George L. Sisson

Inducted: 2005
Born: 1919

  • Born in Portsmouth, R.I. 1919, Resident of Bristol since 1963
  • Fall River Public Schools, Durfee High, 1938
  • William & Mary College, A.B., 1942
  • U.S. Navy, 1942-1946
  • Radio Station WALE, Fall River,1947-1963 – Founder/Owner
  • WTEV-Channel 6, 1963-65 – Public Affairs/Marketing
  • Westerly Cable Television, 1965 – Owner – Rhode Island’s first cable TV system
  • President, Fall River/New Bedford Cable Television Systems
  • CEO, Colony Communications, Cable Television Systems 1966 (A Providence Journal Company)
  • President, Bristol Historical Society
  • Founder/President Coggeshall Farm Museum and prime mover in the campaign to create Colt State Park
  • Chairman, Rhode Island Elderly Affairs Commission
  • Executive Committee, Save The Bay, 1978-1979
  • Member, Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC)
As Co-chairman of citizens group, he led the fight with others to persuade state officials to accept 100% funding to construct 14 1/2 mile bike path along the state owned railbed between Providence and Bristol. Sisson (with the late Thomas Byrnes, former State representative & former town administrator of Bristol) finally convinced the DiPrete administration to accept 100% federal funding for the East Bay bike path. The path is now a reality.

As Delegate from Bristol to the 1986 state Constitutional Convention, Sisson introduced amendments to Article I, Sections 16 and 17, that were enshrined in the Rhode Island Constitution: Public rights of passage along the shores of Rhode Island and Strengthened powers of the state to regulate and control use of land and waters in furtherance of the protection of the shores of our state.
As the current chairman of the Bristol Statehouse Foundation, he leads a group of Bristol citizens in an effort to restore the 1816 Bristol County Courthouse and Statehouse for public use.
Recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service and the Antoinette Downing Award for Historic Preservation.
For more than a decade he has served as volunteer host of the East Bay Press Conference, a cable TV show that airs statewide presenting issues and personalities of public concern.

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