Selected alumni profiles.
Leopold F. Hofinger ’37Sirvart (Syl) K. Bedrosian ’55Fred ’59 and Audrey BarrowcloughJennifer L. Tyrol ’94Rebecca Chace Brewster ’97Matthew Pelletier ’01Class Acts Profiles
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Leopold F. Hofinger ’37
The week of April 25, 1937, was a busy one for Leo Hofinger. The ROTC student was finishing up his B.S. in business administration and preparing to report to Fort Adams in Newport, R. I., for officer training. The stage was being set for America’s role in the coming world war. Hofinger’s attention, however, was on another kind of stage. In that one frenetic spring week, he played four parts in three Shakespeare plays on the Edwards Hall stage. On Monday, he played the title role in Hamlet. On Tuesday he portrayed Iago in Othello, and on Thursday he did double duty as Hortensio and the haberdasher in The Taming of the Shrew.
His favorite role: “Hamlet,” he says, smiling at the memory. “It’s the greatest talking part in any play ever written.”
Hofinger confesses that he skimped on his studying and skipped shifts at his cafeteria job to focus on learning his lines. But he had talent as well as drive, and his director, Lucy Rawlings, noticed. “She took me aside and said she could write letters of introduction for me to people in the theater in New York City,” Hofinger recalls. “But I had a commitment to go to Fort Adams.”
Hofinger’ dalliance with the theater ended that April week. He became a career Army man, retiring in the early 1970s as a lieutenant colonel. His second career took him to the state’s Department of Civil Defense, where he was an operations and planning officer. Along the way, the twice-widowed Hofinger had two happy marriages and traveled much of the world. Now the Wakefield, R.I., resident says simply, “to my surprise, here I am, 90 years old.”
Over the years, gardening, stamp collecting, and spending time with friends and family took the place of theater. But 68 years later, Hofinger’s eyes sparkle as he delivers a few well-remembered lines from his short, happy career as a thespian.
—Paula M. Bodah ’78
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Sirvart (Syl) K. Bedrosian ’55
Grains, veggies, legumes, fruits, nuts, and yogurt—these are the foundational foods of a healthy diet, according to Sirvart (Syl) Bedrosian, who ought to know. She’s been a food scientist/scholar since her days at URI, where she studied nutrition and food science. Since then, Bedrosian has been an evangelist for eating natural, wholesome foods. Cooking and healthy eating comes naturally to her, the result of her Armenian upbringing. “Even at a tender age, I was drawn to the kitchen,” she says.
As a professional food scientist, Bedrosian worked for nearly two decades in research and development at Thomas J. Lipton, Inc., where she co-authored the patent for Cup-A-Soup, among other breakthroughs (she holds four food patents). She worked on foods for astronauts in the space program and developed performance-enhancing diets for athletes before the concept was fashionable. According to Bedrosian, “I’ve been on the cutting edge of food trends for decades.”
A teacher and motivational speaker, Bedrosian has taught cooking independence to the blind, cross-cultural cooking, protocols for executive dining, and food safety. She has long been affiliated with Rutgers University, teaching food managers’ sanitation and quality control workshops. Bedrosian is also a trained sommelier and a consultant as a flavor-profile panelist. She is the author of several cookbooks, including Food of Our Forefathers: The World’s Healthiest Diet, and Armenian Heritage Recipes.
Today, Bedrosian dedicates a great deal of her time to a nonprofit venture, the Ceres Society, which she founded to focus on food research and education about the management of obesity, diabetes, and lactose intolerance. She also hopes to convert Food of Our Forefathers into a multi-part television series.
Bedrosian has little patience for current fad diets, which she finds lacking in common sense. “There’s a synergism to healthy eating,” she explains. “The only way to get all the vitamins, minerals, and fiber you need is by eating a combination of fresh foods.”
—Laura Nelson
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Fred ’59 and Audrey Barrowclough
Fred and Audrey Barrowclough remember what it’s like to be a young couple starting out. While Fred was attending the College of Pharmacy, he drove 35 miles from Pawtucket to Kingston in the morning and back in the evening to Audrey and their three children. By the time he graduated in 1959, the couple had four children.
After graduation, Fred made good money working in Florida and Maryland for Eli Lilly, but times were once again difficult when the Barrowcloughs had three children in college at the same time.
So, in order to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Fred and Audrey decided to help a young family that was short on space and money and give them a place to call home.
The Barrowcloughs, both seasoned volunteers for Habitat for Humanity, put up $20,000 of their own money and recruited family members, friends, and neighbors to help build a Habitat Home for Alfredo and Maria Ledesma in Lenoir City, Tenn.
Fred and Audrey have been most impressed with all the Habitat families they’ve worked with who have to put in 500 sweat-equity hours working on other Habitat homes in order to earn their own. But there’s a special place in their hearts for the Ledesmas.
“When we first met them we brought stuffed animals for their three little girls, to help break the ice,” said Audrey. “We also brought them a crucifix for their home. Now we greet each other with hugs. We’ve welcomed them into our family.”
Fred and Audrey say they’ve been blessed to have a wonderful family and friends, and building this house was a way to help someone else.
“This project gives a young couple a chance to have something of their very own,” Audrey said. “They get to choose everything. That way, it truly is their home. I hope people see that if two people like us can do this, then they too can build a house for a young family.”
—Angela Patterson
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Jennifer L. Tyrol ’94
When you ask Jennifer Tyrol why she chose nursing, she modestly replies: “I just really like helping people.” Tyrol, a nurse at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut for the past 10 years, has spent the last seven working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Not only is she newly promoted to Clinical Nurse 3, the second highest level at Yale-New Haven, but on a recent May evening, Tyrol was honored for her work with a Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing by the Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut.
Tyrol was nominated for outstanding patient care and dedication to patient and family satisfaction. During her time in the PICU, Tyrol initiated a number of programs aimed at facilitating the comfort of families who often find themselves unprepared for “an extremely difficult time and long road to recovery.”
Tyrol had the idea to provide “welcome bags” and “boutique” baskets complete with toiletry items for families who will frequently spend many nights at the hospital. Additionally, she organized a photographic collage of staff members in the PICU to help orient and introduce families to the nurses and physicians caring for their child. For Tyrol, her job is about “taking care of patients as well as their families.”
The emphasis Tyrol places on family is apparent in her home life as well; she and husband, Eric, a 1994 URI graduate in accounting, have two sons and a daughter adopted from Korea. While she recognizes the emotional intensity of working in the PICU, Tyrol appreciates the challenge of pediatric nursing, which requires keeping current on a broad spectrum of techniques and technologies rather than specializing in one particular area.
Tyrol enjoys the fact that her job allows her to be “constantly learning” and credits the URI nursing program, particularly the exceptional series of clinical rotations, with providing her with the hands-on training and high level of preparedness for working in a demanding hospital setting.
—Liza Manchester, M.A.’05
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Rebecca Chace Brewster ’97
She has opened for folk legend Judy Collins, alternative rock band The Gin Blossoms, and countless others in the last decade—all while assembling a band, writing original songs, and releasing CDs.
As the namesake and lead singer of the Becky Chace Band, she has received critical acclaim throughout New England since her debut album, Play Me, was released in 1998. Music reviewers typically laud her insightful lyrics, amazing voice, and versatility.
A self-described roots rocker—a musician influenced by the blues, country, and folk—Chace is often compared to Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Raitt. Yet she identifies more closely with Bruce Springsteen.
“There are similarities because I have a little bit of gravel in my voice, but truthfully, there aren’t a lot of female rockers to compare me to. Springsteen does everything. He’s not afraid of different genres and sends a positive message.” Chace aims to do the same. “I want my songs to make the audience feel connected so they don’t feel alone.”
Clearly, she strikes a chord with the emotions of a large, growing fan base. For five consecutive years, from 2000 to 2005, she has been named Best Local Female Vocalist in the Providence Phoenix Best Music Poll.
At recent shows, Chace has been performing more than a half-dozen songs written this year. She describes her new material as reflective of the band’s maturity. “We’re approaching 30 and thinking about the kind of mark we want to leave. With all the negative things in the world—like the war—we want to contribute more positively.”
Dedicated to writing meaningful lyrics and delivering heartfelt songs, this sociology major turned rocker is committed to her craft. “I used to say I’d quit if I didn’t get a record deal, but I enjoy music for other reasons. It helps me say what I want to say.”
To hear Chace’s unique sound and read more about her concert appearances, go to www.beckychace.com.
—Maria V. Caliri ’86, M.B.A. ’92
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Matthew Pelletier ’01
Running a single mile at a 5:31 minute pace would be a significant accomplishment for most people. Running 26.2 miles at that pace would be extraordinary. For Matthew Pelletier, however, it’s not quite good enough. He needs to complete a marathon in two hours and 20 minutes—which means a 5:20 minute pace—in order to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials, which is his goal. He plans to beat that time at the Twin Cities Marathon in Minnesota in October 2005.
To do that, he has to train. And train Matt does, running an average of 120 to 140 miles each week. He runs early in the morning and sometimes late at night—whenever he can fit it in around his work. Matt holds two jobs, one as a substitute teacher in the Warwick school system and the other in a sports store called Running Heritage.
Although he ran cross-country and track in high school and for one year at URI, where he majored in physical education, Matt waited until after college to run his first marathon. He participated in shorter road races instead. “Running a marathon requires a lot of training, and it takes a lot out of you,” Matt explained. “I wanted to wait until I had the time to focus on it completely.”
Matt didn’t train for the first marathon he ran, the Boston race in 2001, because he was filling in at the last minute for a friend who died in a tragic accident shortly before the event. Despite his lack of training (he had only two weeks to prepare), Matt finished the race in an impressive 2 hours and 33 minutes. Since then, he has run several marathons, most notably the 2005 Boston Marathon, which he completed in 2:24:55, placing 22nd overall.
With such talent and determination, Matt seems destined for the Olympic Marathon Trials. We’ll be watching for him in 2008.
—Laura Nelson
