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From URI Magazine Readers
Kudos
Thank you for the marvelous spring 2023 issue of the URI alumni magazine. The layout on each page is visually attractive. Moreover, it is easy and enticing to read. The cover, too, is sensational. I LOVE “Caption This,” showing a bygone moment of life at URI. Congratulations to all who make the alumni magazine a very special and personal publication. Bravo!
—Suzanne Grossman ’59
I am so impressed by the spring issue of URI Magazine. Loved sharing it with my family and fellow alumni!
—Aurora Faria ’20
The Second-to-Last Lobsterman on Block Island
Great story! Inspirational, hopeful, yet tinged with a sense of melancholy. A challenging career for young Mr. Howarth, but I have a bit of envy for the life he is carving.
—Greg Whitehead ’78
What a wonderful story. I’m always inspired by people, both young and old, who keep their local traditions strong. It is not easy work. Proud of you Ebben for seeing a bigger picture and getting your college degree! Keep up the energy you’ve maintained!!!
—Kimberly Leute, parent ’26
Swimming Narrow River
Fun to read. Thanks! Congrats to Anthony Russo for the cool illustration. It’s great!
—Paul Daley, parent ’98
Keeping Current
Loved “Keeping Current” with Kevin Rosa.
—Jean Connelly ’68
From the Editor
Welcome to the summer issue! Here, we offer you summer reading and an introduction to a few notable members of the Rhody family who are working hard and having fun. And that’s the best kind of work.
In these pages, you’ll meet a chocolate entrepreneur, a craft brewer, and a skating instructor. You’ll meet alumni sisters finding the humor in life’s challenges. And you’ll meet URI researchers who study some cool creatures—sharks and bees.
Keep reading and you’ll find master classes on authentic leadership and music appreciation. And if you like history, you’ll meet someone I can’t help seeing as the Greatest Generation’s Forrest Gump: Brig. Gen. Elliott R. Thorpe ’19, Hon. ’51, who managed to be part of some of the biggest moments in history; in fact, he might have changed history had his warning of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor been heeded.
Since summer reading wouldn’t be complete without a little romance, we offer you two love stories: Norm Schoeler ’71 and Barbara DeCubellis Taylor ’70, who met in kindergarten, dated as URI students, went their separate ways, and then reunited, discovering they had both lost their spouses to Alzheimer’s; and David Nicolato ’98 and Cortney Nicolato ’01, who were both Rhody mascots as students, and who still see URI as the foundation of their life together.
Finally, if your summer includes some time in the water, “Rhode Island’s Water Warriors” is a must-read, along with companion story, “Water Detective.” The stories show how four programs—Watershed Watch, Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officers, Onsite Wastewater Resource Center, and Home*A*Syst—work together to help keep the state’s water—from our rivers, ponds, and oceans to our wells and groundwater—clean and healthy. As a proud member of the volunteer army that works with the amazing Elizabeth Herron ’88, M.A. ’04, for Watershed Watch, I hope this story demonstrates the important work these programs do for all of us.
So find a comfy spot by the water and dig in—your summer reading is here.
—Barbara Caron, Editor-in-Chief
Congratulations to our Cap-tivating 2023 Grads!
The winners of this year’s graduation cap contest:
Once again you have produced a magnificent magazine, digital and hard copy. It is a monument of professionalism and a credit to URI and generations of alumni, which in our case goes back to 1941. And to 1969 and, to me, in 1975.
We are proud of you and of URI.