John J. Gaudet ’57, M.S. ’59Dawn Mellen ’86Jim and Annemarie Beardsworth ’95Class Acts Profiles
 |
Elmer S. Congdon ’47
While most college students forget about their summer jobs as soon as the fall semester starts, the work that Elmer Congdon did in the summer of 1940 stood as a monument for all Rhode Islanders to see for more than 60 years.
Congdon spent that summer working on the Jamestown Bridge, a Rhode Island landmark that is little more than a memory now that the state has completed the demolition that began last spring.
Standing on the North Kingstown shore of Narragansett Bay during the first explosion on April 18, Congdon wistfully remembered the job that helped partially pay his way through Rhode Island State College.
“We basically put that bridge together with our bare hands. It‘s sad to see that thing go,” Congdon said shortly after the blast.
Congdon said he was looking for work in the summer of 1940 to help pay for the upcoming semester and that there were always openings for workers to join the bridge crew. He was hired to become part of the bridge superintendent’s work force, dubbed the “Super’s Gang,” and said he considered himself a “gofer,” meaning he would “go for this and go for that” at his boss’s request.
The position led Congdon to a diverse number of jobs that summer, including a stint one Sunday as a watchman on the Jamestown side of the bridge. When Congdon’s shift was over he was unable to get a ride to catch the Saunderstown ferry home, leaving him with only one option—crossing the bridge by one of the few open beams connecting the two sides.
Congdon said he simply sat down on the beam, which stood more than 100 feet above the bay, and scooted to the other side, one little slide at a time. “I guess I was just young enough not to be intimidated by it,” he remarked as smoke from the demolition slowly dissipated over the West Passage.
—Bryan D. Lucier ’02
 |
John J. Gaudet ’57, M.S. ’59
Recently discharged from the Army after serving in the Korean War, John Gaudet was at loose ends. Working for his father as an apprentice carpenter during a freezing Narragansett winter had only shown him what he did not want to do. Then came summer and a suggestion from his best friend, Frank Gallo ’55, a student at URI, that they sign up together for an English class.
The course they chose was notoriously difficult, but Gaudet, an avid reader, aced the class, and in the fall he enrolled as a full time student. But instead of English, he chose botany as a major, “I felt my prospects would be better with a degree in science,” he says.
So began a career in plant ecology that led Gaudet to a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, two Fulbright scholarships (in India and Malaysia), and academic appointments first at Stony Brook and then at Makerere University in Uganda, then ruled by the brutal dictator Idi Amin.
Gaudet soon left Uganda for Kenya, a country where he could continue his study of the ancient aquatic plant, papyrus, “the material on which most of the world’s earliest literature is written.” By then he was the author of scientific papers and co-editor of a book on African aquatic plant ecology.
After he retired and moved to a suburb of Washington, D.C., Gaudet returned to his first love—literature. By 2004, he had written nine books but was still unpublished. “Finally, this September my first book, The Iron Snake, a historical novel about the construction of a railroad across Kenya, is about to be published,” says Gaudet. “I’m a first time author in my 70s.”
Coincidentally, Gaudet’s British-born wife, Caroline, is the granddaughter of J.A. Hunter, the famous Kenyan white hunter.
Gaudet has begun to achieve his boyhood dream of becoming a published novelist. For more information about Gaudet and his novel, check the Web site theironsnake.com.
—Vida-Wynne Griffin ’67, M.A. ’72
 |
Dawn Mellen ’86
Dawn Mellen has been riding horses since she was six years old and has loved the noble animals ever since. So when she learned that thousands upon thousands of thoroughbred racehorses are slaughtered every year in the U.S. for human consumption abroad, she knew she had to do something.
“At the age of six or seven, a racehorse is considered old,” she says, speaking on her cell phone as she drives to a horse rescue facility close to her home in San Diego, Calif. “Horses are raced too young and mature horses are raced too often, both causing injuries. The horses become liabilities and can’t earn money for the owner or trainer.”
At the rescue she’ll spend her day with horses saved from slaughter. “I’ll groom them, wash them, give them attention, play with them,” she says. “They are the best four-legged friends I’ll ever have.”
People who enjoy horse racing don’t realize that the animals are often disposed of once they can no longer perform. “It’s racing’s dirty little secret,” Dawn says.
Thanks to the efforts of rescue organizations like the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, thousands of racehorses have been saved from slaughter and are enjoying second careers as trail horses, show horses, or companion horses.
Dawn, who earned a degree in Business Administration and works in marketing in San Diego, puts in many volunteer hours in the effort to save thoroughbred racehorses. “A lot of rescue work is done by phone and emails,” she says. “If someone knows of a horse needing help, I can assist.”
Not all owners and trainers treat their horses this way, Dawn says. “Many care about their horses. But there are those who need to be convinced that there’s an alternative to slaughter. Let’s hope our politicians vote to pass the American Slaughter Prevention Act.”
You may contact Dawn about her work at dmellen225@aol.com.
—Paula M. Bodah ’78
 |
Jim and Annemarie Beardsworth ’95
The connection began in 1992 in a journalism class and grew stronger as Jim Beardsworth and Annemarie Maccalous worked at the student newspaper.
The couple graduated in 1995 and married in 1997, and this year they became linked in a way they never could have imagined.
On March 1, Annemarie donated one of her kidneys to save the life of her husband, who suffers from Fabry disease which, because of the lack of an enzyme, causes fats to attack the kidney, heart, and brain.
A dizzy spell after playing golf in 2005 prompted a trip to South County Hospital, where Jim was told he might soon need dialysis. “While Jim was freaking out, I was trying to calm him down. I told him ‘Let’s not worry until we have something to worry about,’” said Annemarie, adult immunization manager for the Rhode Island Department of Health.
But after two kidney biopsies, Jim, the communications director for the Rhode Island branch of the American Cancer Society, and Annemarie had something to worry about. Jim’s kidneys were failing. “By the winter holidays, I was very sick. I was nauseous and vomiting all the time,” Jim said.
At Boston’s Beth Israel Medical Center, Jim started dialysis. “At the same time Jim was having his dialysis catheter put in, we found out that I was a match to be a kidney donor. The thought of surgery was scary, but overall, it was a relief,” Annemarie said.
“I was concerned about Annemarie suffering from complications, but the doctors said she was very healthy and a perfect candidate. This was a loving gesture, a life-saving gesture,” Jim said.
The North Kingstown residents had successful surgery in Boston, with Annemarie returning to work after five-and-half weeks and Jim returning to his job three months later.
For the rest of his life, Jim will have to go to Rhode Island Hospital every two weeks for a 3 1/2-hour procedure to treat the enzyme deficiency. “Otherwise, we’re just resuming our normal lives,” Jim said.
—Dave Lavalle ’79, M.P.A. ’87
