Barnet Fain — known to many as “Bunny” — was a prominent businessman, artist, philanthropist, and community leader in Rhode Island.
Barnet was born in Providence on March 31, 1932 to Irving I. and Miriam (nee Grossman). A resident of Providence in his youth, Barnet graduated from Classical High School and went on to Colby College in Maine where he received a degree in Sociology. While at Colby he met his wife of 54 years, Jean Segel, an art major at Bennington College in Vermont.
Together, he and Jean had two children, Kenneth and Jill, and three grandchildren. They spent their wedded years enjoying gallery going, art collecting and printmaking until her death in 2010.
Barnet served in the United States Army in Germany where he ran a YMCA program and a children’s theatre group at the end of the Korean War.
In 1956, after his military service, Fain returned to Providence and the family’s well-known business, Fain’s Floorcovering at its art deco storefront on North Main Street opened by his father and uncle in 1927. Over the next 38 years, Bunny, his cousin Barry, and his son Kenneth grew the business together. In 1994, the business, with fourteen stores in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, was acquired by New York Carpet World. Barnet was a director of the National Retail Floorcovering Institute and, in 1983, was honored on the cover of Flooring Magazine receiving its award for merchandising achievement.
Barnet was the founding president of the Barrington Jewish Center which went on to become Temple Habonim and remains a vibrant congregation.
The Rhode Island arts community received energy and funding from Barnet and Jean. In the 1960s, they were founders of the Rhode Island Arts Festival held in Kennedy Plaza with its art displays. Barnet made affordable space available to aspiring Rhode Island School of Design artists on the second floor of the nearby Fain building, and he was an early trustee of Trinity Repertory Theater and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.
In recognition of his pioneering efforts at the forefront of the public arts funding effort, he was the first recipient of the Governor’s Arts Award in 1973. He also served as Chairman of the Board of the Rhode Island School of Design (“RISD”), the recipient of RISD’s Gold Award, and a director of several major museums.
In his later years, Fain turned his attention towards Healthcare and Education. In both of these fields he served with devotion and distinction, and his personal leadership brought him numerous accolades and awards. Barnet was chairman of The Miriam Hospital, chairman of Lifespan, and a member of the Coastal Medical Advisory Committee.
Bunny took and taught drawing classes until his mid-80s. For many years, even at his many and varied board meetings, he was seldom seen without a sketchbook and pencil in his hand.
On May 4, 2018, Barnet “Bunny” Fain died peacefully at his home in Barrington, Rhode Island at the age of 86.
Lawrence C. Reid
President