Liz Messier called on Rotarian Bob Murphy to tell us about his life experience.Bob was born in Providence in 1941. All his extended family lived within 5 blocks of the intersection of Hope and Rochambeau, and he remembered President Mike Kelly delivering newspapers. Soon after the end of WWII his immediate family moved to Washington, DC where his dad, an attorney, began work with Japanese War Crimes Trials. His family stayed in the DC area.
In November 1963, Bob was a student at Georgetown University. He remembers standing in complete eerie silence with many thousands of his fellow citizens as President Kennedy’s funeral cortege and rider-less horse passed by. The only sound was the slow “clop, clop” of the horses’ hooves on pavement.
After graduating from Georgetown Law School Bob joined the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice. Soon his interest in law enforcement led him to a career with the FBI. Over the years he served in many posts of duty, but he spent most of his career in New York City and Boston. He was in New York City in the early 1970s and was developing expertise in foreign economic espionage which, led him to many years as a FBI liaison to the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency. An interesting case involved the theft of nuclear secrets by Wen Ho Li, and the alleged passing of those secrets to China. Although Bob worked in Boston during the Whitey Bulger era, his only connection was to him, was when Whitey attempted to send guns to the Irish Republican Army
.At age 60, mandatory retirement caught up with him. Now Bob spends time mentoring San Miguel students, and catching up on the civic work he could not do as an FBI agent.
Next up was Mark Cousineau. Mark took a different approach. He handed $30 to Liz Messier and announced that each question from the membership about his background and career would earn the Club $1. Mark graduated from RI College, and works as a commercial lender with Bank of America. He has 3 children: Claire is 19, he has a son at Hendricken, and a younger daughter Lily.
Mark loves to travel, but as a working parent his opportunity for travel is limited. Instead Mark does his best to bring the world to his home through Rotary Group Exchange visitors.
Mark’s inspiration is his blue-collar father who adopted him and challenged Mark to make the most of the intelligence he was given. Life as a parent and commercial lender is stressful. Now 50, Mark practices martial arts to relax, and each week he and his oldest daughter Claire volunteer 4 hours of labor on a RI farm. Mark is also involved with RI Special Olympics and the St. Edmunds Food Pantry. Mark is also heavily involved with the RI Manufacturers Association and its efforts to make economic conditions in RI more conducive to manufacturing.
Margaret Kane was our third speaker.She was born in upstate NY. Her mom was an over-the-top extrovert, and her dad was a plumber, electrician, contractor, pilot, in short a man who could make or fix anything. Margaret’s brother Jimmy had Downs’ syndrome, but he knew every tool in dad’s workshop and was a terrific help in the summers when the three of them would build a house. When it came time for college Margaret heeded her dad’s advice about the relative intelligence of humans and geese, and enrolled at FL State University. She enjoyed the University, played college tennis, gymnastics and track, but after graduation returned north to teach public school in Attleboro. Margaret soon became the executive director of the RI Lung Association, and spent many years working at the Statehouse lobbying for the passage of “No Smoking” bills. Now Margaret works with Operation Clean Government, and lives for the day that the phrase is not an oxymoron
