Year Inducted: 1972
Admiral William S. Sims - Admiral William Sowden Sims, 1858-1936, was two-time President of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport (1917, 1919-1922) who served as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Naval Forces in Europe during World War I. He was instrumental in bringing about drastic changes in gunnery training, and the handling of military personnel and military education. …
Bobby Hackett - Bobby (Robert) Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was born in Providence, the seventh of nine children to William (a blacksmith) and Rose Hackett. He was a popular American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet, and guitar with Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. As a… …
Charles Leo “Gabby” Hartnett - "Gabby" Hartnett, 1900-1972, was one of the first three Rhode Island-born men to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Mr. Hartnett, born in Woonsocket, was the oldest of fourteen children. He grew up in the nearby small town of Millville, Massachusetts, where he played baseball in the Blackstone Valley League. He was one… …
Chon Day - Chauncey Addison Day (aka Chon Day) was a nationally renowned American cartoonist whose work appeared in many of the leading magazines of the twentieth century. His work was featured in the Saturday Evening Post from 1934 until his death in 2000, but his sketches have appeared in Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and other notable… …
Daniel O. Cargill - Daniel Cargill was a native of Cumberland who served the state for forty-six years as a bridge engineer and Chief Engineer of the Division of Roads and Bridges. He played a major role in developing Rhode Island's interstate highway system and developed bridge preservation techniques that have been utilized in many states. …
Governor & Senator Theodore Francis Green - Long-time senator, Theodore Francis Green bequeathed a lasting legacy of reform and economic growth to the state. Born in 1867 in Providence to an old Brahmin family, which counted among its lineage Rhode Island’s first governor under the Royal Charter of 1663, Benedict Arnold, and Revolutionary War general Nathanial Greene, Theodore Francis Green attended schools… …
Irving R. Levine - Irving Levine, 1922-2009, became one of the country's top newsmen in the radio and television fields. He gained fame as a reporter, photographer, and commentator while on overseas assignments and was best known as an NBC News correspondent. His career spanned nearly forty-five years. Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on August 26,1922 to Ukrainian immigrants… …
Margaret F. Ackroyd - Margaret Ackroyd was a native Rhode Islander who served in the State Labor Department for thirty years before her retirement. She served as Chief in the Division of Women and Children and Commissioner of Minimum Wage. She became known as the "architect of non-discriminatory employment standards for women". Born in Providence, she was a daughter… …
Senator Nelson W. Aldrich - U.S. Senator Nelson Wilmarth Aldrich became the acknowledged leader of the conservative, business-oriented wing of the national Republican Party during the administrations of William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. Aldrich was born in rural Foster on November 6, 1841, the son of Anan E. Aldrich, a mill hand and farmer, and Abby (Burgess)… …
U.S. Senator John O. Pastore - John Orlando Pastore was born in the Federal Hill section of Providence on March 17, 1907 to Michele and Erminia (Asprinio) Pastore. He married Elena Caito in 1941, and the couple had three children, Dr. John O., Jr., Frances Elizabeth, and Louise Marie. John attended Providence public schools and received his Bachelor of Law degree… …