— it keeps me busy!” Learn more at christianmcburney.com.

For more information, visit smallstatebighistory.com Brian Wallin

Fort Kearney’s 20 acres overlooking the West Passage of Narragansett Bay. The site was named in honor of Philip Kearny, a Union general killed in the Civil War. Sometime prior to WWII, McBurney reports, the Army added a second “e,” making the name Kearney.

Christian McBurney

COURTESY CHRISTIAN MCBURNEY, BRIAN WALLIN

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 29

CLASSACTS

Katelyn Gosselin ‘11 wed Adam Corriveau ‘09.

Nathan and Benjamin Ferrell were born to Laura Ferrell ’08, M.S. ’10, and Robert Ferrell ’07.

Jessica DeRoche ’09 wed Shawn Case, M.S. ’10.

Lucianna Maria Tyrrell was born to Janna (D’Ambra) Tyrrell ’08 and Matthew Tyrrell ’06.

Charlotte Irene Correia was born to Andrea Correia ’06 and Manny Correia.

STAYED CONNECTED

URI Alumni Association @URIAlumniAssoc | #URIAlum flickr.com/urialumni URI Alumni Association alumni.uri.edu

30

QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Lauren Gorry ’11 wed Eric Alexander ’11.

KEEP US UP TO DATE ON YOUR NEWS! Submit your class note at alumni.uri.edu/note

’49

Phyllis Luther Brow of Corona, Calif., writes: “I am writing for the first time but always read QuadAngles...with my magnifying glass. I will be 89 in August. I loved my years at Rhody, used EVERYTHING I learned: counselor, teacher, director of this and that. I am at the other coast, California, and this is the first time I will have to miss reunions. Sad! I had four wonderful children in five years, my favorite job, swam every day, and still phone or email with five classmates regularly. I know, I know, you do not want to hear about my eight super grandchildren.”

’59

Tom White, of Smyrna, Del., reports that one of his granddaughters, Madeline T. White, is attending URI in the College of Business Administration with a marketing concentration. She enrolled in September 2015. Tom splits his time between his place near Rangeley, Maine, and his home base of Smyrna, Del. Tom has ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

’65

Dick Dientbier, Ph.D., of Lincoln, Neb., has written “Building Resistance to Stress and Aging: The Toughness Model,” published by Palagrave/ Macmillan in 2015. The book describes how regularly engaging in activities—from mental stimulation to physical exercise—activates genes that modify neurochemistry and enhance various brain structures.

Those developments enhance stress tolerance, emotional stability, energy, memory capacity, fluid intelligence, and even self control. After a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester, Dick spent his professional life at the University of Nebraska, where he served as psychology department chair.

’70

Alan Lasher of Nanuet, N.Y., writes: “It has been 50 years since we entered URI as freshmen. We joined a fraternity and for the next four or five years enjoyed all that URI had to offer. Several of us got together to see a basketball game (Rhody won) and to reminisce about old times. We visited our old fraternity house (AEPi) which has become Hillel House.”

’72

Wayne Baker writes: “Wayne DeForest Michael Baker graduated from the University of West Florida (UWF), Pensacola, on December 12, 2015, with a doctorate of education.

Dr. Baker graduated in electrical engineering (URI ’72) and earned a Master in Public Administration (UWF ’94). Dr. Baker is the brother of Stephen Baker (URI ’77) and son of the late DeForest Baker (URI ’79).

Dr. Baker’s dissertation title, “Generational Perspectives on American Public Administration in the Deep South,” has been nominated to the Academy of Management for the 2016 Outstanding Dissertation Award. Dr. Baker taught government contract law online for UWF and retired from federal service with the 2012 USAF Outstanding Civilian Career Award. As Christian, husband, father, grandfather and lifelong learner: “Cease conceiving of education as mere preparation for later life, and make it the full meaning of the present life” (Dewey, J.,1893. ‘Self Realization as the Moral Ideal’).”

Student Survival Kits are created and distributed by the URI Student Alumni Association, a nonprofit on-campus student organization.

Each kit is filled with treats, URI gear, and a special message from you!

’74

LaMont Wells of Haymarket, Va., was selected by SmartCEO magazine for the 2016 Executive Management award in the president category, which honors “Leadership All-Stars.”

As president of Technology Management Associates, Inc. (TMA), LaMont believes in “delegating authority and empowering employees to ideate and create better ways to develop solutions.” As part of this, LaMont has developed and implemented a distributed authority model that gives employees the chance to lead and creates an entrepreneurial environment for the company.

’76

Jim Conti of Wahiawa, Hawaii, writes: “I retired from Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on Labor Day, 2013, as supervisory nuclear engineer, after 37 years of government work. After three years of busy and happy retirement (basketball refereeing and coaching, surfing, home projects), stage four sarcoma cancer finally caught up with me. I am in home hospice and in relatively good spirits and energy (still doing little home projects!). I celebrated 35 years of marriage with my best friend, Noelle,

Order by November 4 to get your Survival Kit delivered in time for fall semester finals!

URISAA.ORG/KITS on July 10. Our son, Sam, age 19, will be attending Whittier College in the fall. I would love to hear from my URI engineering classmates and my brothers from Sig Ep fraternity. jamesconti@hawaii.rr.com”

’79

Patrick “Pat” McCarthy of Bristol, R.I., writes: “In May, I was honored with the “LUMEN GENTIUM” Award from the Roman Catholic Church’s Diocese of Providence, in the category of Parish Service. This is an annual recognition of examples of “God’s servants who toil in the vineyard,” helping others. This year, 15 individuals were so honored from well over 100 nominees. Also, my wife, Nina (Squatrito) ’79, and I were named chief marshals for the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church’s 118th Feast Celebration, to be held on July 14-17 in Bristol, R.I.”

’80

Corey W. Briggs of Quincy, Mass., is now a senior manager and occupational/environmental health and safety consultant with Ramboll Environ U.S. Corporation at the company’s Boston office. Ramboll and Environ International Corporation merged in 2015, forming a large multinational environmental, health, safety, and sustainability consultancy of 12,000 employees worldwide. Corey can be reached at cwbriggs@ramboll.com.

The company website is www.ramboll.com.

Donna Russo Morin of Saunderstown, R.I., writes: “The first book in my Da Vinci Disciples trilogy, Portrait of a Conspiracy (Diversion Books), was released on May 10. The trilogy is the story of a secret society of women artists, under the tutelage UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 31

of the great Leonardo da Vinci, who must navigate the treacherous life of 15th century Florence while trying to bring their artistry to the world. One murder ignites a powder keg that threatens to consume a city. Amidst the chaos, five women and one legendary artist weave together a plot that could bring peace—or get them all killed. My four previous awardwinning historical novels include The King’s Agent, recipient of a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly.”

Thank you to our

GOLF TOURNAMENT SPONSORS SERIES Liberty Mutual Insurance Alumni Cup PRESENTING Liberty Mutual Insurance MARKETING Cobra Puma Golf All American Classic Golf Digest Sports Vision Eyewear Exsite Golf GOLD Carousel Industries SILVER Dimeo Construction Company BRONZE COSCO, Inc. Gilbane Building Company Santander Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage BankRI URI Foundation HOLE-IN-ONE Bald Hill Dodge Chrysler Jeep Kia COMPLIMENTARY Dennis Moffitt Painting DRINK TICKET TEE Coastway Community Bank (2 sponsorships) Ocean House Marina River Bend Athletic Club Ortho RI - South County Orthopedics URI Bookstore URI Dining Services URI Health Services GIFT BAG ITEMS Liberty Mutual Insurance Cobra Puma Golf Exsite Golf Golf Digest TaylorMade PUTTING PRIZE Steve Lombardi ’74 DONATION BEVERAGES Coca Cola DONATION CONTRIBUTORS: Batchelor, Frechette, McCrory, Michael & Company Christopher L. Franklin, CPA ‘88 Peter Kohlsaat ‘57 Carousel Industries Russell Morin Fine Catering Pizza Gourmet/Jack Parente ’85 and Linda Parente ‘86 Sage Environmental

32

QUADANGLES FALL 2016

’81

Timothy Barritt of Essex Junction, Vt., writes: “I retired from IBM after 34 years but remain employed at the same semiconductor fabricator because IBM sold the division to Globalfoundries. I also resigned as chair from the South Burlington Development Review Board after four and a half years because I was recently elected to City Council for a three-year term.”

Mary McCarron-McGinniss of Aurora, Ill., writes: “I graduated from URI with a B.S. in nutrition and dietetics. I completed my dietetic internship there as well in 1994, and became a registered dietitian.

I’m now living in Chicagoland (the Chicago suburbs) and am currently employed at the Kendall County Health Department. I’m doing what I love to do, providing health services and nutrition education to prenatal and breastfeeding women, their infants and children. I’ve raised two wonderful children here in the Midwest, but I can’t wait to return to R.I. and the ocean when it’s time to retire.”

’92

Michael Miga, M.S. ’94, of Franklin, Tenn., was appointed as the Harvie Branscomb Professor at Vanderbilt University on July 1, 2015. Miga is a professor of biomedical engineering.

’94

Michelle Simpson-Siegel of Brattleboro, Vt., writes: “Under my leadership, Oak Meadow, a progressive home-school curriculum publisher and distance-learning school for kindergarten to grade 12, has become the first (and only, for now!) distance-learning school accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.”

’03

Edward A. Garcia Jr., M.L.S. ’08, of Cranston, R.I., was appointed to the Cranston Historical Society Board of Directors.

’05

Samuel Snead, M.C.P., of Silver Spring, Md., writes: “I was recently awarded the Award of Excellence from the Secretary of Transportation for my successful management of the Bus and Bus Facilities Ladders of Opportunity Initiative in 2015.”

’06

Liatte Krueger, Pharm. D., of Union, N.J., writes: “The National Board of Public Health Examiners has recognized me as Certified in Public Health (CPH), demonstrating my mastery of the core sciences of public health, and strong commitment to staying on the cutting-edge of public health issues.

The CPH process raises the bar for public health workers by highlighting the need for a standard benchmark for students and graduates and a certified dedication to the field.

In October 2015, when I took the examination, the passing rate was 72 percent. I am also a Commissioned Corps Officer in the US Public Health Service, and continue my studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where I plan to graduate with a masters in public health and nutrition in the next year.”

’09

Kaitlyn Zullo of New Brunswick, N.J., writes: “This past August, Robert Weiss ’09 proposed to Kaitlyn Zullo ’09 on the Quad. They met in 2008 at the University and currently reside in New Brunswick, N.J., and will be getting married in August.”

’10

Christopher Cilfone of Maui, Hawaii, writes: “On November 9, 2015, I was awarded Best Short Film Under 15 Minutes at the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monaco for my film One Voice. I was a finalist in two categories, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Short Film Under 15 Minutes. The film documents the success of the Save the Whale campaign and supports my movement, Be Blue, which encourages ocean conservation.

I work as a marine naturalist for the Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui, Hawaii, where I teach others to “Continue to Go Green, but Remember to Be Blue.” You can join the movement by liking Be Blue on Facebook and following @bluerevolocean on Instagram and Twitter.”

By Example

CLOSEUP

Damita Davis ’97, M.S. ’02 When Damita Davis ’97, M.S. ’02, began her freshman year here, the Black Student Leadership Group had recently taken over Taft Hall in peaceful protest against racial discrimination on campus. “It was a tough time,” says Davis. As the first woman in her family to go to college, she wanted to help make her university the inclusive institution she thought it should be.

She became active with the URI Women’s Center, coordinating the Women of Color conference; later, as a graduate student, she founded the Rose Butler Browne Leadership and Mentor Program for Women of Color. Her philosophy: “Enhance the university for those who come after you.”

Today, Davis is associate director of diversity and inclusion at the Office for Institutional Diversity at Boston College, where she develops and implements diversity and inclusivity programs and initiatives for faculty and staff. “Every higher ed campus represents a microcosm of the world,” says Davis. “If we don’t model what that world looks like, we’re missing a big part of our educational mission to prepare our students for a global society.”

Her work is driven by her curiosity in others. “You have to think about how your life might be if your own circumstances had been different, and then think about how you can benefit those who don’t share the same privileges,” says Davis. “See your humanity in other people.”

BY NICOLE MARANHAS

PHOTO: COURTESY DAMITA DAVIS

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 33

SHARE YOUR RHODY PRIDE WITH THE NEXT GENERATION! Would you like your child or grandchild to receive information from the URI Admission Office?

Simply visit uri.edu/admission and click on the Request Information link.

As soon as the prospective student completes the form, we’ll send information about the University, the admission process, and any areas of study that he or she expresses interest in.

We also invite you to spread the word about URI to prospective students who live in your community. Please contact us if you are interested in helping us by covering college fairs in your area.

For more information about becoming an Alumni Admission Representative, contact Ray Kung at 401.874.4903.

David Pancarowicz ’10, B.S. in electrical and biomedical engineering, and Carolyn Kopcha ’11, B.S. in nutrition and dietetics, got married at Christ the King Church in Kingston, R.I.,

by Fr. Matthew Glover on August 29, 2015. The couple met through mutual friends in 2008 while students at URI. They got engaged at the Narragansett Towers in June 2014 and celebrated their wedding reception at the Village Inn in Narragansett on a beautiful summer day. They currently reside in Colchester, Conn. David is an electrical engineer for General Dynamics Electric Boat in New London and Carolyn is a registered dietitian for the East Hartford Public Schools.

Weddings Stephen Gadless ’95 to Laura Fox on May 10, 2015 Carlton Bradshaw ’06, M.A. ’13 to Amanda Allard on July 26, 2015 Jessica DeRoche ’09 to Shawn Case, M.S. ’10 on July 9, 2016 Lauren Gorry ’11 to Eric Alexander ’11 on October 11, 2015

Anna Rose Simonelli, here with big brother Jase, was born to Gina Simonelli ’01, M.S. ’03, and Eric Simonelli, M.A. ’13.

James Thomas Haas was born to Christina Haas ‘05 and John Haas.

Katelyn Gosselin ’11 to Adam Corriveau ’09 on May 30, 2015 Carolyn Kopcha ’11 to David Pancarowicz ’10 on August 29, 2015

Births Mitchell Krzyzek Jr. ’97 and Susan Krzyzek, a boy, Mitchell Lawrence Krzyzek III on February 24, 2016 Gina Simonelli ’01, M.S. ’03, and Eric Simonelli, M.A. ’13, a girl, Anna Rose Simonelli, on May 17, 2016 Christina Haas ’05 and John Haas, a son, James Thomas Haas on March 21, 2016 Lindsay (Lopardo) Fonseca ’06 and Mario Fonseca ’06, a girl, Genna Lillian Fonseca, on December 5, 2015

Carolyn Kopcha ’11 wed David Pancarowicz ’10.

Andrea Correia ’06 and Manny Correia, a girl, Charlotte Irene Correia, on May 18, 2016 Laura Ferrell ’08, M.S. ’10 and Robert Ferrell ’07, two sons, Nathan and Benjamin Ferrell, on April 27, 2016 Alan Lasher ‘70 and fraternity brothers at a reunion.

Janna (D’Ambra) Tyrrell ’08 and Matthew Tyrrell ’06, a girl, Lucianna Maria Tyrrell, on March 19, 2016

Mitchell Lawrence Krzyzek III was born to Mitchell Krzyzek, Jr., ’97 and Susan Krzyzek.

Liatte Krueger Pharm.D. ‘06, CPH, a Commissioned Corps Officer in the US Public Health Service.

34 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Marissa Christina Salvo ’09 and Seth Korn ’08, a son, Cooper Jeffrey Korn, on October 2, 2015 Patrice (Bobowiec) Tran ’10 and Viet Tran ’09, a son, Everett Christopher, on September 28, 2015

ELEVENTH ANNUAL

distinguished achievement awards gala

The eleventh annual Distinguished Achievement Awards and Gala will be held at the Newport Marriott in Newport, R.I., on Saturday, October 22, 2016.

The event honors alumni and friends of URI who have brought distinction to themselves and the University through their professional achievements, outstanding leadership and community service.

Meet this year’s honorees at

uri.edu/daa

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 35

If you graduated from URI between 2011 and 2016, you could win a URI Alumni Association tote filled with fun Rhody gear. To be entered into our random drawing: 1. Go to alumni.uri.edu 2. Click the link at the bottom of the home page that says Recent Grad Giveaway 3. Log in and submit the Giveaway entry form

ENTER BY OCTOBER 1 TO WIN!

RECENT GRAD RHODY GEAR GIVEAWAY! Go here to see all the ways you can stay connected to URI: alumni.uri.edu/youngalum

In Memoriam

Go here to see all the great discounts and perks that come with a URI Alumni Association membership card: alumni.uri.edu/membership

Hope Furlong Syverson ’44 of Greensboro, N.C., on December 15, 2014

Donald Wheeler Cole Sr. ’50 of Columbus, Ohio, on December 14, 2013

M. Thelma Kenyon ’44 of Narragansett, R.I., on April 3, 2016

Wallace B. Anderson Jr. ’50 of Westfield, Mass., on April 12, 2015

James A. Cooney ’45 of Greenville, S.C., on May 20, 2016

John Dosdourian ’50 of Melbourne, Fla., on January 8, 2016

Jane Willoughby ’45 of East Greenwich, R.I., on May 13, 2016

Raymond C. Campbell ’51 of Storrs, Conn., on February 28, 2016

W. Barbara O’Hara ’42 of Naples, Fla., on March 28, 2015

Ferdinand Mark Comolli ’48 of Bethany Beach, Del., on May 27, 2016

Edward McNulty ’51 of Dearborn, Mich., on August 25, 2015

D. Beverly Beaven ’43 of Lincoln, R.I., on December 20, 2015

Ann McBurney ’48 of Pawtucket, R.I., on May 20, 2016

Norma Claire Glines ’43 of Lisbon, Conn., on May 17, 2016

Jean Regan Ohnesorge ’48 of Lake Worth, Fla., on March 24, 2016

Joseph Golini ’43 of Cranston, R.I., on May 14, 2016

Leonard A. Waldman ’48 of Miami, Fla., on February 25, 2016

Natale J. Frederico ’44 of Ipswich, Mass., on April 29, 2016

Annetta M. Comolli ’49 of Bethany Beach, Del., on December 4, 2013

Carl Lawrence Lindquist ’34 of La Jolla, Calif., on March 11, 2013 Ivis Carpenter Warner ’40 of Cutler Bay, Fla., on April 5, 2014 John Bartlett Rowell ’41 of St. Paul, Minn., on June 15, 2016 Mary T. D’Arcy ’42 of Northridge, Calif., on January 20, 2016

36

QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Beverly Durand McNulty ’51 of Dearborn, Mich., on May 15, 2013

Ralph Caduto Jr. ’52 of Palm Coast, Fla., on March 25, 2016 Bernard Gollis ’52, M.S. ’58, of Irvine, Calif., on March 23, 2016 Joseph R. Hillstrom ’52 of Esmond, R.I., on April 10, 2016 Russell Kalberer ’52 of Franklin, Mass., on April 22, 2016 Charles Lund ’52 of Gallipolis, Ohio., on April 9, 2016 James Sherpey, M.S. ’52 of Beverly Hills, Fla., on March 5, 2016

Donald Phelps ’51 of West Greenwich, R.I., on April 5, 2016

Joan Shirley Atterbury ’54 of Westport, Conn., on September 21, 2015

Carmine Luigi Ragosta ’51 of Cranston, R.I., on March 28, 2016

Barbara Fraser Little ’54 of Greene, R.I., on September 4, 2014

Alfred Remillard ’51 of Harrison, Ohio, on May 1, 2016

Maurice Berard ’54 of Lincoln, R.I., on January 22, 2013

PHOTO: COURTESY EMILY PISANO

CLOSEUP

Fashion Sense Emily Pisano ’14

“I failed cutting in kindergarten,” jokes Emily Pisano.

Although she knew early on she wasn’t cut out for design, she never doubted her calling. “I’ve always been shy,” she says, “and fashion is a way to communicate.”

Just two years after graduating with a textiles/ merchandising/design major and French minor, she’s now handling the business end of the Pennsylvania leather goods company she co-founded, Tesoro Design. Everything is made in America. “In one of my classes at URI, we learned about global sourcing and how that process affects people,” she explains. “There are companies who don’t realize there are children working in their factories; it gets really hard to manage when you send things abroad. It’s expensive to stay in America, but that just made me want to work harder to find a way to do it.”

Pisano also puts her wry writing skills to work as co-creator of Gleek, a style blog that riffs on an Anna Wintour quote: “Sometimes geeks can be chic.”

Pisano’s personal style advice: “You can pull off anything, as long as you have confidence.

And lipstick.”

For more information, visit www.tesoro.design and gleekstyle.com.

BY NICOLE MARANHAS

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 37

John Lepore ’62 of Westfield, N.J., on March 10, 2016

Ina R. Mish, M.S. ’75 of Wareham, Mass., on May 18, 2016

Virginia Wallace ’62 of Smithfield, R.I., on February 1, 2015

Nancy Laird Sweeney ’75 of Naples, Fla., on August 20, 2013

George Ficorilli ’63, M.S. ’68 of Johnston, R.I., on May 28, 2016

Craig A. Johns ’77 of Chepachet, R.I., on August 14, 2015

Iren Klara Freeman ’63 of Peace Dale, R.I., on August 5, 2015

Patricia Jackson ’78 of Cranston, R.I., on June 18, 2016

Judy Countryman ’64 of Newton, Mass., on February 25, 2016

Charles Mathis ’79 of Cranston, R.I., on May 27, 2016

Frank Gene DiBello ’64 of Pompano Beach, Fla., on September 17, 2013

John “Jack” McCarron ’80 of Woodbridge, Va., on February 27, 2016

Art Oun ’64 of Boynton Beach, Fla., on May 24, 2015 Madelanie Sanderson ’64 of Pleasant Mount, Pa., on December 9, 2015

You have a great job and you’re happy. Now what?

Although you have found professional satisfaction in your present position, it is essential that your career maintenance never stops. In the latest Alumni Career Services article, we offer some important advice to alumni who are thriving in their current jobs. Resume maintenance, professional development, and goal setting can all help to promote continued career development and success.

CONTACT ALUMNI CAREER SERVICES 401.874.9404 Karen Rubano: krubano@uri.edu

alumni.uri.edu/careerservices

Daniel F. McDade ’54 of Wakefield, R.I., on December 12, 2014

Richard M. Wood ’55 of Mystic, Conn., on May 21, 2016

Bernard S. Ryskiewich ’54 of Haddam, Conn., on April 11, 2016

Howard L. Andrews ’57 of Naples, Fla., on April 13, 2016

Sandra Shupack Rose ’54 of Las Vegas, Nev., on May 23, 2016

John N. Bergeron ’57 of Pawtucket, R.I., on May 15, 2016

John Singleton, M.S. ’54 of Kennebunk, Maine., on March 26, 2016

William Murray Gates ’57 of Wakefield, R.I., on April 24, 2016

William R Wing, Jr., ’54 of Sarasota, Fla., on May 26, 2015

Judith Henry Kohlsaat ’57 of Saunderstown, R.I., on March 28, 2016

Joan Alexander ’55 of Wakefield, R.I,. on May 5, 2016

Earl Sangster ’57 of Shelton, Conn., on February 28, 2016

Joseph R. Kozlin ’55 of Jupiter, Fla., on May 14, 2013

Fred Newton Scott Goodrich ’61 of Barnstead, N.H., on June 13, 2016

38 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

Neil Edward Casey ’65 of Dallas, Texas, on April 1, 2016 Michael Joseph Ileo ’65, M.S. ’67 of Richmond, Va., on May 26, 2015 Donald F. Fisher ’66 of Coventry, R.I., on August 8, 2013 Peter Schultz ’66 of Altamont, N.Y., on November 14, 2013 Paula Krinsky ’67 of San Ramon, Calif., on May 29, 2016 John R. Mirandou ’67 of East Greenwich, R.I., on May 31, 2016 Natalie Rosen Seigle ’68 of Providence, R.I., on May 11, 2016 Michael S. Chmura ’71 of Smithfield, R.I., on June 1, 2016 Edna L. Bik ’70, M.S. ’72 of Redondo Beach, Calif., on April 26, 2016 Geroge Offutt Jr. Ph.D. ’70 of Phoenixville, Pa., on April 23, 2013 Elizabeth Anne Hart ’70 of Saco, Maine, on April 18, 2016 Janice K. Erickson ’71, M.L.S. ’73 of Redding, Calif., on May 27, 2016 George M. Pizio ’71 of Tiverton, R.I., on June 30, 2013 Kenneth Robinson ’71 of North Providence, R.I., on November 2, 2014 Spencer H. Gelband ’72, M.S. ’73 of Hoboken, N.J., on June 8, 2015 Ralph J. Gizz. ’72 of Portsmouth, R.I., on April 16, 2016 Thomas P. King ’72 of Jupiter, Fla., on March 31, 2016 Ruth Wait-Howes ’73 of Warwick, R.I., on June 6, 2016 Deborah Prétat-Klofski ’74 of Portsmouth, R.I., on January 22, 2016 John Cicerchia ’75 of Providence, R.I., on June 20, 2016

Marie Coutu Chartier ’81 of East Killingly, Conn., on May 4, 2016 James McMahon Jr. ’81 of Weehawken, N.J. on June 19, 2016 Jean L. Arruda ’82 of East Greenwich, R.I., on June 21, 2016 Marjorie Frances Lineweber ’84 of Canterbury, Conn., on May 28, 2016 Shawn Tagg ’84 of Waldorf, Md., on April 23, 2016 Robert Gadbois ’85 of Englewood, Fla., on June 1, 2016 Mark Joseph Lussier ’87 of North Reading, Mass., on February 29, 2016 Keith Maynard ’88 of North Smithfield, R.I., on April 7, 2016 Shelby Parks Warner ’92 of Norwood, Mass., on November 9, 2015 Alexander Sandor ’93 of Norwalk.

Conn., on May 7, 2016 Matthew Fournier ’94 of North Kingstown, R.I., on June 2, 2016 Elizabeth A. Jones, M.L.S. ’95 of Gales Ferry, Conn., on December 11, 2014 Nicholas Talarico ’01 of Colorado Springs, Colo., on February 25, 2016 Matthew Davis ’10 of Greenwood, Ind., on April 27, 2016 Ryan Bourque ’13 of Coventry, R.I., on May 23, 2016

Faculty and Staff In Memoriam Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Sol Schwartzman of Providence, R.I., on January 30, 2016 Professor Emeritus of English Richard T. Neuse of Kingston, R.I., on June 14, 2016

ALUMNISCENE

May 21, 2016 A Commencement Weekend Legacy Family Brunch “This year, our family celebrated 100 years of legacy, which made graduation day extra special for us. For years we have made a tradition of attending the URI men’s basketball games and rooting for the Rhody Rams.”

—Sarah Aldrich ’16

May 26, 2016 Get Cooking in Charlotte!

“This was a smaller, more intimate event, which allowed everyone to really be engaged with one another, relax, and just enjoy. And, of course, the food (and the wine) was AMAZING!” —Ed Doughty ‘93

June 3, 2016 Golden Grad Clambake “This year’s Golden Grad weekend was exceptional. The speakers were fantastic, and the clambake, which was new this year, was also exceptional!”

— Janet Munroe ‘46

If you attended a URI alumni event and would like to share a photo and a reminiscence, we’d love to hear from you! Please write to us at alumni@uri.edu.

Learn more I alumni.uri.edu UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 39

BACKPAGE

A pioneering student recalls a work-study job like no other: Getting a live ram game-day ready.

BY NICOLE MARANHAS Margaret (Hogan) Burns ’64, M.S. ’66, doesn’t remember exactly when late Professor Bancroft Henderson enlisted her for the job of grooming the ram mascot before University football games—if it was her senior year as an undergraduate or ­during her two years as a research assistant—but she still remembers her duties well. Burns has been caring for sheep since the age of 10, when her parents bought her a pet lamb before the family moved from Fall River, Mass., to a dairy farm in Tiverton, R.I. She instantly took to farm life, enrolling at URI as an animal science major in what was then the College of Agriculture. “I was the only girl in all my classes,” recalls Burns, whose years of experience preparing sheep for 4-H Club shows made her an ideal candidate for ensuring the beloved mascot—an actual sheep in those days—was game-day ready.

As with the athletes, preparation for the mascot began in the preseason. The first order of business was choosing the perfect ram from the University’s flock of horned Dorset sheep. “He needed to look exactly like the campus statue, big and blocky with curls to his horns,” says Burns.

40 QUADANGLES FALL 2016

A horned Dorset ram from a mid-sixties yearbook photo, looking snappy.

Next, the mascot had to be trained.

“Rams, compared to ewes, can be very ­dangerous. It was important to halter-train the ram so he could be taken to the football games.” (A new ram was trained every two or three years, says Burns; after a few years, the trained ram could start to become surly or difficult to handle.) Shearing was also key: “You had to make sure you sheared the ram at the right time so that it would grow back an inch of wool before the season,” says Burns.

When football season was underway, each grooming session typically took about a day. “Before a game, I would wash and trim him, then card him up [a process similar to combing] until his fibers became smooth,” she says. Once Rhody was ­picture-perfect, Burns would cover him with a blanket to keep him clean until game time.

URI discontinued the tradition of having a live ram at football games in 1974, not too long after Burns earned her master’s in biochemistry and statistics, writing her animal nutrition thesis on digestion trials done with the URI sheep flock. “I had wanted to become a veterinarian,” she says, “but very few females were accepted into vet school back then.” She instead spent much of her career as a research scientist at the University of Connecticut, where her work included researching snake venoms at the College of Pharmacy. (With a laugh, she recalls the “ramnapping” rivalry that waged between URI and UConn for years.) Still, she never lost her affinity for sheep; she was a 4-H Club leader for more than 30 years and currently keeps a flock of about 80 at her home in North Carolina. “Sheep aren’t dumb like people always think,” she says.

“They’re very smart, and they have a super memory.” •

PHOTOS: COURTESY URI GRIST

Grow Your Retirement Income.

You can support the University and receive benefits for yourself in return!

Make a difference to the people, programs and places you love at the University of Rhode Island by establishing a charitable gift annuity.

This life-income gift will provide you with fixed payments for life. A simple exchange between you and the URI Foundation, DONOR as illustrated, allows you to make an irrevocable donation to URI in return for fixed annual payments to you— Income Tax Deduction/ for life. Any portion of your donation Fixed Payments for Life that remains after your lifetime may be used to support a purpose of your choice at URI. Some advantages of a gift annuity include: A charitable deduction when you itemize your tax returns

Gift of Cash or Property

Charitable Gift Annuity

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For more information, contact Director of Gift Planning Rita Verespy at 401.874.9530 or rita_verespy@uri.edu.

urifoundation.org/plannedgiving

UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND 41

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Homecoming Weekend • October 21–23, 2016