Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame inducts 14

WOONSOCKET – The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame’s 2016 induction class includes 14 state residents who will be honored posthumously this weekend.

Patrick T. Conley, board president and a 1995 inductee said the Hall of Fame honors, “any individual who has brought credit to Rhode Island, brought Rhode Island into prominence and contributed to the history and heritage of the state.”

The 2016 induction class includes:

  • Ben-Hur “Ben” Bagdikian –a nationally-renowned reporter for the Washington Post, professor and dean of the school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, leading critic of media consolidation, and Providence Journal reporter from 1947 to 1962.
  • Carlton C. Brownell – local historian and preservationist for the towns of Little Compton and Tiverton, teacher and farmer, longtime leader of the Little Compton Historical Society and the Brownell Library.
  • George Patrick Duffy – a Pawtucket resident and voice of the Rhode Island Reds hockey team for a quarter-century, youth sports coach, advocate for disabled children and Pawtucket civic leader.
  • Sidney S. Goldstein – a Woonsocket resident, businessman and humanitarian who was the co-founder of Consumer Value Stores, an enterprise that evolved under his leadership and that of his brother Stanley into Woonsocket-based CVS Health Corp.
  • Jay S. Goodman – a Providence resident and principal adviser to several prominent Rhode Island officials, head of the Civic Center Authority, author of nine scholarly volumes on government and professor of political science at Wheaton College for 50 years.
  • Bradford Gorham – a Foster resident, dubbed Rhode Island’s “Mr. Republican,” House minority leader, government reformer, Republican state chairman, attorney, farmer and environmentalist.
  • Lionel Joseph Jenkins – a Smithfield resident and basketball player at Mount St. Charles and Providence College, civil rights activist and regional director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
  • Galway Kinnell – born in Providence and raised in Pawtucket, a Pulitzer Prize-, National Book Award-, and MacArthur Fellowship-winning professor and poet known for his reform-oriented verses. He wrote 12 books of poetry.
  • Pauline Maier – a longtime summer resident of Little Compton and professor of history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, distinguished for her prize-winning books on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
  • John F. McBurney Jr. – a Pawtucket resident and World War II hero, recipient of the Bronze Star and the French Legion of Honour, All-American baseball player at Providence College, state senator and trial attorney.
  • William DeWitt Metz – a South Kingstown resident and principal historian of South County, professor of history at the University of Rhode Island for nearly four decades and founder or leader of numerous South County historical organizations.
  • Alfred “Al” V. Morro – an athlete, coach and teacher at Providence’s Classical High School, known for his expertise in field events.
  • Leonard J. Panaggio – a Newport resident and Rhode Island’s most prominent promoter of tourism, local historian, prolific newspaper columnist for the Newport Daily News and director emeritus of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.
  • Richard J. Walton – a professor of political science at Rhode Island College, social activist, historian of American Cold War foreign policy and 1984 Citizens Party candidate for U.S. vice-president.

Established in 1965, the Hall of Fame represents 757 Rhode Islanders, among them Roger Williams and the chief sachems of the Narragansett and Wampanoag communities. To be considered for induction, individuals must have been born in Rhode Island, lived, studied or worked in the Ocean State for significant time or made a reputation herein.

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This year’s event, which is co-chaired by Albert R. Beauparlant and Robert D. Billington, will be held Oct. 30 at the River Falls Restaurant with a 2 p.m. social hour and a 3 p.m. dinner and induction ceremony.

The Rhode Island Highlanders Pipe Band will open the evening’s program followed by a brief address by Conley during which he will announce plans for a Hall of Fame Building in Bristol and present a model of the proposed structure.

Tickets are available at the door or by calling 569-3244; they include a $50 donation to the organization.

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