Norman “Sandy” McCulloch was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1926 to Norman and Mary McCulloch. Many of his early summers were spent on Adams Point in Barrington until 1935 when his family moved to Barrington permanently.
His education continued at Nayatt School, Providence Country Day School, Barrington High School ’43, and Phillips Academy, Andover ’44. The nearby Barrington Yacht Club offered sailing and small boat racing experience. With a particularly fast boat, Sandy would later win both Narragansett Bay and New England Beetle Boat Championships!
Immediately after graduating from Andover at 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy where he became a radar technician maintaining and repairing all types of Navy electronic equipment be it shipborne, airborne, or ground.
After completing his military service, he entered Dartmouth College, majored in French, played soccer and lacrosse and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and Sphinx Senior Society. However, the most important aspect of his Dartmouth experience was when he met his beloved future wife, Dorothy Rooke, while they both studied at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1948-49 under the Junior Year in France program. That experience was a life-changer for both Dotty and Sandy causing them to become aware of the need for international understanding of different cultures.
Sandy felt most motivated by his work in education. While at Dartmouth, he chaired the Alumni Council, the Alumni Fund and became a trustee in 1975. As chairman of a 5-year capital fund-raising campaign, he was proud that his committee’s collective efforts raised over $200 million dollars!
In 1982, Sandy was one of the founders of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth which he chaired for 31 years and Dotty was key in establishing the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives at Mount Holyoke College while continuing her long-term involvement at International House of Rhode Island. For his varied work at Dartmouth the college awarded Sandy an Honorary Doctor of Laws in 2000.
Sandy and Dotty were deeply committed to St. Andrew’s School in Barrington where they built the McCulloch Center for the Arts on former School farmland.
Sandy also served on the board of The Rhode Island Foundation for nine years and as chair for three. In the corporate world, he was a director of Narragansett Capital Corp. under Royal Little; Fleet National Bank; Old Colony Cooperative Bank; and Edgehill Newport Rehabilitation Center. In 1992, he and Dotty established the McAdams Charitable Foundation with public education its primary beneficiary.
As a proud member of the Greatest Generation, Sandy often stated that despite the loss of two children, his and Dotty’s life together had been incredibly rich and rewarding with worldwide travel filled with hunting, fishing, skiing, hiking and the like.
On July 26, 2020, Sandy passed away at the age of 94 followed by a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Barrington. He was survived by his beloved wife Dotty with whom he shared more than 70 wonderful years and five children: Bill & Cassandre who predeceased him; James; Stacey (Gayatri) Huitzi; and Niles and his wife Martha. He was predeceased by his brother Neil.
General James D’Agostino
Vice President