Sansone Funeral Home Obituaries

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Obituary Preview: Paula A. Tebano, 57, of Barrington passed away peacefully at her home on Monday, June 6, 2022 surrounded by her loving family. Born in Providence, RI, she was the daughter of the Raffaela (Valentino) Tebano and the late Armando Tebano. Paula grew up in Bristol and was a graduate of Bristol High School, class of 1982. Paula loved to help others, a sentiment that pushed her into the medical field. She worked as a License Practical Nurse for many years. She loved spending time with her family especially her grandchildren. Paula loved animals and will be missed by her beloved dogs; Maddie and Willow. Paula is survived by her daughters: Marissa E. Bernstein (Daniel) and Odessa Akkaoui (Matthew); her grandchildren: Jackson Bernstein, Emily Bernstein, Isabelle Bernstein; her siblings: Riccardo Tebano (Sara), Silvana Frenette, Anne-Marie Tebano, Gina Cabral (Antonio), Giovanna Tebano; and many nieces and nephews. In death, she is reunited with her father Armando. Calling hours will be held on Friday, June 17, 2022 from 4-7 PM at Sansone Funeral Home, 192 Wood Street, Bristol, RI 02809.

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Obituary Preview: Gloria Agnes Boucher, 87, of Bristol, RI formerly Barrington, RI passed away peacefully on April 27, 2022. Born in Central Falls, RI she was the daughter of the late Arthur and Eva (Michaud) Boucher. A devoted mother or seven, she loved her family and felt time spent with loved ones was a blessing. She was happiest at the beach, and loved the water, waves, sand, and the smell of the salt air. She loved traveling; wishing she had traveled more, and would often share stories of her many drives across the country. Through many of life’s of ups and downs, she always tried to maintain a positive and optimistic mindset and instilled in her children to never give up on their dreams. She is survived by her six children: Robert Mowry, Debra MxDonough, Donald Mowry, Susan Accinno, Daniel Mowry, Arthur Mowry; three siblings: William Boucher, Dennis Boucher, Susan Boucher; thirteen grandchildren; and fifteen great grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her grandsons Dennis Mowry and Corey McDonough and her siblings, Joy Carline and Lorraine Walsh. Relatives and friends are invited to attend Memorial Service on Friday, May 6, 2022 at 10:00 AM at St. Mary’s Church, 330 Wood Street, Bristol, RI.

Obituary Preview: Carole Duff (Potter) Cargill, 81, of Assonet, MA passed away at Charlton Memorial Hospital on Thursday, April 21, 2022. She was the loving wife of Richmond Cargill for 26 years before her passing. Born in Providence, RI, she was the daughter of the late Harold Potter and Virginia (Bartley) Lombardo. She was also the beloved step-daughter of the late Ralph Lombardo. Carole was a communicant of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church where she sang in the choir for many years. She took great pride in being a descendent of Roger Williams and acted as the archivist for the Roger Williams Family Society. She was also a member of the St. Andrew’s Society of Rhode Island and the Robert Burns Federation. Carole enjoyed music, playing Bridge, and traveling on cruising vacations to the Caribbean with her beloved husband: Richmond. What she enjoyed most though was time with her family. In addition to her husband Richmond, she is survived by her children; Steven Ricciardi (Carolyn), Joseph “J.R” Ricciardi (Carolyn), Virginia “Ginny” Smith (Robert), Ruthanne Farina (Michael); her grandchildren: William Ricciardi (Kerin), John Ricciardi (Allison), Drew Ricciardi, Alexandra Dutta (Surya), Lauren Smith, Michael Ricciardi, Michael Farina, Isabella Farina; her great grandchild: Kyle Ricciardi; her brothers: Anothony “Tony” Potter, Stephen Lombardo; and many extended family members and friends. She was pre-deceased by her parents Harold and Virginia and her step-father Ralph. She was also pre-deceased by her brothers Ralph Lombardo, Jr. and David Lombardo. Calling hours will be held on Monday, May 2, 2022 from 4:00 PM -7:00 PM at Sansone Funeral Home, 192 Wood Street, Bristol, RI. A funeral starting from Sansone will be held on Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at 9:00 AM with a Requiem Eucharist Service at 10:00 AM at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 399 Hope Street, Bristol, RI. Burial will take place in Highland Memorial Park Cemetery in Johnston, RI.

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Obituary Preview: James A. Varola, 56, passed away suddenly at Kent Hospital on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. He was the husband of Paula (Paiva) Varola for 25 years before his passing. Born in Providence, RI, he was the son of the late Peter and Gloria (Graves) Varola. Jim enjoyed music and was a DJ for many years. He also enjoyed computers and watching sports. In addition to his wife Paula, Jim is survived by his siblings: Linda Varola, Paula Ferreira, Peter Varola (Andrea); his mother-in-law Joanne Paiva; his sister-in-law Elizabeth Paiva; his brother-in-law Paul Paiva; and many extended family and friends. In death, James is reunited with his parents and his sister Nancy Amaral. A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Obituary Preview: Lee W. Head, 80, of Bristol passed away peacefully on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. He was the loving husband of Patricia A. (Catalano) Head for 61 years before his passing. Born in Taunton, MA, he was the son of the late William and Virginia (Wood) Head. Lee was a lifetime member of the Elks club and the Cup Defenders here in town. Lee was a coach at the King Philip’s Little League for many years. He enjoyed golfing, running, and watching his beloved Boston Red Sox. Lee and his wife Patricia were season ticket holders for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for many years while living in Florida. In addition to his wife Pat, Lee is survived by his children: Wayne M. Head (Julie Mycroft) of Sarasota, FL, Lee W. Head, Jr. (Sandy Almeida) of Bristol, RI, Lisa A. Savla (Sanjay) of Bristol, RI; his grandchildren: Christopher Head, Michael Head, Jenna Rider, Michala Head, Donovan Head; his sister Lynda Guevremont (William); and many friends. Calling hours will be held on Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM at Sansone Funeral Home, 192 Wood Street, Bristol, RI. For obituary, online condolences, and directions please visit www.sansonefuneralhome.com

Obituary Preview: Douglas A. Chalmers, a beloved and esteemed professor of political science at Columbia University, died on April 4, 2022 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.  He was born in 1932 in Madison, Wisconsin, where his father, William Ellison Chalmers, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, also worked as a union organizer for the United Auto Workers union. His mother, Ruth Vinton Chalmers, born in what was then called Rangoon, Burma to Baptist missionaries, met his father when they both were attending Pembroke/Brown University.  In 1936, his father moved the family to Geneva, Switzerland so that he could serve in the International Labor Organization's delegation to the League of Nations. Doug began school there, learning to ski and speak French. Just before WWII started in Europe in 1939, the family left Switzerland for Washington, D.C. and his father joined the U.S. Department of Labor. There, Doug attended the Phoebe Hearst School and Woodrow Wilson High.  In 1947, the family moved again, to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and Doug completed his early studies at the University Laboratory High School (Uni High), graduating in 1949.   Doug began college at MIT, focusing on chemistry and physics. Family issues brought him back to Urbana for a semester, where he temporarily enrolled in the University of Illinois. There, he began to move towards the humanities and social sciences. He finished at Bowdoin College (1953, Phi Beta Kappa, Philosophy High Honors).   Doug met his future wife, Janet Gerard, in New York City in 1953 while working a summer job in the mailroom at Western Publishing in Rockefeller Center. He caught the eye of Janet, who was on summer break from Antioch College working in the layout department. As they tell the story, she contrived to spill a bottle of glue on the floor to ensure that the handsome mailroom boy would have to come clean it up. They were married in 1957 and their marriage lasted until the end of his life, 65 years later. Because Doug had been in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) in college, he was obliged to provide two years of service after graduation. Though the Korean War was resolved before graduation, he spent two years in the army in Bordeaux, overseeing trucking. Upon completion of his service, he and his new wife moved to New Haven where Doug completed his PhD in political science at Yale in 1962. His first teaching positions were at Swarthmore College and Douglass College, Rutgers (Newark).  His daughter Jessica was born in 1963, followed by the adoption of a son, Joshua, in 1965.   In 1967, Doug was hired by Columbia’s Department of Political Science, where he was quickly drafted to join a group of administrators and faculty appointed to communicate with student protestors occupying Low Library. He spent the next 52 years at Columbia, teaching and writing in the field of comparative politics. He wrote and co-edited several books and articles, including The Social Democratic Party of Germany: from Working-Class Movement to Modern Political Party (author, 1964), The Right and Democracy in Latin America (co-editor, 1992), The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America (author and co-editor, 1997), Problems Confronting Contemporary Democracies: Essays in Honor of Alfred Stepan (author and co-editor, 2012), and Reforming Democracies: Six Facts about Politics that Demand a New Agenda (author, 2013). He served as Department Chair, Dean of the School of International Affairs, and Interim Director of the Institute for Latin American Studies.   Over his professional career, the area-specific focus of Doug’s work shifted from Germany in the post-World War II period, to Latin America, specifically Brazil and Mexico. While his thinking on Germany focused on the stability of the postwar party system, his studies of destabilized democracies in Latin America compelled him to rethink the way political science understood the workings of political power. His book, Reforming Democracies, presented “six facts” or assumptions about politics that need to be reframed for a “new agenda.” It is a call for political scientists to give greater attention to the varied ways that political decision-making in democracies actually occurs as opposed to the way it is thought to normally occur through free elections of representatives who bring the will of the people to bear on the highest levels of government. Analyses of political decision-making, he argued, need to give greater attention to informal as well as to formal networks. He stressed the importance of paying serious attention to the important role of people and organizations ordinarily thought to be outside the usual decision-making structures of government, including non-governmental organizations and those he referred to as “quasi citizens.” In a way, Doug’s success as an administrator and teacher can be partly attributed to his intellectual concern for under-recognized participants in the democratic political process. He was attentive to the workings of power within the academic hierarchy around him. He was an advocate for women in the university, especially where hiring, promotion and tenure were concerned. As a teacher, his dedication, patience and respect made him a favorite among students.   In 2005 he officially retired from Columbia, though he continued to be very active as an emeritus professor for another 14 years. He served as Executive Director of the Society of Senior Scholars at Columbia, an association of Columbia professors who continue teaching after retirement, as Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Retirement, and as President of Emeritus Professors in Columbia (EPIC).  As president of EPIC from 2014-16, Doug counseled hundreds of prospective retirees. He advocated for the organization with the university’s higher administration and recruited other leaders who shared his vision of the group as "a world for retirees.” EPIC became reinvigorated under his leadership, evolving from an every-other-week lunch club for a few to a community that today offers a variety of activities, connections and resources to members every week and attracts new members every year.  One of his great joys was teaching undergraduates, and he continued to do that long after his official retirement. He had started teaching Contemporary Civilization (CC), an intensive undergraduate seminar in Columbia’s signature Core Curriculum, in 1984. He loved the seminar’s discussion-based format, which permitted an easy back-and-forth with a small group of students. He loved encouraging them to debate the larger ethical and political questions raised by the seminar’s reading list of classic texts. He continued teaching CC and contributing to the evolution of its syllabus over the years until he left Columbia in 2019.   Everyone who knew Doug described him as calm, thoughtful, intelligent, and sweet. He was unfailingly interested in all intellectual and artistic endeavors, and brought his quiet and attentive approach to loved ones and acquaintances alike.  Despite several heart surgeries, he rose every morning at 5:30 and walked across campus to the gym, where he joined a dedicated klatsch of morning pals who chatted about world affairs, philosophy and family while stretching or pedaling on stationary bikes. He was a lover of music, a first-adopter of new technologies (he bought one of the first mac computers in 1985 and began using email in early days), a bread baker, and an elaborate and scholarly Easter hunt clue maker. He had a particular love of classical music, including the complex, experimental type. For many years while a tenured professor he attended one or more concerts a week of this “new” music. He also took programming and composition classes at Columbia’s Computer Music Center, one of the first electronic music centers in the U.S. In these days before virtual instruments and composition pre-sets, Doug spent hours in the computer lab painstakingly programming single notes. Under the tutelage of the director, Mario Davidovsky, Doug made several musical compositions, including at least one that featured a recorded voice reading poetry written by his wife Janet. Another work musically conveyed the horror of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, alternating passages representing the steady onward movement of government tanks with others representing the student activists.   On a hot summer day in 2019, Doug was one of those awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters by Columbia. President Lee C. Bollinger’s recognition of Doug focused on his teaching and his leadership as director of the Institute for Latin American Studies, during which, Bollinger said, the Institute “blossomed.” “As a mentor to generations of budding scholars and public servants, you offered guidance without ego or orthodoxy, creating networks of Latin American experts across disciplines and schools. In so doing, over the span of your illustrious career, you transformed the field.”  Doug left the University that same year at the age of 87, as Parkinson’s began to take its toll. He and Janet moved to Bristol, Rhode Island to be closer to Jessica and Joshua. The Covid shutdown brought the unexpected silver lining of precious time with his adored granddaughter, Lola, who, while forced by the situation to spend her second semester at home on Zoom, was thus free to play chess with him, and entertain him with her banjo. Doug is survived by his beloved wife, Janet, children Jessica and Joshua, granddaughter Lola, sister Tiela and many nieces, nephews, and cousins. Doug was predeceased by his parents and his sisters Jean and Meg.  EPIC, the Association of Emeritus Professors in Columbia, has decided to establish a new lecture series for graduate students in Doug’s honor, The Douglas Chalmers Research Presentation Award, with the inaugural lecture set for fall of 2022. A memorial is being planned as well as a fund in his name. Details of both will be announced as they come available on the website douglasachalmersmemorial.net

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