  | Selected alumni profiles. | |||||||||||
Class Acts Profiles
Jane Peckham Cabot '51 A Sense of Place When she graduated from Rhode Island State College with a degree in math, Jane Cabot had already lined up a job as an engineer's helper at General Electric. However, her plans were sidetracked by her father's illness. An only child, she dutifully returned home to manage the family farm in Little Compton and learned to be "a farmer, mechanic, and carpenter." "I was disappointed at the time," she confesses, gazing out at the rolling fields bordered by the Sakonnet River that have been in her family since 1860. "But today I'm happy at what I did. I love to be outside, although I don't miss winter blizzards or milking in a freezing barn at 5:30 in the morning." Cabot "married the man next door" and continued farming. Widowed young, she raised her son, Nelson, alone. A pilot and Air Force officer, he has lived all over the world--Cabot recently journeyed to Japan for her granddaughter's high school graduation. Today the land is leased out, but Cabot still mows--"it's my relaxation"-- and clears the walls herself while running a private transportation service on the side. "People seek me out, and I drive them wherever they need to go. It buys me a new van every other year." Cabot recalls living in East Hall and catching rides to Newport after Saturday classes and then "thumbing" her way home, sometimes with her cousin, Vincent Rose '52, M.S. '58, now chair of URI's Chemical Engineering Department. "I never used the math much," she says regretfully. "But I made good use of my minor in political science. I've served on the Little Compton Town Council for 28 years, 22 years as president." Son Nelson's roots also remain in Little Compton; his mother says he plans to retire to the family farm in 2004 and "live in the house that my father built in 1930." --Vida-Wynne Griffin '67, M.A. '72
Robert Holtzman, M.M.A. '96 To Delight, and Occasionally Inspire The paths we take to reach important points in our lives are seldom direct. Robert Holtzman holds a Master's Degree in Marine Affairs, but his decision to found Moon Mountain, Inc., a publisher of beautifully illustrated books for children, had other sources. While at URI, and directly afterwards, Holtzman worked in marketing, advertising, and public relations. His wife, accountant Cate Monroe, had an ongoing interest in children's books. After the birth of their son, Max, three years ago, Holtzman and Monroe began to be even more aware of the importance of children's books as conveyors of values and language. As Holtzman says, "We really believe in children's books as a vehicle for doing social good." So, combining their skills, the couple left their former positions to found Moon Mountain Publishing in September 1999 and are now involved with their new venture "more than full time" working from their North Kingstown home. Moon Mountain's goal is to produce attractive children's books with a positive message. One work, for example, features a strong heroine to whom both boys and girls can relate. The company's present offerings are few, but plans include a list that will grow yearly. Holtzman points out that "once you develop a good product, it will sell indefinitely," a concept he intends to apply to Moon Mountain's catalog. The company also includes a "proprietary" division, which can create books for corporate marketing applications. The company recently overcame one of its largest startup hurdles by securing national distribution, and its first title, Hello Willow, is now available at bookstores and on Amazon.com. The entire venture, Holtzman admits, is "daunting." However, he and Monroe are driven by a deep commitment to children's literature that involves values such as "kindness, respect, and courage." To learn more about Moon Mountain, check out the Web site at www.moonmountainpub.com. --Christine Graunas
Delano Joe Brooks '82 Great Memories When Delano Joe Brooks saw a newspaper ad seeking a contractor to move lockers from the condemned Meade Stadium Field House to Keaney Gymnasium, URI's former running back saw an opening and broke for it. "I wanted this job because it was something special," commented Brooks, a 1982 accounting graduate who played on the Rams' football squad that won the 1981 Yankee Conference Championship. Brooks, who owns Essex Newbury Contracting based in Boston and Middletown, R.I., won the contract, and soon he and his company were dismantling a piece of his life. The lockers, which had been upgraded through a fund-raising campaign involving football boosters, had to be moved to Keaney Gym to make way for URI's $54 million Convocation Center. The field house and west grandstand at the football facility were demolished in late summer. "I was in that field house all the time when I was at URI," said Brooks, who is pictured outside the now-demolished Meade Stadium Field House. "I kept walking around it; I took my son in there. In order for this to be sacrificed, I knew something special was going to have to take its place." Brooks got Essex Newbury running in 1995. He had previously been Gilbane Building Company's business development official for minority contracting and affirmative action. Brooks, who now employs 27 people at Essex Newbury, said his father used to talk about how he wished he had run his own firm. Brooks credits the demanding accounting program at URI and his work at Gilbane with helping him develop the skills to start his own company. Will he be doing more work at URI? "Oh yes, you'll see me around. I love URI." --Dave Lavallee '79, M.P.A. '78
Mitchell Zuckoff '83 A Special Report As a member of The Boston Globe's Spotlight Team, former journalism major Mitchell Zuckoff wrote about misconduct in police departments and helped uncover corruption in state government. Exposing 'the bad guys' was the driving force behind his stories. When Zuckoff was assigned to special projects, he focused on pre-natal genetics testing and birth defects to bring attention to the challenges expectant parents face when they learn that their unborn child faces serious health problems. "These tests tell you tremendous things about the unborn," says Zuckoff. "Yet, no one tells you what you should do." Through his posting on a genetics counselors' listserv, Zuckoff met a couple whose unborn child had tested positive for Down syndrome. For nearly two years, Zuckoff documented the parents' experiences, including their daughter Naia's birth, Naia's medical problems, and her first birthday. Zuckoff chronicled the story in "Choosing Naia: A Family's Journey," a series that discussed genetics testing, a couple's struggle to find answers, and the difficulties of parenting a Down syndrome child. This series earned him a 2000 Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors. This honor complements other awards for journalistic excellence that Zuckoff has received to date. They include the Livingston Award for Young Journalists and a Heywood Broun Award. Zuckoff was also a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for a story that he helped write on state government waste and fraud. Zuckoff credits URI for much of his success. "Several professors influenced me. I still hear Wilbur Doctor's voice in my head, and Jack Thompson taught me to write features." While it has been 17 years since he graduated, the fundamentals Zuckoff learned have helped him become a responsible and talented journalist. --Maria V. Caliri '86, M.B.A. '92
Sharon Hoyt Martin '93 A Survival Guide for Teachers Most people would agree that teaching is a difficult job. Sharon Martin, who is now a third grade teacher at the Fiske Elementary School in Wellesley, Mass., certainly found it so. Martin recalls feeling "overwhelmed" during her early months in the classroom. Her very first year of teaching was at a private school in Quincy, Mass., where she was the math coordinator for grades 5-8 and also a fifth grade writing and science teacher. From there she moved to the Fletcher School, a public school near Central Square, Cambridge, where she taught first and fourth grades. A meeting with Fiske fellow teacher Deborah Levine at a training course showed Martin that she was not alone. The two discovered a common point of view on their early teaching experiences and decided to collaborate on a guide for beginning teachers. The result is the New Teacher Survival Guide (K-5), which was released in June 2000. In it, the two teachers draw on their own experience to provide hints and suggestions for the newest crop of novices, creating just the book "they wish they'd had." There is also a related Web page at www.emelior.com. While the purpose of the book is to help teachers, ultimately its goal is to benefit students--for teaching is, as Martin says, "about kids." --Christine Graunas |
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