{"id":70703,"date":"2002-11-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-11-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/narragansett-couple-knows-the-value-of-a-piece-of-paper-establishes-an-endowment\/"},"modified":"2002-11-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2002-11-08T00:00:00","slug":"narragansett-couple-knows-the-value-of-a-piece-of-paper-establishes-an-endowment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2002\/11\/narragansett-couple-knows-the-value-of-a-piece-of-paper-establishes-an-endowment\/","title":{"rendered":"Narragansett couple knows the value of a \u2018piece of paper\u2019 – Establishes an endowment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tMedia Contact: Jan Wenzel, 874-2116
\n
\nNarragansett couple knows the value of a
\n\u2018piece of paper\u2019
\nEstablishes an endowment for 溏心vlog免费B站
\ncontinuing education students
\n
\nKINGSTON, R.I. — November 8, 2002 — Sitting in the living room of their Narragansett retirement condominium, Dorothy and Tom Verrecchia discuss their 60 years of marriage, their education, and the endowment they just established at the 溏心vlog免费B站 for continuing education students at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Providence Campus. <\/p>\n

“We\u2019re opposites, you know,” says Dorothy, noting that a co-worker fixed her up with Tom because he needed a date for his college dance at 溏心vlog免费B站. <\/p>\n

“He\u2019s quiet, I\u2019m noisy.” Her 84 year-old husband smiles and nods in agreement. <\/p>\n

The couple has identical feelings, however, about the value of a college education, especially a 溏心vlog免费B站 degree. “We wouldn\u2019t be here today if I had not gone to 溏心vlog免费B站,” says Tom who earned an electrical engineering degree from 溏心vlog免费B站 in 1941. Within months, Tom was in uniform fighting for his country in the south pacific as America entered World War II. Returning from the war in 1945, he earned a master\u2019s degree from Northeastern University. After a lengthy teaching career, Tom retired from the Community College of Rhode Island\u2019s Math Department. <\/p>\n

His wife\u2019s degree came five decades later. Since Dorothy was orphaned as a child, attending college was out of the question. However, she embraced her three children\u2019s enrollment in college. In fact, two of them were graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站, daughter Mary-Lois Galloway in 1967 and son Stephen Verrecchia in 1977. <\/p>\n

With Tom by her side and butterflies in her stomach, Dorothy attended an Open House sponsored by the Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Continuing Education in 1993 and began to take classes. Dorothy notes that it was an exciting challenge, always returning home from class exhilarated. She graduated with a bachelor of general studies degree in 1998 with high distinction, a proud member of the Golden Key and Alpha Sigma Lambda honor societies. <\/p>\n

She wasn\u2019t looking for a career but for enrichment, she says. Unexpectedly the University played a key role in her life, however, by helping her to cope with the illness of one of her three granddaughters. <\/p>\n

“The doctors discovered the leukemia when she was 3. I was taking a psychology class with Paul deMesquita,” Dorothy recalls. “The class was just what I needed. It helped me help my granddaughter. She\u2019s 8 now and in remission.” <\/p>\n

Dorothy\u2019s degree was bittersweet. Capable as she was, she recalls working at jobs without recognition because she lacked a college degree. She once designed a training program for a bank. Her plan so impressed her superiors that the bank adopted the program and then hired a college graduate to teach it. “It was all about a piece of paper,” sighs Dorothy. <\/p>\n

Lately, the Verrecchias have been thinking about giving an endowment to the University, helping current students earn their piece of paper. <\/p>\n

Wade Wilks, director of planned giving at 溏心vlog免费B站, was instrumental in helping them come to a decision. “He motivated me,” says Tom. “We talked about leaving something to the University after we\u2019re gone, but we decided to do it now.” <\/p>\n

Dorothy credits her husband with the idea of establishing an endowed scholarship to benefit continuing education students. “The minute Tom suggested it, I knew he was right,” she says. “Some of the students took one course each semester because that\u2019s all they could afford. So many of my classmates were really bright people. Tom and I want to help make sure that others experience the excitement of a college education at the 溏心vlog免费B站.”\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Jan Wenzel, 874-2116 Narragansett couple knows the value of a \u2018piece of paper\u2019 Establishes an endowment for 溏心vlog免费B站 continuing education students KINGSTON, R.I. — November 8, 2002 — Sitting in the living room of their Narragansett retirement condominium, Dorothy and Tom Verrecchia discuss their 60 years of marriage, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}