Year Inducted: 2007
Andrew J. Bell Jr. - Andrew J. Bell, Jr. was born in Providence in September 1907, the son of Andrew J. and Beatrice J. Bell. After graduating from Classical High School, Bell studied Business Administration at Bryant College and graduated from the New England Institute of Mortuary Science in Boston. In 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression,… …
Bishop Matthew Harkins - Harkins, Matthew, 1845-1921 Bishop Matthew Harkins was born in Boston, the son of Patrick and Mary Margaret (Kranich) Harkins, both immigrants from Ireland. After completing studies at Boston Latin, the future bishop attended Holy Cross College for a year, and then, in 1863, went abroad to study at the English College in Douai, France. Like… …
Carl W. Haffenreffer - Haffenreffer, Carl W. Carl W. Haffenreffer, son of Rudolph Haffenreffer, Jr., continued his father’s tradition of business and philanthropic activity. With brother Rudolph 3rd and the R.F. Haffenreffer Family Foundation, he donated most of the Mount Hope lands and the King Philip Museum to Brown University. He became president of Narragansett Brewery, succeeding brother Rudolf, and… …
Charles F. McKim - McKim, Charles Follen, 1847-1909 Charles F. McKim, a native of Pennsylvania, was the son of an abolitionist father and a Quaker mother. The radical politics of his parents had little impact on McKim, who became a cosmopolitan architect who traveled in the company of wealthy and prominent businessmen and politicians. After study at Harvard, McKim… …
Chief (Ousamequin) Massasoit - Chief Massasoit, also known as Ousamequin, (ca. 1581- 1661) was born in present-day Rhode Island. As chief sachem of the Wampanoag nation, he befriended the Pilgrims at Plymouth, taught them farming methods, and joined with them in a 1621 thanksgiving feast. He was a cordial host to the original Pilgrim settlers and sheltered Roger Williams during his… …
Dr. John Franklin Jameson - Jameson, J. Franklin (John Franklin), 1859-1937 J. Franklin Jameson (1859-1937) was a history professor at Brown University from 1888 to 1901, a vice president of the Rhode Island Historical Society, first secretary of the American Historical Association and long-time editor of its journal, The American Historical Review, Director of Historical Research at the Carnegie Institution… …
Dr. John O. Pastore - Pastore, John O. (John Orlando), 1942- Dr. John O. Pastore joins his illustrious father as one of the rare father-son combinations to merit membership in the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. Dr. Pastore was born in Providence on April 20, 1942 and was educated at LaSalle Academy and the University of Notre Dame, receiving… …
Eugene Lee - “Nothing makes me happier than an impossible space and an impossible project,” says renowned theater set designer Eugene Lee. When Lee designs a set, he will often reconfigure the theatre, repositioning exits, technical booths, even walls, to accommodate the play. His audiences frequently find themselves inside, on top of, or under sets that don’t stay… …
Governors Elisha & Elisha Jr. Dyer - Dyer, Elisha, 1811-1890 Governor Elisha Dyer (1811-1890) and Governor Elisher Dyer, Jr. (1839-1909) traced their illustrious ancestry to William and Mary Dyer of Boston who settled Portsmouth in 1638 as exiled disciples of Anne Hutchinson. They eventually embraced Quakerism, and Mary repeatedly returned to Boston to preach the new doctrine in defiance of the Puritan… …
Harvey A. Bennett - Harvey A. Bennett--a man whose name is synonymous with hockey in Rhode Island--was born on July 23, 1925 in Regina, Saskatchewan and began playing hockey as soon as he was old enough to tie his skates. After completing the eighth grade, Bennett left home to be a goaltender for the Oshawa Generals. By age nineteen,… …
James Hanley - Hanley, James, 1841-1912 James Hanley was born in Roscommon, Ireland and came to America with his parents as a child in 1846 during the Great Famine migration. He rose from poverty to prominence as Rhode Island’s leading brewer. Hanley’s first important step into the world of business came in January 1862, at the age… …
James Newall Arnold - Arnold, James N. (James Newell), 1844-1927 James N. Arnold (1844-1927) whose contributions to the study of Rhode Island history are as fresh and useful today as they were when first transcribed, dealt in data of family life: official town documents and records; newspaper accounts; birth, marriage, and death records in church archives; and history on… …
John Aldrich Saunders Jr. - John Aldrich Saunders, Jr. (1808-1882) was the central figure, chronologically and symbolically, of the noted South County family of boat builders, marine entrepreneurs, and seamen. He was born in Newport, the grandson of Stephen Saunders, a shipwright, and the son of Captain John Aldrich Saunders (1786-1832), who built one of the first three-mastered schooners and… …
John Brown Herreshoff - Herreshoff, John Brown, 1841-1915 John Brown Herreshoff was the Bristol-born elder brother and indispensable associate of Hall of Famer Nat Herreshoff. The Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, which built seven America’s Cup defenders from 1893 through 1934, was founded in 1878 by “JB” and Nat Herreshoff. This firm operated under JB’s direction for thirty-seven years. JB lost one… …
Joseph Davol - Joseph Davol, 1837-1909, was a pioneer in the rubber industry who, prior to incorporating the Davol Rubber Company in 1881, devoted much of his time to experimentation and invention in the processing of rubber. He was among the first to see the potential for rubber products in the fields of medicine and dentistry. He remained… …
Joseph Davol - Joseph Davol, a native of Warren, traced his ancestry to William Davol who settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1640. After early schooling in Warren, Joseph moved with his parents to Brooklyn, New York where he attended high school. At the age of sixteen he entered the employ of a wholesale dry goods business… …
Judge Nathaniel Byfield - Nathaniel Byfield was born in Long Ditton, Surrey, Englanfd in 1653. He arrived in Boston in 1674. Following the King Phillips War, he invested in Rhode Island lands, and made his home in Bristol, living part-time at Pappoosquaws Point. Byfield devoted himself to civic affairs, joining the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1679, and becoming a member… …
Lester Frank Ward - Lester Frank Ward, 1841-1913, had such a powerful intellect and such wide-ranging knowledge that some contemporaries referred to him as "the American Aristotle." The legendary Brown University professor was born on the Illinois frontier, lived a nomadic life as a youth, and received only fragments of formal schooling, though he read voraciously. Ward fought in… …
Mary Emma Woolley - Mary Emma Woolley (1863-1947), was a noted educator, college president, feminist, and peace activist. She was born in South Norwalk, Connecticut and moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1871 at the age of eight. After attending Providence High School, Emma finished her secondary school training at Wheaton Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts and then taught there… …
Maximilian D. Berlitz - Berlitz, M. D. (Maximilian Delhinus), 1852-1921 Maximilian D. Berlitz was born on April 14, 1852 in the village of Mühringen at the edge of the Black Forest in southwest Germany. His birthname was David Berlitzheimer, the son of a village cantor and Jewish religious teacher. He came to America, according to ship records, in… …
Mayor Edwin D. McGuinness - McGuinness, Edwin Daniel, 1856-1901 Mayor Edwin D. McGuinness (1856-1901), a native of Providence, was the son of Irish immigrants who settled in Rhode Island after fleeing the Potato Famine in the 1840s. His father, Bernard McGuinness, was a successful real estate agent who encouraged his son's educational pursuits. Edwin attended local public schools and graduated from… …
Merrill W. Sherman - Merrill W. Sherman, Principal of Sherman Consulting, LLC., and former president and CEO of the Bancorp Rhode Island, Inc., a publicly traded bank holding company, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Bank Rhode Island. She was Rhode Island's only female CEO of a publicly held bank and made Bank Rhode Island a premier economic force in… …
Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer - Anna Garlin Spencer (1851-1931) was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts but spent her formative years in Providence. Her embrace of progressive causes and her quest for social justice can be traced to her abolitionist mother and an aunt who worked with the homeless. Anna began to write for the Providence Journal at age 19 and worked… …
Rev. Charles E. Millard, Jr. - The Reverend Charles E. Millard, M.D. excelled in many walks of life--as an athlete in his youth, as a noted family physician, husband, parent, author, professor of medicine, and civic leader in his prime, and as a deacon of the Roman Catholic Church after the death of his beloved wife Mildred Lowney Millard. Charles was… …
Rev. Edward Everett Hale - Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909 Rev. Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), noted author, social and economic reformer, and Unitarian minister was born in Boston. His father was a nephew of Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, and his maternal uncle and namesake Edward Everett was a noted orator, U.S. secretary of state, U. S. senator and congressman, governor… …
Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer III - Haffenreffer, R.F. Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer, III (1902-1991), the eldest son of Rudolph Haffenreffer, Jr., succeeded to his father’s positions in several family ventures. Rudolph, III graduated from Dartmouth College (where he was an active alumnus) and Harvard School of Business Administration. He served as president of Narragansett Brewery and the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company which the Haffenreffer family… …
Rudolph Frederick Haffenreffer Jr. - Haffenreffer, Rudolph Frederick, 1874-1954 Rudolf Frederick Haffenreffer, Jr. (1874-1954), a native of Boston and a first generation German-American, became a successful Fall River brewer and purchased several hundred acres in Bristol from 1903 to 1912 for use as a summer retreat. His acquisitions included Mount Hope and the Bradford House. After completing his basic education… …
Senator William Bradford - Senator William Bradford (1729-1808) was a fifth-generation descendant and namesake of the famous governor of Plymouth Colony. He began his career as a surgeon, but after his arrival in Bristol in the late 1750s, Bradford left medicine and turned to a new profession in the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1767. He… …
Sherwin J. Kapstein - Sherwin Kapstein has spent 65 years as a Rhode Island educator, and he is responsible for many significant developments that have shaped the teaching profession and the lives of students. Born in Providence in 1917, Sherwin was educated in the public school system and then earned degrees in history and education from Brown University. As… …
Sidney S. Rider - Sidney S. Rider (1833-1917) was born in Brainard's Bridge, Nassau County, New York in 1833 and died in Providence in 1917. He attended schools in New York and Pomfret, Connecticut. Coming to Providence as a boy, he went into the book business, eventually taking over the store of Charles Burnett. After the Civil War, Rider… …
