Whitcomb: Prettying up the Parks; Gradual ‘Medicare for All’; Larry Ellison High School
Robert Whitcomb, Columnist
Whitcomb: Prettying up the Parks; Gradual ‘Medicare for All’; Larry Ellison High School
at attention like sentries at the ends
of their driveways, but more lean
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTaskance as if they’d just received a blow
to the head, and in fact they’ve received
many, all winter, from jets of wet snow
shooting off the curved, tapered blade
of the plow….’’
-- From “Mailboxes in Late Winter,’’ by Massachusetts poet Jeffrey Harrison
“{Bernie} Sanders filled the anti-Hillary vacuum in 2016. And like the vacuum {Eugene} McCarthy filled in early 1968, this was a fleeting opportunity, seized and then gone… And much as McCarthy’s moment ended with Nixon, the Sanders moment faded with the weird, flawed figure of Trump in the White House.
“However the 2020 campaign might unfold for the Democrats, there is no wounded giant to define the party fray. Minus the vacuum, Sanders will find, like gruff Gene, that his moment is gone, his agenda absorbed by more plausible candidates, his future behind him. Only the residue of unslaked ambition remains.’’
-- From a David von Drehle column in The Washington Post. To read the whole thing, please hit this link:
Rhode Island has some spectacular physical attractions. The biggest include its location around a beautiful bay between New York and Boston, its glorious coastal and inland countryside, some of which almost recalls Vermont, and memorable old buildings.
So Gov. Gina Raimondo is quite right to announce a program to spiff up the state’s parks, including its famous state beaches. This comes after years of budget and staffing cuts. This state land comprises about 8,200 acres, a modest percentage of the state’s total acreage of 775,900 but those 8, 200 acres include some scenic and recreational treasures. My own favorite is Colt State Park, in Bristol.
A new report commissioned by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management says that while the parks (including beaches) it runs have high usage, ranking first in the nation in visits per park acre, it is only 47th in state spending per visit!
The governor’s initial plan is to add a modest $1.5 million in funding for the DEM’s Division of Parks and Recreation. This would include hiring eight more people to work in the parks. That’s not much until you consider that the report calculates that that state parks add about $315 million to Rhode Island’s economy a year.
The governor has asked for an increase in beach fees, forced to do so in part because of an irresponsible if popular slashing of beach fees in 2016, which presumably reduced the money available for maintenance, let alone improvements.
The DEM report’s writers also suggest a new regime of fees to boost state revenue from rentals and special events at state parks to help defray the cost of maintaining them.
(See some Massachusetts and Connecticut fees below.)
For Rhode Islanders, the DEM is proposing a $2-a-day increase in beach-parking fees, bringing the cost to $8 a day during the week and $9 a day on weekends. For non-residents, the DEM wants a $4 increase for parking, bringing the total to $16 a day during the week and $18 a day on weekends. For season passes, the DEM proposes a $10 increase for residents, bringing the cost of a pass to $40, and a $20 increase for non-residents, bringing the cost of a season pass to $80.
DEM also wants to increase camping fees. Depending on the offering (three different tiers), camping fees could increase by as much as $16 a day for out-of-staters, or by as little as $4 for residents.
Especially considering what most people pay every month for such things as cable TV, these fees still seem a bargain. Yes, the fees could be seen as regressive since poorer people are more likely to use the parks and beaches than richer ones, with their private places to go. But, still, the new fees are modest. And would folks prefer tax increases instead? Aren’t user fees the fairest way to go?
Here are some partial comparisons with adjacent states:
The parking fees for Massachusetts state beaches for Bay State residents: ocean beaches, up to $12 day; inland beaches, up to $8 a day. For nonresidents: up to $20 day for ocean beaches and $15 a day for inland beaches.
For Connecticut state beaches: on weekdays, $9 a day for Connecticut residents and $15 for out-of-state vehicles; on weekends and holidays, $13 a day for Connecticut people and $22 for out-of-state folks.
But a big but! Especially in an economic downturn, with lower tax revenues, will the money from the fees all go to the parks and beaches or will Governor Raimondo and/or her successor and/or the legislature scoop the money and treat it as general revenue to help avoid raising broad-based taxes? I don’t see any assurances that this won’t occur. We need such assurances now, in writing.
Meanwhile, it’s good to remember that because Rhode Island is in the densely populated Northeast it’s always in a sweet position to get more out-of-state fee revenue from its parks and beaches, given adequate marketing.
As we push toward the warm weather and heavy use of Rhode Island’s underfunded and understaffed parks, the governor should be commended for trying to improve the visitor experience, and in doing so, draw more visitors – and their cash – to the Ocean State.
To read the DEM report, please hit this link:
GoLocal's News Editor Kate Nagle and Bob Whitcomb on LIVE
Relatively Minnesota Moderate
Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democratic senator and presidential hopeful, probably has the right way to expand health-care coverage as the volume rises among other Democratic presidential candidates for “Medicare for All”. In this and some other issues, she’s taking a more careful and moderate approach (e.g., she opposes “free four-year college’’ promises) than most of her Democratic rivals.
She’d gradually expand Medicare and Medicaid by letting people buy into them. It’s the so-called “public option’’ discussed and then dropped because of ferocious insurance company lobbying when the Affordable Care Act was being debated. People who have and like their private insurance can keep it if they want. If they want the “public option’’ they can also get supplemental private insurance, as in “socialist’’ Europe.
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And no, Medicare and Medicaid can’t pay for all health care, whatever the wishful thinking of some Democrats. There will always have to be rationing, as there is now – by personal income among other things.
Encouraging more people to use the public option, by expanding the risk pool with younger and healthier people, would tend to moderate its costs. Of course, the administrative overheads of Medicare and Medicaid are much lower than those of insurance companies, with their marketing expenses and sky-high executive salaries, etc.
As for the yelps about “socialism,’’ you could call Medicare, beloved by even Tea Party types, socialism. (The Tea Party types tend to love Medicare and hate Medicaid because Tea Partiers tend to be older and whiter than Medicaid recipients.) The new health-care debate reminds me of the angry lady who yelled at U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at a Tea Party-infected meeting: “Get the government out of my Medicare.’’ He responded: “Madam: Medicare is a government program.’’
And then, as I wrote before, Trump, et al., drag in Venezuela as an example of the evils of socialism while that country is best seen as a kind of fascist dictatorship. Trump, etc., have good reason to hope that most Americans won’t look into the health-care “socialism’’ of the very prosperous democracies of western and northern Europe, with health statistics much better than America’s.
The very smart (but apparently a nasty boss) Klobuchar may be more attuned to European social democracies because of Minnesota’s large number of residents with Scandinavian and German backgrounds and the Land of 10,000 Lakes’ strong civic culture. (My late mother was a Minnesotan, albeit not always a model citizen.)
Do We Cancel?
Ah, the perils of event management in wintertime New England! Do we cancel tonight’s dinner and speech or carry on with the hope that the predicted rain won’t turn to freezing rain and snow until after everyone’s safely home? Of course, far more complicated is the school superintendent’s having to decide at 5:30 a.m. whether to close multiple schools that day in an iffy forecast, frequent around here. That wandering rain-ice-snow line.
Jim Gillis of the Newport Daily News created a bit of a flap in his Feb. 14 column, headlined “Spare Change: Here’s an idea for moneybags Larry Ellison’’. Mr. Gillis was responding to news that the Oracle mogul Ellison, ranked the fifth-richest person in America, with a fortune of over $62 billion, has bought a fourth estate in the City by the Sea, this one called Seacliff. His most important Newport property is the old Astor estate called Beechwood, on which he’s spent $100 million to turn it into an art museum.
Mr. Gillis suggests -- partly in jest? -- that a better use of Mr. Ellison’s money would be for him to spend $120 million to build a new high school to replace Newport’s aging Rogers High School. He writes:
“Heck, lots of multi-billionaires own mansions. How many build their own schools? Sure, the city would operate the place. All you need do is bankroll construction. Hey, maybe other local celebrity rich folk like Jay Leno and Judge Judy might chip in a few shekels.
“The high school has been named for William S. Rogers since before any of us were alive, predating the current location.
“We love tradition here. But for $120 million, I suppose Larry Ellison High School sounds pretty good.’’
To read Mr. Gillis’s column, please hit this link:
Well, Larry Ellison and other new and long-entrenched Newport celebrities do pay lots of property taxes. And, God bless ‘em, the three folks whom Mr. Gillis mentioned at least made their own money rather than being the beneficiaries of inheritance (what the late, crude Providence Mayor Vincent Cianci called “the lucky sperm club’’). And they can spend their money any damn way they want.
But wouldn’t it be nice if more very rich people contributed to public services rather than seeming to want to wrap themselves more tightly in glamour and prestige by giving money to, say, already rich museums and private colleges?
For example, MarketWatch reported that “20 colleges {most of them elite private institutions} that received the most money in donations during the last fiscal year accounted for about 28% of the total $46.73 billion donated to universities during that period. They serve just 1.6% of the nation’s 19.9 million undergraduate students. That’s based on an analysis of the annual Voluntary Support for Education survey, published by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, a membership association for professionals working in development, alumni relations and related fields for educational institutions.’’
To read the whole article, please hit this link:
(I just got back from the Palm Beach, Fla., area, where I read about the spectacular expansion of one of the socialites’ favorite charities – the Norton Museum of Art. I love walking up Worth Avenue, the most famous shopping street in Palm Beach, looking at the rail-thin women who have had so many facelifts that they can barely smile. It’s the sort of place where the society editor of the Palm Beach Daily News, the wonderfully informed, incisive, funny and down-to-earth Shannon Donnelly (a Newport native), is one of that region’s more important figures. But the best entertainment in Florida is watching alligators almost leap out of the waters of the man-made lakes in gated communities in pursuit of prey, including pets.
(They thus reduce the cat population and keep kids from fishing along the shore. And then there’s the exciting migration of Burmese pythons north from the Everglades. They’ll eat just about anything. Unfortunately, while python meat is said to be delicious, it has too much mercury to be fit for human consumption.)
It would be nice if more very rich people took the approach of Andrew Carnegie, the steel mogul who helped finance 1,689 public libraries in America – institutions that have helped innumerable people improve themselves, culturally, economically and emotionally.
But it’s also reassuring to know that storied Newport continues to attract the celebs, who help pay for municipal services and who add more spice and occasional drama to an already dynamic and complicated city.
Newport Innovation Center
Meanwhile, work proceeds at the old Sheffield School building in Newport, which is being turned into a hub for startups and other small companies, with a focus on technology. What I find particularly happy is the idea that Newport, which is already a modest tech center, mostly because of federal facilities, could become the center of a research and development and highly entrepreneurial “Silicon Coast’’ focused on marine-related technology, including of course offshore wind power. The “Silicon Coast’’ would stretch from Groton, Conn., with Electric Boat, to the Mystic Aquarium (which does a lot of research), to the URI School of Oceanography, to Newport’s mix of government facilities and tech companies, to the Port of New Bedford, to the world capital of oceanography, the Woods Hole section of Falmouth. LEARN MORE HERE
France vs. Italy
Tensions have risen between France and Italy as the latter’s current “populist’ (with a tang of fascism) government has been making mischief. The latest example: Italian deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio (whose father is a well-known neo-fascist) meeting with a spokesman of the bizarre mix of extreme right-and-left-wing foes of moderate French President Emmanuel Macron called the gilets jaunes (yellow vests), who demand a contradictory collection of economic-policy changes. They’ve done considerable urban rioting.
Mr. DiMaio’s meeting certainly looks like gross interference in France’s internal affairs.
So the French government has recalled its ambassador from Rome.
Meanwhile, the Russians are doing everything they can to weaken the West, by dividing European Union allies and fomenting disorder within them. For example, consider that the Alliance for Securing Democracy reports that about 600 Twitter accounts known to promote Kremlin views have been lately focusing on France and revving up the yellow vest crowd.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin particularly dislikes President Macron because of the French leader’s strong support for greater European unity and a stronger European Union defense against Russian aggression. With a deeply corrupt and would-be autocratic American leader compromised by years of business and other deals with Russian, and a weakening German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May, the mantle of leader of the West has fallen on young Mr. Macron.
By the way, extreme southeast France has always had a strong Italian influence, including the most delicious pizza I’ve ever had. Indeed, the word Riviera, as in the French Riviera, is the Italian word for coastline.
Car-Loan Overhang
There’s increasing economic danger from swelling corporate debt, some of it taken on to finance stock buybacks, which boost the price of company stock and thus particularly benefit senior executives, much of whose compensation is in shares.
But also unsettling is a surge in delinquencies on car and truck loans. At least 7 million Americans are three months or more behind on their car and truck loans, says CityLab.com, referencing Federal Reserve Bank of New York figures. That’s a million more people than in 2009, during the Great Recession. (Yes, the nation’s population was lower then.) By last summer, $1.26 trillion was owed on Americans’ cars and trucks – up 75 percent from 2009.
A major reason for this increase, besides slow wage growth for lower-and-middle-income people, is that standards for granting car loans have been loosened, encouraging predatory lending via high-interest subprime loans aimed at poorer people, recalling the sort of crazy mortgages that helped cause the Crash of 2008 and Great Recession.
Other related factors include the relative paucity, compared to most Western nations, of public transit as well as sprawl suburban and exurban development, which leads to long commutes and the associated costs. It’s long been my hunch that the surge in gasoline prices in the spring of 2008 explains some of the timing of the crash that started with the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, in September 2008: Too many people with huge home and car loans commuting long distances as gasoline prices exceeded $4 a gallon in some places. The straw that…
The increase in car-loan delinquencies may be an unsettling leading economic indicator – most Americans need cars to get to work. So if they’re falling behind on those payments, things must be pretty bad for them.
Still, witness the many low-and-middle-income people who take out big loans to buy very fancy and/or big cars (gas guzzlers). I guess it’s more of the great American status race. Not smart. (Walmart founder Sam Walton drove around in an old pickup truck….)
To read the CityLab.com piece, please hit this link:
Trying to Draw College Kids Downtown
The Worcester Telegram ran a story Feb. 16 headlined “Area college students shy away from downtown, other city attractions’’.
A big problem for Worcester is that its colleges are not virtually downtown, unlike in Providence, most notably with Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. And Johnson and Wales University is actually downtown, as are some URI and Roger Williams University units. This long-term presence has helped prop up Providence’s core even as some big old companies left town. The city’s very scenic location at the head of Narragansett Bay helps, too. And Worcester’s altitude and inland location make winter walking and driving there more problematical than in Rhode Island’s capital.
Worcester’s colleges are more on the periphery, making excursions to the old industrial city’s (sort of the Pittsburgh of New England) downtown more daunting. It will take a lot more marketing to get a lot more college kids in downtown Worcester, even as Providence’s downtown remains crowded with them.
It's too bad that “Downcity’’ Providence is no longer the company-headquarters place it was decades ago, but at least its college students are there in droves, spending money making the downtown safer. Crowded cities are usually safer cities.
I doubt that the arrival of the soon-to-be named something-else Pawtucket Red Sox will draw many college students, though maybe more than the terrific Worcester Art Museum.
To read The Telegram’s story, please hit this link:
Careful Incentives
Amazon already has thousands of employees in tech center Greater Boston and will probably add several thousands more, perhaps mostly along the South Boston waterfront, in the wake of the demise of an Amazon “second headquarters’’ in New York City. But this won’t be due to the sort of massive incentives the “populist’’ reaction to which blew up the Amazon-New York deal.
As seen in the deal crafted by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (a highly successful former businessman and top-notch numbers cruncher) and the generally economically reality-based Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lure General Electric headquarters, Massachusetts has been quite conservative in crafting incentive packages. Shirley Leung had an interesting column on the GE deal. To read it, please hit this link:
Rhode Island might also get some Amazon jobs because of the New York news.
Fake News Then and Now
Please read professor and former media executive Lee W. Huebner’s important new book: The Fake News Panic of a Century Ago: Reflections on Globalization, Democracy, and the Media. (Disclosure: I have known Mr. Huebner for many years.)
Mr. Huebner expertly applies history to our current situation in his panoramic study. It’s a delicious mix of scholarship and commentary on economics, philosophy, religion, mass psychology, politics, technology, etc. And there’s a superb selection of quotations from over the centuries. The writing is very accessible and, indeed, often highly entertaining. Mr. Huebner has a delightfully droll sense of humor.
As the old saw has it: “You can’t really know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been.’’ This book is a reliable guide leading up to the present era of “fake news,’’ especially meaning news that our maximum leader and his followers don’t like.
A Genius of Hollywood
Ben Hecht (1893-1964) was one of the greatest Hollywood screenwriters, working on such classic films as Scarface, Notorious and Twentieth Century. He didn’t get public credit (but did get paid) for many movies he worked on, including Gone With the Wind and the hilarious and dark His Girl Friday (the last based on the play The Front Page, which he wrote with Charles MacArthur). He’s credited with helping to invent the “screwball comedy’’ and the gangster movie.
Now Adina Hoffman has come along with a fine biography called Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures. A great read! But an even better read is his 1954 autobiography, A Child of the Century. He was an amazing man.
The 50 Greatest Living Rhode Islanders
#50
Professor J. Michael Kosterlitz
Nobel Prize Winner
In October 2016, Brown University Professor J. Michael Kosterlitz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. He has been at Brown since 1982.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced that it awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 to three U.S. scientists, including Kosterlitz ”for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter."
"They revealed the secrets of exotic matter," wrote the Academy in their release. "This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics."
The Academy wrote:
The three Laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound the experts. In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless overturned the then current theory that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur at low temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phase transition, that makes superconductivity disappear at higher temperatures.
#49
Barnaby Evans
Artist
Barnaby Evans is the creator of WaterFire, cited as one of America’s most important pieces of public art. Friedrich St. Florian called WaterFire the “crown jewel of the Providence Renaissance.”
He has won numerous regional, national and global awards for his creation of WaterFire. The event has helped to transform Providence.
As his bio states, he "is also known for his photography which is included in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Bibliotheque National, Paris; the Musee’ d’art et d’histoire, Fribourg, Switzerland; the Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts; and the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design among others."
#48
John William Middendorf II
Ambassador, Investor, Musician
Ambassador Middendorf has a brilliantly diverse legacy. Financier, ambassador, and accomplished musical composer.
He served in World War II, was an investment banker, served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, and served as Secretary of the Navy.
Middendorf graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1945 with a bachelor's degree in naval science after having served in World War II as an engineering officer and navigator aboard LCS 53. He then earned an A.B. from Harvard College in 1947 and received his MBA from the Stern School of Business, at New York University in 1954.
Middendorf founded the investment banking firm Middendorf, Colgate and Company, and held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Having learned how to make money,” he writes in his memoir, “I wanted to learn how to make a difference.” He became actively involved in politics, first at the local level in Connecticut and then with the presidential campaign of Senator Barry Goldwater in 1964 as treasurer of the Republican National Committee.
During his time as Secretary of the Navy, Middendorf oversaw the establishment of the General Dynamics facility at Quonset Point, now one of Rhode Island's largest employers. He also created the Marine Corps Marathon, and its trophy for the winner has been named in his honor.
He has authored two books, Glorious Disaster: Barry Goldwater's Presidential Campaign and the Origins of the Conservative Movement and Potomac Fever: A Memoir of Politics and Public Service.
Middendorf has written more than 100 marches and the Holland Symphony which he presented to Dutch Queen Juliana on the 25th anniversary of her ascension to the throne.
For his musical efforts, Middendorf received the “Edwin Franko Goldman Award” from the American Bandmasters Association and is a member of the American Society of Composers and Performers. Other of his honors include: Navy Distinguished Public Service Award (1976); the U.S. Olympic Committee Gold Shield Award; and the State of New York's Distinguished Patriot Award (1976).
He has lived in Little Compton, Rhode Island for decades.
Source: RI Heritage, U.S.Navy
#47
Bill Reynolds (Died in 2023)
Sportswriter
Reynolds' books use sports as the framework, but are deeper examinations of poverty, race, and addiction.
His book "Fall River Dreams" defined him a leading American writer who uniquely captures the intersection of sports and culture.
“Bill Reynolds is one of the best writers around, and this book is the Friday Night Lights of high school basketball,” said Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe.
"Success is a Choice," which he co-wrote with Rick Pitino, is a business "how to" book that was a New York Times best-seller.
Reynolds has written 11 books and was a sports reporter for the Providence Journal.
#46
John McCauley (Deer Tick)
Singer-Songwriter
McCauley has been a leading voice in the alternative, indie rock sphere for more than a decade. His work is a mix of rock with folk, blues, and country influences.
Along with his band, McCauley won Rock Artist of the Year at the Boston Music Awards (beating out Aerosmith) in 2013. He is married to fellow musician Vanessa Carlton -- Stevie Nicks officiated their wedding.
#45
Ray Rickman
Civil Rights Leader, Business Consultant
Rickman has become the conscious of Rhode Island, calling out issues of inequity far before it was in vogue.
He served as a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly and as Deputy Secretary of State in Rhode Island. His efforts and leadership on civil rights issues have been consistent over the past 50 years.
His civil rights leadership is just one aspect of Rickman's accomplished legacy. He has owned small businesses, served as a TV talk show host, is a noted expert on books and so much more.
One of his most noted accomplishments was his critical role in helping to establish one of Rhode Island most successful tech companies - Virgin Pulse.
Today, Rickman founded and runs Stages of Freedom, an organization that provides everything from swim lessons to minority children to building a legacy of minority culture in Rhode Island.
Rickman is a true Renaissance man.
#44
Angus Davis
Entrepreneur
Few business innovators in America have had the success of native Rhode Islander Davis.
He co-founded Tellme, raised more than $200M in capital, and helped to lead the company to more than $100 million in sales and 300 employees. Tellme was acquired by Microsoft for nearly $1 billion.
And he did it again with Upserve, formerly Swipely. The company is "the smart management assistant serving up clear guidance that makes your restaurant thrive" - a tech firm that creates an information infrastructure for restaurants. At the outset, he raised upwards of $50 million for Upserve. In 2020, it sold for $440 million.
Davis is a leading American business thinker
#43
Terry "Mother" Moy
Navy SEAL
If the Navy SEALs are the best trained and most respected in the United State Armed Forces, Moy is the "Mother" of the SEALs.
The Newport native is the embodiment of military lore. He was a famous SEAL instructor and one of his most infamous trainees was Jesse "The Body" Venture - Seal, professional Wrestler and Governor of Minnesota.
While most SEAL activity is undisclosed, his effort to recover Apollo 17 was globally broadcast.
#42
Phil West
Government Reformer
Once dubbed the Godfather of Ethics Reform, West has been the driving force in reforming governmental ethics for three decades in Rhode Island.
His successes include a then-record fine against Governor Ed DiPrete, Separation of Powers, downsizing and modernizing the legislature, and the requirement of electronic filing of bills and making hearings accessible to the public.
He was the head of Common Cause RI for eighteen years and retired in 2006, but still remains a guiding force in reform. Under West, the master lever was eliminated and ethics reform moved through the General Assembly — all under the watchful eye of West.
West has taken on the most powerful forces — sometimes alone — and made Rhode Island a better place as a result.
#41
Richard Jenkins
Actor
Jenkins is the consummate American actor. His work ranges from everything from “The Witches of Eastwick” to “Hannah and Her Sisters” to HBO's "Six Feet Under" to his award-winning role in “Olive Kitteridge”
His formative acting years took place at Trinity Repertory Company (now Trinity Rep). Jenkins then returned later in his career to help save the financially struggling theater.
He has starred and appeared in more than 80 movies and television series or movies. In 2014, Jenkins and his wife Sharon received the Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement from Trinity Repertory Company in Providence.
In 2015, Jenkins won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for his performance as Henry Kitteridge in the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge.
In 2022, Jenkins portrayed Lionel Dahmer, father of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, in Netflix's limited series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
#40
Alan Hassenfeld
Business Leader
The former CEO and Chairman of Hasbro was a driving force in transforming the company from a toy manufacturer to an entertainment company.
Michael Jackson and slews of others came to Rhode Island to tour the company and negotiate licensing deals.
In the early 1990's he became a force in initiating ethics reform in Rhode Island. More recently, he endowed the creation of the Hassenfeld Institute for Public Leadership at Bryant University.
The Rhode Island-based Hassenfeld Foundation gave out nearly $10 million in donations in the most recently reported year.
#39
M. Therese Antone, RSM, Ed.D
Educator
Sister Antone was born in Central Falls, and educated at Salve Regina University, Villanova University, Harvard University and MIT Sloan School of Management.
Correspondingly, she has taught almost every level of education, rising to President of Salve Regina. There, she transformed the school, and Salve Regina’s national rankings and student profile vastly improved under her leadership.
During her tenure, the University's endowment grew from $1 million to more than $50 million and the University invested $76 million on renovations and expansions and has received numerous awards for restoring the historic mansions, cottages, and gatehouses on its campus. She transformed the University and correspondingly has won countless awards for her service.
#38
Umberto Crenca
Artist and Entrepreneur
Artist, visionary and business leader, Crenca took a crazy idea of developing a sustainable art cluster in Downtown Providence and made it the most unimaginable success, and has become a national model.
AS220 was founded in 1985 to "provide a local, unjuried, and uncensored home for the arts," and has grown to own and operate multiple facilities, currently providing artists live and/or work spaces, four exhibition spaces, a print shop, a media lab including a black and white darkroom, a fabrication lab, a stage, a recording studio, a black box theater, a dance studio, and a bar and restaurant.
In 2016, Crenca was awarded Honorary Degrees from two different Rhode Island Universities.
#37
Carolyn Rafaelian
Business Leader
In 2018, Forbes announced its “America's Richest Self-Made Women” list and Rhode Island’s Carolyn Rafaelian came in at #21 on the list.
The list included Oprah Winfrey at #6, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook at #12, Sara Blakely of Spanx tied with Rafaelian at #21, and Kylie Jenner at #27.
“Despite this crazy state, it’s possible for a Rhode Island woman to reach this self-made list. For that I am proud,” said Rafaelian, Founder and now former-CEO of Alex and Ani in an interview with GoLocal.
“I am thrilled with my new team in place and we will continue to attract all the right people and continue to streamline the business and its efficiency. After all, we are the jewelry capital of the world!” she said.
Under her leadership, Alex and Ani donated more than $50 million to organizations large and small.
She no longer serves as CEO and has gone on to launch a new jewelry company. She may be Rhode Island's most successful female CEO.
#36
Louise Durfee
Environmentalist and Attorney
When one talks about trail blazers in Rhode Island, Louise Durfee’s image should be the first thing that comes to mind. She was the first female partner at a major Providence law firm at a time when most law firms did not employ women attorneys. She was one of a small group of Tiverton residents who joined together in the early 1970's to oppose a proposal to build a major oil refinery.
The fight was so profound that it was featured in 1971 in Life Magazine and resulted in the founding of an organization that ultimately became Save the Bay. Again, Durfee the trail blazer.
In the 1980’s she helped to clean up the aftermath at Rhode Housing after widespread corruption was found. In 1991, Governor Bruce Sundlun named her Director of the Department of Environmental Management and just three years later, he fired her.
So she ran against him in the Democratic primary for Governor.
#35
Ron Machtley
Former Politician and University President
Rhode Islanders were first introduced to Ron Machtley in 1988 when he traveled around Rhode Island with a pig named Lester “Less" Pork to point out the wasteful spending of then-Congressman Fred St. Germain.
Machtley upset the 28-year veteran and Chairman of the House Banking Committee to take the Congressional seat. In 1994, he was the odds-on-favorite to win the Governorship, but was upset in the GOP primary by Lincoln Almond, who went on to serve eight years as Governor.
After his defeat, he was the surprise choice to serve as President of then-Bryant College. At first appearances it was a strange choice, but Machtley could not have turned out to be a better selection.
Under his leadership, the college transformed to a University, with massive improvements in the University’s campus, an elevation to Division I Sports, and an overall improvement in Bryant’s academic position.
When he assumed office Bryant had a $1.7 million operating deficit and a tiny endowment. Today, the University’s endowment is nearing $200 million. Over the past 20 years, Bryant has become one of the most improved higher education institutions in America.
He stepped down as President of Bryant in 2020.
#34
U.S. Senator Jack Reed
Politician
If this list of greatest living Rhode Islanders had been developed twenty years ago, it might have been rich with elected officials - the likes of Senators Claiborne Pell and John Chafee, the retired John O. Pastore and Bruce Sundlun, but today there are few with the gravitas of achievement of those politicians.
However, there is the now-senior Senator from Rhode Island, who has a national reputation as an expert on issues of national defense and is a constantly rumored to serve as the Secretary of Defense.
The former Army ranger worked his way up the political ladder as a State legislator and Congressman before winning the Senate seat of the retiring Pell.
In a time of great diverseness, he is a rare member that has conversations across the aisle.
#33
Trudy Coxe
Environmentalist and Historic Preservationist
Coxe has now headed three of the most most important preservation organizations in New England. As the long-time Executive Director of Save the Bay in the 1980's and 1990's, she was a powerful force in driving the preservation of Rhode Island's open space and improvements to Narragansett Bay.
Coxe lost a close race for Congress against Jack Reed, but was later appointed head of the largest Environmental Agency in New England when then-Governor Bill Weld named her head of the Massachusetts environmental agency - the Department of Environmental Protection.
After a multi-year stint in the Commonwealth, she came back to Rhode Island to lead and transform the Preservation Society of Newport. In that role she has helped to recpaitalize and modernize the non-profit that stewards the mansions and other assets in Newport and across Aquidneck Island.
#32
Ken Read
Sailor
No one on this list may be more accomplished in their individual field than Ken Read is to sailing. Twice the Rolex United States Yachtsman of the Year, three times leading America’s Cup yachts, and dominant in the Volvo Ocean Races for decades.
One could argue Read may be the most accomplished sailor in the world. He was a three-time college All-American at Boston University.
Today, he sails leading privately owned yachts and has been involved with the North Sail company.
#31
Michael Littman
Academic
There are few computer science professors that get tapped for their celebrity for a national television commercial (see below), but Brown University’s Littman is an academic rock star. After ten years at Rutgers he left to join the faculty at Brown
He leads an effort called Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative (HCRI) in which Brown University aims to become a global leader in the field of creating robots that benefit, learn from, teach, support, and collaborate with people.
One of his recent journal articles he co-wrote was titled, “Learning behaviors via human-delivered discrete feedback: modeling implicit feedback strategies to speed up learning.”
#30
Johanne Killeen
Restaurateur
For decades the nicest restaurant in Providence might have been the old Rusty Scupper, but in the 1980s, Johanne Killeen and George Germon not only transformed the restaurant scene in Providence, but also proved that small cities with brilliant chefs could compete.
Food & Wine honored Al Forno for launching 'a new era of ambitious cooking in Providence [in 1980] with their thin-crusted grilled pizzas topped with superfresh ingredients.' The editors singled out Al Forno's Margarita Pizza (with house-made pomodoro, fresh herbs, two cheeses and extra virgin olive oil) as the signature item.
John Mariani, the food writer for Esquire put the new restaurant, Al Forno, on the national map by naming it the best new restaurant in America. Other food and travel magazines followed and the recognition transformed Providence, and as a result other mid-sized cities.
Al Forno put Providence on the food map and sparked many other creative and smart chefs. George Germon passed away in October of 2015.
#29
Terry Murray
Business Leader
It has been a number of years since Terry Murray ran one of the biggest banks in America. In 2004, Fleet Bank was acquired by Bank of America. Even today, Bank of America is headed up by a former Fleet executive -- Brian Moynihan.
In the 1990s, Fleet was a superstar financial service firm — it gobbled up bank after bank in the U.S. and in 1999 Murray and Fleet made the biggest buy - acquiring BankBoston. The new FleetBoston was a megabank.
FleetBoston was the seventh-largest bank in the United States, as measured by assets (US$197 billion in 2003). It employed over 50,000, served more than 20 million customers globally, and revenues of $12 billion per year.
Murray grew Fleet from a small RI community bank to a global player.
#28
Farrelly Brothers
Movie Producers
The Cumberland brothers - Peter and Bobby - are two of the most prolific comedic movie makers in Hollywood. They created a genre of politically incorrect, slapstick humor that has generated billions in box office sales.
Their movies include Kingpin, There's Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber -- to name a few of their 15 movies.
The Farrelly Brothers also co-wrote one of the all-time great Seinfeld episodes -- titled "The Virgin."
#27
Ojetta Rogeriee Thompson
Judge
In 1965 Thompson came to Providence from South Carolina to attend Brown University and never went home. Today, she serves on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals - one of the highest federal courts in America.
She was elevated to the seat previously held by Judge Bruce Selya. Before serving on the court she served on the District and Superior Courts in the Rhode Island Courts.
Today, she serves on the Brown Corporation, the Board for College Unbound, and Save the Bay.
#26
Sid Abruzzi (Johnny Morocco)
Surfer/Skater
Abruzzi is known as the "godfather of the New England surf/skate mafia."
"With a face that launched a thousand spliffs, ‘The Package’ has skated, surfed, and partied over the last 50 years with no end in sight. After reaching rockstar status with Big World in the mid ’80s, Sid’s infamous Water Bros. Surf shop brought vert skating to the beaches of Newport, RI," wrote Jim Murphy in Juice Magazine.
Before ESPN's X Games (Extreme Games) or the Gravity Games were envisioned, Abruzzi was an innovator helping to create a movement and industry that was primarily a West Coast phenomenon.
#25
Duke Robillard
Musician
The blues guitarist and Woonsocket native is well-known locally for co-founding Roomful of Blues, but his presence on the national stage, performing with The Fabulous Thunderbirds and recording with the likes of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits has helped make Robillard a bona fide star in American music.
He is a two-time Grammy nominee, won the W.C. Handy Award in 2000 and 2001 for Best Blues Guitarist, and in 2007 received a Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. But don’t take our word for it — Tom Clarke with Elmore Magazine extolled Robillard’s virtues when he reviewed “The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard” in 2015."
“A jazz man, a front porch pickin’ blues man and one-time guitarist for Dylan. A string band, jug band, ragtime, delta, Louisiana, Appalachian folk and Jimmie Rodgers-country aficionado. A backwards traveler, but forward thinker. A writer and singer with distinct style, and a studio owner and in-demand producer. Did I miss anything? Duke Robillard may wear a handsome, if nondescript, lid lounging on the cover of The Acoustic Blues,but he almost literally wears a hundred hats—all of them damn well. It’s hard to believe any one man can be as prolific as this Rhode Island Duke of the blues,” wrote Clarke.
#24
John Ghiorse
Meteorologist
Ghiorse may be Rhode Island’s most trusted and beloved television and digital news personality of all time. The Air Force Veteran and Harvard-educated weatherman studied Meteorology at Penn State. He transformed weather reporting in Rhode Island and created his own branded measure — the Ghiorse Factor.
He first joined WJAR-10 in 1968, then moved to Channel 6 for nearly a decade and then back to WJAR. He retired from Channel 10 in 2009 and joined GoLocal and helped the digital media company launch its first site in 2010. He has delivered the daily Ghiorse Factor to GoLocal for the past ten-plus years.
Ghiorse continues to be one of Southeastern New England’s most beloved news personalities.
#23
Joe Mazzulla
Athlete/Coach
Joe Mazzulla joined an exclusive list this past year — Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, Tom Heinshon, K.C. Jones, and Rick Pitino — as a head coach of the Boston Celtics.
Mazzulla took over as the interim coach at the tender age of 34 after Ime Uduka was fired for inappropriate behavior with a member of the staff.
Mazzulla led the Celtics to the second-best record in the NBA in his inaugural season and earned the permanent job mid-season.
He was born and raised in Rhode Island. Mazzulla enjoyed an All-state career at Bishop-Hendricken and then was a star at the University of West Virginia.
After college, it was on to a career in coaching.
He is in the midst of a three-year contract with the Celts, and with a team featuring two of the NBA’s brightest stars — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown — he has the opportunity to be an immortal.
He is the first Rhode Islander to lead the Celtics.
PHOTO: Fairmont
#22
Claire Andrade Watkins
Scholar
Rhode Island has always been one of the top destinations for Cape Verde emigres.
Emerson College Professor and Brown University Fellow Andrade-Watkins, who grew up in Fox Point, has had a storied career, including a thirty-year retrospective of her work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
The subject was “Our Rhode: 30 Years of Cinema by and About Cape Verdian Rhode Islanders.”
Andrade-Watkins, a PhD, is Professor of Africana and Postcolonial Media Studies at Emerson, and is a Fellow at the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown (as well as a visiting scholar). She is the Director of the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project, President, SPIA Media Productions, Inc., and a pioneer of global, intercultural media, marketing and distribution. Her CV of work and accomplishments is 17 pages long.
In 2006 Dr. Andrade-Watkins released "Some Kind of Funny Porto Rican?" A Cape Verdean American Story" (SKFPR), the “popular and critically acclaimed feature documentary about the Cape Verdean community in the Fox Point section of Providence, RI, and the first in a trilogy of documentaries about this unique and important community of the Africana Diaspora,” states her Emerson bio.
She’s won numerous awards including the 2008 Community Service Award from Fox Point Boys & Girls Club Alumni Association.
#21
Freidrich St. Florian
Architect
St. Florian is one of the most accomplished and varied architects in America. At one extreme he was the architect of the critically acclaimed World War II memorial in Washington, DC and on the other he designed the Providence Place Mall.
St.Florian has won numerous awards for his architectural achievements. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. His drawings are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris. In 2006 he was awarded an honorary degree from Brown University.
In 2022, GoLocal sat down with St. Florian when he "officially" retired after a truly amazing career.
#20
Brad Read
Sailor/Educator
Over the past few decades, Brad Read has built Sail Newport into a leading world class sailing education organization. Their programs vary from a partnership with the MET school that introduces urban children to sailing to running world class sailing events.
In 2015, Read was the driving force to bringing the Volvo Ocean Race to Rhode Island and then followed it up by leading the state’s effort to successfully bring the Volvo race back in 2017.
Read is a leading sailor, educator, facilitator, organizer and leader. His impact on Newport — and Rhode Island — has been remarkable.
#19
Gordon Wood
Historian
In a scene in the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon humiliates a Harvard grad student by picking apart the student’s thesis regarding Wood’s “pre-revolutionary utopia.” (see scene below)
Matt Damon aside, Wood is one of America’s most accomplished scholars on the American Revolution — he won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for his work The Radicalism of the American Revolution. In 2010 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal.
He is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. His list of academic awards over the past 50 years is unmatched - he is the leading Revolutionary era historian.
#18
Barrett Hazeltine
Business Mentor
For the past 60 years Hazeltine has been one of the most important educators at Brown University. While Brown does not have a traditional B-School like Penn’s Wharton, it does have one of the top American business mentors. According to many of the top business leaders in America, Hazeltine was a guiding influence on their careers.
A 2000 article in Brown Alumni Monthly unveiled in 2000 that 10% of the freshman class at Brown University took his “Engin. 9” class — short for Engineering 9.
Entrepreneurs as diverse as “Tom and Tom” (First and Scott, who met at Brown), Founders of Nantucket Nectars to John Koudounis, the CEO of Calamos Investment to Marques Coleman at Carlyle Group all identify Hazeltine as being a driving force in their business careers.
#17
John Donoghue
Brain Scientist
Donoghue is one of the leading brain science researchers and entrepreneurs in the world. At Brown, he led the enhancement and growth of the Brain Science Center and his work to develop BrainGate, a mind-to-movement system developed in Donoghue’s lab.
Donoghue has published over 80 scientific articles in leading journals including Nature and Science. His work was featured on 60 Minutes and he has served on advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and NASA.
On October 2, 2018, he got another accolade that might just change the course of humanity -- "Brown scientist wins $1.5 million innovator award for new approach to decoding brain signals."
#16
James Woods
Actor
The Warwick native is a two-time Academy Award nominee and winner of a Golden Globe, and three-time Emmy Award winner. His acting career ranges from The Onion Field to Casino and Nixon.
More recently his voice work has been featured on The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Stuart Little 2.
Between TV, voiceover work and movies he has played roles in more than 100 productions.
Once dubbed as a genius by Business Insider for his attendance at MIT and his reported near-perfect SAT score and IQ of 184.
Today he is a Republican activist. He has also been the center of a number of social media and political controversies.
#15
Arlene Violet
Politician
Violet was one of a group of pioneering women who changed the face of politics in Rhode Island.
Claudine Schneider had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980 in the 2nd Congressional District. Susan Farmer won the Secretary of State post two years later in 1982. Violet was the first female Attorney General in the United States when she was elected by Rhode Island voters in 1984. The new decade had ushered in a new era in Rhode Island politics. All three were Republicans.
It was her work and the work of other women that set the stage for Governor Gina Raimondo to be elected Rhode Island's first woman Governor in 2014.
Violet was defeated in her re-election bid in 1986, but her political presence continued in the state.
She was a talk radio host.
She penned two books, Convictions: My Journey from the Convent to the Courtroom and Me and the Mob, a book about the witness protection program. Violet was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1996.
#14
Meredith Vieira
Journalist/Entertainer
A native Rhode Islander, TV-journalist Vieira is one of the leading Portuguese Americans in the United States. She attended Lincoln School and Tufts before landing her first job in Worcester in radio and on television as a reporter at WJAR-TV in Providence.
Her hard news journalism bona fides were earned while working on the CBS news magazine West 57th, then as an investigative reporter for 60 Minutes.
Then in the late 1990s she shifted to more entertainment-focused broadcast as a co-host to The View, hosting the game show “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” co-hosting the Today Show and Dateline NBC. She hosted her own show, The Meredith Viera Show for two years.
More recently she has been involved with a range of event and initiatives in Rhode Island including speaking at RIC regarding her heritage — all four of her grandparents were born in the Azores. Last year, URI’s Harrington School of Communication traveled down to Viera’s show at NBC Universal.
#13
Leon Cooper
Physicist
Brown University's Leon Cooper held the distinction as Rhode Island’s only Nobel Prize winner -- until colleague J. Michael Kosterlitz earned the honor in 2016.
Cooper won the Nobel Prize in 1972 for Physics (along with J. Bardeen and J.R. Schrieffer) for his studies on the theory of superconductivity. The winning work was completed while still in his 20s.
He has received seven honorary degrees from leading academic institutions from across the globe.
In the past few years, his work at Brown has focused on neural and cognitive sciences and has been “working towards an understanding of memory and other brain functions, and thus formulating a scientific model of how the human mind works.”
#12
Ernie DiGregorio
Athlete
There are certain athletes who transcend the game and elevate it from sports to a higher level of entertainment. Ernie D. was one of those rare athletes. He was am epic story, the 6 foot guard from North Providence who helped to take the beloved Providence College Friars to the final four. His skills and showmanship helped to transform the game from fundamentals to entertainment along with players like Connie Hawkins, Pistol Pete Maravich, Dr. J, and then Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. They all may have had better and longer careers, but none of them put on any better a show.
His NBA career was cut short due to injury but in his first year in the league he dazzled and won the NBA Rookie of the year. He was the third pick in the NBA draft.
For Rhode Islanders at the time his achievements were mythical. He teamed with fellow local boy Marvin Barnes and put little Providence College in the same sentence with powerhouse programs like UCLA.
#11
Elizabeth Beisel
Athlete
Arguably the best swimmer to come out of Rhode Island, the Saunderstown native and North Kingstown high school grad first competed in the 2007 World Championships at the tender age of 14, placing 12th in the world in the 200 meter backstroke after advancing to the semi-finals.
Beisel was the youngest member of the U.S. swim team at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, finishing just out of medal contention with a fourth place in the 400-meter individual medley and fifth in the 200 meter backstroke. Four years later in London, Beisel made it to the Olympic podium with a silver in the 400 meter individual relay and a bronze in the 200 meter backstroke.
The SEC Female Swimmer of the Year in 2012, Beisel won two individual national titles and was an eighteen-time All-American at the University of Florida, and a first-team Academic All-American. According to her USA Swimming bio, the college communications major had dreams as a child of being an actress, but now has professional aspirations of being a news anchor. As someone accustomed to being in the headlines, it’s not hard to imagine we’ll be seeing more from Beisel in the future.
#10
Rocco Baldelli
Athlete/Manager
“The Woonsocket Rocket” is one of Rhode Island’s most storied athletes and is now a top baseball manager.
As a high school athlete at Bishop-Hendricken, Baldelli was a phenom.
He was also a four-sport star, earning all-state honors in baseball, indoor track, basketball, and volleyball.
The Tampa Bay Devil Rays picked Baldelli in the first round (6th overall) of the 2000 Major League Baseball draft.
His career in the major could not have started better — he was the third-highest vote-getter for the American League Rookie of the Year Award.
He immediately established himself as one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball.
After two outstanding seasons, he was hit with a series of serious injuries and then diagnosed with mitochondrial disease.
He retired and first went to work in the front office of Tampa and then went into coaching.
Baldelli was named manager of the Minnesota Twins after the 2018 season.In 2019, he led them to 101 wins and an AL Central Division title and was named the 2019 American League manager of the year. At 38 years old, he was the youngest manager to win the award.
He is in the midst of his fifth year as manager and has twice won the American League, and at the time of this writing, his Twins are leading the Division.
#9
Jeffrey Osborne
Musician
Grammy Award-winning Osborne, born and raised in Providence, came from musical lineage. His father, Clarence “Legs” Osborne was a trumpeter who played with the likes of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. And the Osborne roots are firmly planted here — in 2012, the city named a portion of Olney Street “Jeffrey Osborne Way,” to honor him.
Osborne’s biggest hits include “On the Wings of Love” and a duet with Dionne Warwick, “Love Power.” He wrote the lyrics for Whitney Houston’s “All at Once,” appeared in the fundraising “We Are the World” video in 1985, and has sung the national anthem at multiple World Series and NBA finals games.
While Osborne is an international legend in his own right, his star status continues to grow and impact the community here through his charity work. He’s done golf and softball classics, comedy nights, celebrity basketball games. And he brings in the big names, from Magic Johnson to Smokey Robinson to Kareem Abdul Jabbar — the list is extensive. Osborne is the epitome of a “greatest Rhode Islander” — one who’s gone on to make the state proud, and keeps coming back to help use his celebrity to benefit the community.
#8
Tom Ryan
Pharmacist/Business Leader
Ryan helped to build one of America’s Fortune 500 top 10 companies, as CVS is a leading retail and healthcare force in America.
More recently, the URI pharmacy grad has been involved with two of the biggest initiatives in Rhode Island in the past few years.
He and his wife Anne donated $15 million to fund the George and Anne Ryan Center on Neuroscience at URI. The effort is one of the key elements in bringing together major educational and health organizations in a broad-based neuroscience initiative in Rhode Island.
Ryan’s neuroscience gift coupled with his fundraising leadership and donations to build the Ryan Center have made him the single biggest individual donor to URI.
#7
Ann Hood
Writer
Born in West Warwick and a URI grad, Hood is a best-selling novelist and short story writer; and the author of fifteen books, with her latest, The Book That Matters the Most, due out this August.
Hood has won two Pushcart Prizes, two Best American Food Writing Awards, Best American Spiritual Writing and Travel Writing Awards, and a Boston Public Library Literary Light Award. Her essays and short stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Ploughshares, and Tin House. Hood is a regular contributor to The New York Times' Op-Ed page, and is a faculty member in the MFA in Creative Writing program at The New School in New York City. Hood’s “An Italian Wife” was recently featured as a play at the Contemporary Theater Company in South Kingstown.
Of Hood's The Knitting Circle, The Washington Post wrote, “A wondrously simple book about something complicated: the nearly unendurable process of enduring a great loss." Fellow best-selling writer Jodi Picoult even asked if anyone could top Hood. “Is there anyone who can write about the connections of ordinary people better than Ann Hood?" posed Picoult.
While her reach is worldwide, Hood lives in Providence and is a fixture in the Rhode Island community.
#6
Bob Ballard
Oceanographer
Ballard found the Titanic. And yes, he was a URI undergrad and now serves multiple leading roles at URI as a Professor of Oceanography; Director, Center for Ocean Exploration; and head of the Institute for Archaeological Oceanography.
Today, the Archeological Oceanography, which he started in 2003 is a unique institute “combines the disciplines of oceanography, ocean engineering, maritime history, anthropology and archeology into one academic program.” The institute involves a broad cross section of URI faculty and includes faculty from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Florida State University, MIT and Woods Hole.
He is the rockstar face of oceanography in the world.
#5
Jonathan Nelson
Investor
Nelson is one of America’s leading investors. In an era of Wall Street mega firms, Rhode Islander Nelson has built in Downtown Providence a $40 billion private equity fund Providence Equity Group.
Once the golden boys of private equity and lauded for putting together “the biggest deal in the world,” he and the firm have had a series of set backs.
The highest profile bump was the firm’s loss of nearly $800 million in the firm, Altegrity, that was contracted to review federal contractors like Edward Snowden.
As GoLocal previously reported, the domino effect of Snowden’s absconding with federal data bases exposed the deficiencies of Altegrity’s vetting process.
He has become more active as a philanthropist and is listed by Forbes richest in Rhode Island.
#4
Dennis Littky
Educator
Littky is a rebel, a disruptor, an innovator, a trouble maker, and an educator. They made a movie about him, Newsweek has featured his schools, President Obama talks about his schools and Bill and Melinda Gates gave him millions to grow, refine and scale is model of disruption.
In 2009, Littky defied all and created an alternative college and by 2015 the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education approved College Unbound as a degree-granting postsecondary option in the state.
In Rhode Island, The Met School celebrated its 20th Anniversary this past week. Thousands of students who would not have finished high school have graduated and moved on to college, business and beyond.
There may be no more accomplished innovator than Littky.
#3
Gina Raimondo
Politician
Gina Raimondo is one of Rhode Island’s most accomplished and aggressive politicians in the state’s history.
In recent months she has said she would consider running for President in the future.
The two-term former Governor of Rhode Island today serves as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the administration of Joe Biden.
She broke onto the scene when she ran for General Treasurer in 2010 and immediately pushed for “pension reform” that cut the pension benefits of some state retirees.
Teachers and state workers saw their COLAs slashed while other classes saw little change. It was her change in investment strategy — a push to alternative investments — primarily hedge funds — that has drawn criticism from Wall Street watchdog Ted Siedle and others for their high fees.
Her record as governor and as Commerce secretary has drawn fire from progressives within the Democratic Party.
In October of 2022, Politico wrote, "Some progressives say Raimondo is too close to corporate leaders and helps them shape policies in forums like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a pact that Biden founded as a counterweight to China where they fear she will try to curb efforts to regulate American tech giants.”
In the short-term, Raimondo is believed to be the potential successor to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (a Brown University grad), but that is now only likely to happen if Biden wins a second term.
Raimondo, a graduate of Yale, Harvard, and Oxford, is now in her early 50s and is likely to be a major player in national politics for the next twenty-plus years.
#2
Nick Benson
Artist
There are few people in the world that are recognized as the very best in their craft, but Nick Benson of the John Stevens Shop in Newport is globally recognized as the best stone cutter in the world.
Founded in 1705, The John Stevens Shop specializes in the design and execution of one-of-a-kind inscriptions in stone — the MLK Memorial, FDR’s Four Freedoms Park, and the inscription for the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, to name a few.
Benson won a Genius Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation, and was recently featured on CBS news. The John Stevens Shop is one of America’s longest continuously running businesses.
#1
Viola Davis
Actor
Davis is one of the most accomplished actors in the United States. She is the winner of two Tony awards, an Emmy and a SAG award as well as an Oscar. With regard to her Emmy, she became the first African-American to win the Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015. Amazingly, she did not earn her SAG card until she was 30 years old.
Davis self-describes that she grew up in abject poverty in Central Falls and worked her way to Rhode Island College and now beyond but has been a constant force in helping Central Falls to recover from its bankruptcy and rebuilding its spirit.
She is a leading fundraiser for a range of Rhode Island causes. Davis is the embodiment of the Rhode Island spirit and a model of how to overcome the greatest challenges to reach greatness.
