  | A tribute to the five URI alumni who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 | |||||||||||||
Those We Lost
Lynn Edwards Angell, M.L.S. ’77 On Lynn Edwards’ wedding day—August 14, 1971—the bride’s mother Marilyn quipped that it had taken 22 years for her daughter “to become an angel.” There was a lot of truth behind that pun. Lynn, an Auburn University graduate from Birmingham, Ala., met David Angell, a Providence College graduate with a droll sense of humor, when she was waitressing one summer on Cape Cod. Although he was working as an insurance technical writer in his native Providence, David dreamed of being a comedy writer. Lynn supported this dream. She enrolled at URI’s Graduate School of Library Science, earned her M.L.S., and then worked as a librarian in California while David wrote comedy scripts. The lean years of living on a librarian’s salary were followed by astonishing success. David became first a writer for Cheers, then the creator, writer, and executive producer of Wings and Frasier, for which he won an Emmy. Having given wings to David’s dream, Lynn could have enjoyed the leisured life of a Hollywood wife. Instead she chose to pour her energies into Hillsides, a residential school for abused children. Together she and David built a library for Hillsides, and Lynn volunteered as the head librarian. But her involvement with the students went well beyond their library needs—whatever their needs, Lynn was always there for them. The Angells, who were devoted to each other, had recently purchased a year round home on Cape Cod, where their lives together began. On September 11, they were flying back to business in Los Angeles.
Christine J. Barbuto ’90 There was another URI graduate on American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles that day. Christine Barbuto had put her URI degree in textiles, fashion merchan-dising and design to good use by moving to Boston and becoming a buyer for the TJX Companies. On September 11, she and five colleagues were flying to Los Angeles on business. Lively, funny, and talented, Christine made life upbeat for everyone around her. “The most striking characteristic of Christine was her love for and loyalty to her family and friends,” recalled Linda Gilbertie-Grace ’90, a former roommate. “She had such a close bond with her family and a mature understanding of just how important family is. She looked forward to holidays that would take her back to Peabody, Mass., to her mother, father and two sisters. “As she grew older, her devotion and pride shifted towards her five nieces and nephews. When her mother passed away in 1996, Christine stepped in to take over the maternal grandmother role with a sense of purpose that was admirable. She was so close to her mother, Maureen, and I realized that I wanted that as well with my own mother. “We talked more than once of future travels together in style to destinations unknown or simply renting a house again in Narra-gansett for one summer—friends and family included. Time, we thought, was on our side—certainly the friendship was!” Christine would have celebrated her 33rd birthday on October 28, 2001. On November 2, friends from Christine’s college days will gather on the Quad to dedicate a bench in her memory.
Christian L. DeSimone ’00 A dean’s list student majoring in accounting and German who was also a linebacker for the Rams football team, Chris DeSimone was adept at juggling the demands of the class-room with those of the playing field. He was also adept at handling crises. When his father, Louis, died unexpectedly of a heart attack, Chris returned to his home in Ringwood, N.J., to be with his mother, Christel, a native of Germany, and his sister, Martina. He finished his career at URI as a long distance commuter. After graduation, Chris followed in his father’s footsteps and became a forensic accountant for Marsh/Caps Group. Ironically, his work regularly took him to disaster sites. He traveled to Manchester, England, to assess the damage caused by an oil refinery fire for an insurance claim as well as to Las Vegas, New Orleans, and the West Coast. Chris overslept on September 11 and rushed off without his lunch. His mother called his cell phone and offered to take the lunch to the station. “It was the last time I spoke to him. We said goodbye and that was it,” she said. “They leave in the morning and they never return. That is the hardest thing to understand.” Chris caught the train and reported to his office on the 100th floor of Tower One. He would have celebrated his 24th birthday on October 18. In memory of Chris, the DeSimone family has established the Christian Louis DeSimone Foundation to provide a scholarship for a deserving URI student.
Michael G. McGinty, M.B.A. ’91 An Annapolis graduate who grew up in an Air Force family that moved frequently, Michael McGinty appreciated roots. His wife, Cindy, and sons David and Daniel were the center of his life. The McGintys lived in Foxborough, Mass., in a house with a garden that Mike had planted to attract birds and butterflies. A voracious reader and a music lover, Mike became chairman of the board of deacons at Bethany Congregational Church. Mike had served as a nuclear engineer in the Navy. He left the service in 1989 with the rank of lieutenant commander, earned his M.B.A. at URI, and became an insurance broker for Marsh USA of Boston and New York specializing in coverage for the nuclear power industry. On the morning of September 11 he was in New York at the World Trade Center for a meeting of the global power group of Marsh USA. He was 42. Cindy McGinty sent three pictures of Mike to QUAD ANGLES. “My favorite one is of the whole family,” she wrote. “That is what was most important to Mike. Our two sons, Daniel and David, are now 9 and 8. In the picture they are younger, but I love it because of Mike’s pose. He has his arms around all of us, and that is so typical of his warmth and love for his family and his role as a husband and father. That is how we choose to remember him.”
Frank Schott Jr. ’83 Frank Schott was also a devoted family man who loved to garden. After working 10 hour days as assistant vice president for technology at Marsh & McLennan, he would return to his home in Massapequa Park and prepare dinner—when possible using produce from his own garden—while his wife, Dina, bathed Erica, 7, Robert, 4, and Jonathan, 7 months, and put them to bed. Weekends were for gardening, jogging, bike riding, and spending time with the children, who sometimes accompanied Frank into work on Saturdays for the thrill of the train ride. Frank was born in Amityville and lived on Long Island until his sophomore year of high school when the Schott family moved to Greenville, R.I. Frank graduated from Smithfield High School, and his father and sister, Janet Benedetti, still live in the Smithfield area. A marketing major at URI, he earned a second degree at Pace University and went to work in New York, a city he loved. Frank was a man of wide interests—he supported the World Wildlife Fund and had sponsored a South American girl through Save the Children. “He was the type of guy who enjoyed everything,” Dina recalled. His cooking, she said, was always innovative: “He went from German food to Italian food to Indian food. I got used to it very quickly. What woman wouldn’t?” The Schotts had been married “just eight short years” on September 11 when Frank, 39, reported to work on the 96th floor of One World Trade Center. |
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