R.I. Heritage Hall of Fame to induct 9 Saturday

EAST PROVIDENCE – Today is the ticket-purchase deadline for the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame’s 44th annual induction banquet, slated for this Saturday at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet in Cranston.

This year, nine prominent Rhode Islanders – six still living – have been selected to join the 601 already inducted into the Heritage Hall of Fame. The 2008 inductees will be:

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• Joseph R. DiStefano of Jamestown, a prominent lawyer, civic leader and Providence native who today is a partner in Adler Pollock & Sheehan PC. DiStefano is a past president of Capital Properties Inc. and past secretary and general counsel of the Providence and Worcester Railroad Co., which he helped return to local control in 1966. He has served four terms in the state Senate; chaired the R.I. State Board of Elections from 1979 to 1994; and chaired the R.I. Convention Center Authority in 1995. He also has served as Democratic State Chairman. DiStefano currently chairs the board of trustees at Salve Regina University, and previously has served on the boards of Providence College, Roger Williams University and St. Joseph Health Services. He and his wife, Barbara, have three grown sons: David, Gregory and Michael.

• Ernest S. Frerichs, former dean of the graduate school at Brown University. An educator and authority on Judaic studies, he has served as editor or co-editor of 29 books and currently is president of the Dorot Foundation, a Providence-based nonprofit that promotes archaelogical research in the Holy Land.

• Ira C. Magaziner, a successful businessman, entrepreneur, author and think-tank participant who crafted Rhode Island’s “Greenhouse Compact” and served as principal health care adviser to the Clinton administration.

• James A. Procaccianti, the hotel magnate and real estate developer whose The Procaccianti Group has helped lead the downtown building boom with projects such as the new Westin tower. “In true Trump-like fashion, Jim learned the basics of real estate not from a textbook but from his parents. … By his 18th birthday, he had amassed a collection of seven properties,” the Hall of Fame writes. His portfolio currently includes 57 hotels in 20 states.

• U.S. Sen. John Francis “Jack” Reed of Jamestown, a member of the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, who before succeeding Claiborne Pell in 1996 had served three years in the U.S. House of Representatives; three terms in the state Senate; and worked as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., then with Edwards and Angell in Providence. A former Army Ranger, he is a graduate and former associate professor of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He and his wife, Julia Hart Reed, have a baby daughter, Emily.

• David R. Stenhouse, the first rookie to start an All-Star Game, he pitched in Major League Baseball for 14 years, and later was a successful baseball coach at Rhode Island College and Brown University. Today he is a businessman, civic leader and promoter of youth sports. His numerous honors include membership in the URI and RIC Halls of Fame. He and his college sweetheart, Phyllis DeBiasio, celebrated their 50th anniversary last year. Their sons, Michael and David, both followed their father into pro baseball.

• The late John J. Partington (1929-2006), the founding leader of the U.S. Witness Protection Program. He also was a former Cumberland police chief, a highly decorated U.S. marshal, and Providence’s longest-serving commissioner of public safety.

• The late Marjorie Joy Vogel (1930-2007), a prolific artist best known for her intricate pen-and-ink drawings of Rhode Island homes, villages and skylines. She left behind what the Hall of Fame decribes as “the largest body of Rhode Island-themed illustration ever produced by a single hand.”

• The late John A. “Jack” White (1942-2005), winner of a Pulitzer Prize and national acclaim for his exposé of the income tax problems of President Richard Milhouse Nixon in a series published in The Providence Journal. White also had written for the Newport Daily News and Cape Cod Times. He later was an investigative reporter for WPRI-TV Channel 12, hosting the channel’s weekly “Newsmakers” program.

The Heritage Hall of Fame – now honoring Roger Williams and 600 other Rhode Islanders from the Colonial era to the present – was established in 1965 to recognize “any individual who has brought credit to Rhode Island, brought Rhode Island into prominence, and contributed to the history and heritage of the state,” noted local developer Patrick T. Conley, president of the nonprofit’s board. Prospective members also must have been born in Rhode Island; or have lived, studied or worked here for a significant time; or have made their reputations here.

The hall itself soon will be moving to the new Rhode Island state museum at Heritage Harbor, on the Providence waterfront.

The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame’s 2008 induction festivities, this Saturday, May 3, will begin with a 6 p.m. social hour. Dinner, entertainment and the induction ceremony will follow at 7. Tickets – available for a donation of $75 per person – may be ordered from ArtTix at 621-6123 or www.ArtTixRI.com or from the Heritage Hall of Fame by calling 433-0044. For more information, visit www.RIHritageHallOfFame.org.