  | Selected alumni profiles. | |||||||||||||
Class Acts Profiles
Mary Gray ’52, Hon. ’96 UClub’s The Hub Mary Gray relishes her involvement with the University Club. Thanks to her labor of love, the Upper College Road facility is flourishing. “Where else on the URI campus is there a better gathering place for faculty, staff, alumni, and friends?” she asks. “Where else could business seminars, family celebrations, luncheon meetings with friends and associates all take place at the same time under one roof? Not to mention dinners, receptions, teas, breakfasts and so much more.” Last year the UClub’s board of directors named Gray, a former president of both the Alumni Association (1974) and the URI Foundation (1993-96), to the new position of executive director with a mandate to revive the club, which suffered from shrinking membership and low campus visibility. Today the club is a changed place and membership keeps climbing. The food is terrific, the atmosphere is warm and welcoming with updated décor and inviting furnishings, and there are growing numbers of special events and dinners, including regular Sunday brunches, Friday night suppers, and special dinners before Great Performances and URI Theatre events. The main dining room, Heber’s Lounge, (named in honor of former Dean of Pharmacy Heber Youngken, a UClub founder and major supporter) has been decorated in the University’s signature blue and white with the alma mater scrolled across the walls. Gray credits the help of UClub staff and others for the turnaround and says the future looks rosy. “I am so happy to see everyone enjoying and using this facility,” she says. “It’s a gem that just needed to be polished. Our membership is up to 800 and growing every day, which is great for the future. And our membership dues—the lifeblood of the organization—are reasonable. We hope you will all come join us!” To join the UClub, contact Mary Gray at 401- 874-2911. —Jim Beardsworth ’95
Vivian Chaput ’65 Home Builder “There’s no place like home,” says Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz. Developer Vivian Chaput agrees wholeheartedly. As the head of Great Brook Associates of Carlisle, Mass., Chaput has created housing that keeps the residents in mind while carefully working with the community. “It’s both a vocation and an avocation,” she says. Chaput received her Bachelor’s in Landscape Architecture and Botanical Science in 1965. She followed up her URI studies with a graduate degree in Planning and Landscaping from the University of Pennsylvania and finished with an M.B.A. from Babson College in Boston. Armed with all this knowledge, Chaput embarked on the field of housing and development. After spending time at HUD (Housing and Urban Development) in Washington, D.C., and coming back north to work on urban renewal in Manchester, N.H., Chaput settled into her own development company about six years ago. Since then she has developed several facilities including an award winner in Billerica, Mass., for which she received accolades from the National Association of Home Builders for meeting the housing needs of senior citizens. “Seniors crave independence, and they need to be near town services where they can easily walk or drive,” says Chaput. “They should not be relegated to the outskirts of a community. You try to find an appropriate site for seniors to maintain their independence.” The needs of the community are also very important. “Community members are looking for something that blends in, that does not have a major impact on their community,” says Chaput. Chaput compares herself to the producer of a television show. She is responsible for everything—location, architectural design, site plan, and engineering. “As a developer, I am conscious that I am building something for the future, and I really want it to be good.” In a Chaput development, there really is no place like home. —Jim Beardsworth ’95
(Linda) Skya Abbate, M.A. ’78 Special Treatment Skya Abbate’s best-laid plans never went awry exactly. They just detoured to New Mexico. With a master’s degree in sociology, Abbate (known as Linda Gardner at URI) planned to complete pre-med studies. A funny thing happened on the way to anatomy class, however. She met her husband at URI’s Alternative Food Co-op. Sharing an interest in all things natural, they moved to Santa Fe and completed the acupuncture program at the Institute of Traditional Medicine. The institute evolved into Southwest Acupuncture College, which they now own jointly. Popularized by Western doctors as a treatment for pain control and addiction, acupuncture is actually the world’s oldest living system of medicine with broad applications for a host of ailments from asthma to multiple sclerosis. “Acupuncture works collaboratively with Western medicine,” says Abbate. “Patients can possibly start tapering off their prescriptions and may be able to eventually be rid of them as a result of acupuncture treatment.” Acupuncture aims to improve a patient’s quality of life. “Everyone is unique, and that’s probably the biggest difference between acupuncture and Western medicine. We treat the whole person vs. the illness.” For Abbate, making a difference is very rewarding. At a cancer clinic with which her school is associated, acupuncture has positively affected patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. Abbate is quick to add that she is not treating cancers and believes in proven Western therapies that work against the disease. Acupuncture complements these methods and can help increase a patient’s energy level. “A woman told me she felt like a slug, and her doctor offered no relief. We treated her by taping small gold pellets in her ear because the ear has reflex points that correspond to all body parts. The woman said, ‘I have my life back,’ after one treatment. It’s very humbling to think of the power of this medicine.” —Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A. ’92
Susan ’80 and Lawrence Ginsberg ’80 A Winter’s Tale The Blizzard of ’78 was the storm that shut the state down. It halted traffic on Route 95, closed the airport, and forever defined the need for bread and milk. At URI, amidst the drifts and cancelled classes surrounded by stark white and numbing cold, love bloomed. Call it an unlikely place, but with no classes or work to attend to, Susan Gelfer of White Plains, N.Y., a member of Sigma Delta Tau, and Lawrence Ginsberg of East Providence, a member of Phi Kappa Psi, met at a party in the middle of a week when there was truly nothing else to do. “We always remember that storm as our landmark meeting point,” shares the couple. “Everything was shut down. Everything was closed. There was a sense of excitement.” While the two met on that wintry night, they were together a week later at a Valentine’s party and also remember taking in the movie King Kong as one of their first official dates. They were both sophomores then and have been together ever since. They were married in 1981. Today they live in Barrington; he is an optometrist, and she is a psychiatric clinical nurse. “The drifts were huge,” says Lawrence. “I remember people building huge snow dinosaurs on the Quad. The cars were covered in snow. It was pretty limited what you could do. You watched a lot of television.” “It was a great time to be on campus. We were all snowed in together,” says Susan. “We have a lot of great memories.” —Jim Beardsworth ’95
Joseph Carvalho III, M.L.S. ’84 Oh, The Places You’ll Go— to remember the late, great Theodor Geisel. That’s Dr. Seuss to me and to you! Beyond the local bookstore and library, one very special place dedicated to the memory of this classic children’s author is the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Geisel’s hometown of Springfield, Mass. For the garden, Geisel’s stepdaughter, Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, created five larger-than-life bronze statues of his most memorable characters: Cat in the Hat, Horton, Grinch, Lorax, and Yertle the Turtle. This Suessian extravaganza, once a droplet of an idea, came to fruition last summer through the diligent efforts of Joseph Carvalho, president of the Springfield Library and Museums Association. “We started discussing the concept while Dr. Seuss was still alive and continued to talk about it upon his passing in 1991,” says Carvalho. “His widow supported us, but the library and museum’s funding was slashed by $3 million that recession year.” The library moved into survival mode, but Carvalho never abandoned the project. In 1994, when the economy recovered and Carvalho became president of the association, he set his sights on making the memorial a reality. He visited Mrs. Geisel and Dimond-Cates in California to formulate the plan and embarked on a successful $6.2 million fund-raising campaign. Since its dedication a few months ago, the memorial has drawn thousands of visitors. “It’s amazing. Some people thought that interest would eventually dwindle but just the opposite has occurred. On average, 1,000 people visit daily. Even when it rains, people with umbrellas sit and read there,” says Carvalho. “It’s truly an enjoyable outdoor experience. The garden is a different way of approaching sculpture and connecting it with books.” That’s one way to describe it, but as Dr. Seuss would say, “It’s opener there in the wide open air. Oh, the places you’ll go. There is fun to be done.” —Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A. ’92
Kenneth Barton, M.M.A. ’90 The Young Man and the Sea The extraordinary beauty of coral reefs and large marine animals makes ocean exploration alluring. For Commander Kenneth Barton, NOAA Corps, an appreciation of this splendor and a keen understanding of the importance of tropical ecosystems and migratory species keeps him at sea for years. Barton is the commanding officer of the OSCAR ELTON SETTE, a 224-foot NOAA research vessel used for fisheries research throughout the Hawaiian Island chain and U.S. possessions in the Pacific. Barton and his crew of 16 civilians and five officers conduct research to support scientists evaluating the health of coral reefs and monitoring the populations of marine life threatened by longlining, an indiscriminate fish-catching method involving longlines capable of stretching more than 40 miles. From aboard ship, Barton emails further details about his work. “We collect oceanographic data and conduct surveys to support ongoing investigations of the pelagic shark, tuna, and billfish populations exploited by Hawaii-based longline fisheries. “About half of the ship’s sea time is spent as a platform for intensive coral reef habitat research. Dive surveys and towed cameras are among the methods scientists use to map and evaluate coral reefs. Derelict fishing nets are a source of mortality for fish in the reef system and can destroy the fragile coral as it comes ashore or drags across a reef.” NOAA scientists use these data to assess coral reef condition and to develop methods for restoring habitat. Given that coral reefs support thousands of fish species, their work has far-reaching effects. While Barton’s current assignment represents the SETTE’s maiden voyage, he is no stranger to the sea. A 20-year NOAA Corps veteran, he has served as commanding officer of the JOHN N. COBB working in Southeast Alaska and as officer in charge of the GLORIA MICHELE. —Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A.’ 92 |
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