Dr.Patrick T. Conley
President of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame

Mission Statement

The HOF exists to honor and recognize, and to extol and publicize the achievements of thoseRhode Island men and women who have, in the words of the HOF induction citation, "made significant contributions to their community, state, and/or nation." It is also our mission to tell the story of Rhode Island History via interactive technology using the biographies of our inductees, noting their collective impact upon every phase of Rhode Island's development.

October 19, 2018

2018 HISTORICAL INDUCTION

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Featured Inductees

Ronald R.S. Picerne (1929 - )
Inducted 2018
Born in Cranston, Rhode Island in 1929, Ronald R.S. Picerne is the son of Romeo and Rose Picerne. Ron attended Cranston public schools and graduated from Cranston East High School in 1946. more >

Judge Francis J. Darigan, Jr (1942 - )
Inducted 2018

Judge Frank Darigan was born on September 21, 1942 to a South Providence Irish-Catholic family. He never severed his roots. Of the many Hall of Fame inductees from Providence's South Side, Frank's nearly six decades of volunteer social service to his neighborhood is unmatched by any of these honorees.
Darigan served as a judge of the District Court for 7½ years and as an associate justice of the Superior Court from June 28, 1991 to February 29, 2012. more >

Kenneth R Dooley (1932 - )
Inducted 2018

Kenneth R. Dooley was born in Providence in 1931. He graduated from LaSalle Academy and Providence College (Class of 1959). He spent a career in publishing and film production with the media giant Prentice Hall in New Jersey as an executive vice president of the Bureau of Business Practice (1960-1977). more >

Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (1967 - )
Inducted 2018

Patrick Joseph Kennedy II was born in Brighton, Massachusetts on July 14, 1967, the son of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and Joan Bennett Kennedy. After graduation from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in 1986, he began a quarter-century of residence in Rhode Island bringing with him both the benefits and the burdens of the Kennedy legacy. more >

Congressman Ronald K. Machtley (1948 - )
Inducted 2018

Congressman Ronald Machtley , president of Bryant University, is not a native Rhode Islander, but he has enriched his adopted state through his leadership for nearly four decades. Ron was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on July 13, 1948, but like Hall of Fame inductees, Admirals Stephen Luce, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and William S. Sims, the Navy brought him to the Ocean State. Like that distinguished trio, he also became a college president, albeit with a much longer tenure. more >

Holly Patrice Wood
Inducted 2018

Award-winning journalist Patrice Wood has been delivering the news to Southern New England on WJAR-TV, Channel 10, since February, 1980, making her the longest-serving female newscaster in Rhode Island television history. She currently anchors the main evening newscasts, Monday through Friday, at 5:00, 6:00, 10:00 and 11:00.
Holly Patrice Wood grew up on a farm in Rockford, Ohio and gives her father, Duane Wood, credit for instilling in her a strong work ethnic which has served her well as she built a successful career in television news. Wood and her two sisters, Sheila and Colleen, spent their childhood days taking care of farm animals, driving tractors, and pulling weeds out of soybean fields. more >

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