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Profile in Giving | ||
By Dave Lavallee Not Just By the Numbers During his 34-year career, Richard Vangermeersch has broken into song-and-dance routines to tap into dry but important accounting principles. He’s torn away a dress shirt to reveal his “Super CPA” T-shirt, and he has coined 250 “Vangrams,” humorous nuggets that drive home the importance of excellence in accounting and in life. “For an accountant, I am into words—I am very verbal,” said Vangermeersch, a Narragansett resident who retired in May and was feted on June 11 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at the Crossings, Warwick. The banquet benefited the Richard Vangermeersch Accounting Endowment to support faculty and students in the College of Business Administration. “Students like the laughter, they like the sayings,” said the Providence native who was raised in Johnston and graduated from North Providence High School. Vangermeersch earned his bachelor’s degree from Bryant, a liberal arts certificate from the URI Extension (now the URI Feinstein Providence Campus), his master’s degree in accounting from URI, and his doctorate in accounting from the University of Florida. “I am a worker, and I am into sports, jazz and theater,” Vangermeersch said. “I enjoy being at the University.” Students have enjoyed his presence at URI as well. “When I took Accounting 101, he was a very animated, likable professor who just loved teaching students about accounting,” said John Conforti ’77, now chief financial officer with Ocean State Job Lot. “Professor Vangermeersch was on the crazy side in a good way. He would tear his shirt off in strip tease fashion to expose his ‘Super CPA’ T-shirt. His teaching absolutely solidified my decision to become an accountant.” In his junior year, Conforti encountered some academic trouble and began to doubt whether he was right for the profession. “Professor Vangermeersch told me I was going to be great at it,” Conforti said. A prolific writer and researcher, Vangermeersch penned a 400-page history of URI’s College of Business Administration and co-authored a pictorial history of the University published in 1999 in the Images of America Series. He donated the proceeds to the URI Annual Fund. His nearly 200 writings include: Accounting: Socially Responsible and Socially Relevant, a book of readings published by Harper & Row in 1972; and such articles as “Explaining Accounting to a Seven-Year-Old,” in The Journal of Accountancy; “The Devil’s Advocate” in The National Public Accountant; and “There are Heroes to Look Up To and At: Our Students Need to Know This and Them,” in Accountants for the Public Interest. When not writing, Vangermeersch picks up his golf clubs. He quipped that his achievement of two holes-in-one constituted “a lifetime of mediocrity wiped out by two swings.” About his vocal support of Rhody student-athletes, Vangermeersch said he can’t understand why Rhode Island fans aren’t more supportive and why they don’t get into the spirit of the games. “Some people regard cheering as a terrible thing,” he joked. Vangermeersch plans to stay connected to URI, teaching an occasional course. He’ll also stay active on the Narragansett Republican Town Committee. To contribute to the Vangermeersch Endowment, please contact Michaela Mooney at 401-874-4716 or email Michaela@uri.edu For more information on the many giving opportunities at the University of Rhode Island, please contact Paul Witham, associate vice president for development, at 11 Davis Hall,10 Lippitt Road, Kingston, RI 02881-2011. Phone: 401-874-2291 Dave Lavallee ’79, M.P.A. ’87, is assistant director of URI’s Department of Communications. Previous | Top | Next |
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