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NEWPORT
MIDDLETOWN
PORTSMOUTH
JAMESTOWN
Wednesday
March 13, 2013
TIVERTON
Stone-carving duo to be honored at Salve
Father-and-son team will receive honorary degrees
By James J. Gillis
Daily News Staff
NEWPORT — Fatherand-son stone carvers John
E. “Fud” Benson and Nicholas W. Benson will receive
honorary degrees and offer
remarks during Salve Regina University’s 63rd commencement on May 19.
Nicholas Benson is the
proprietor of the John Stevens Shop, which has operated in Newport since 1705
— making it one of the longest continuously running
trade businesses in the
country. His father retired
from the shop in 1993, and
continues to do work in clay
and bronze at his Newport
studio.
They will receive honorary doctorates in humane
letters during the ceremonies.
“While commencement
is always about bringing
families together to share
in a landmark accomplishment, it is rare that both
a father and son have the
opportunity to speak to
graduates and receive honorary degrees on the same
stage at the same time,”
Sister Jane Gerety, president of the university,
said in a prepared statement. “On behalf of the
Salve Regina community,
we are privileged to extend
such an honor to two generations of artists, a father
and son, who have elevated
the beauty of our national
landscape — quite literally
— with their bare hands.”
The Bensons have
carved inscriptions on
gravestones, monuments
and buildings around the
country — including on
Salve’s campus — and have
been involved with a number of national memorials, including the John F.
Kennedy Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam Memorial (John Benson) and
the Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial (Nicholas Benson, who created an original font for the lettering) in
John E. ‘Fud’ Benson, left, and his son Nicholas W. Benson are
DUO A8 shown in the John Stevens Shop in Newport.
Teacher
faces
assault
charge
By Matt Sheley
Staff writer
current board member of Open
Doors RI, a nonprofit organization
based in Providence that helps formerly incarcerated individuals find
housing, improve job-readiness and
learn job-retention skills.
When Slom got out of prison, his
“discharge plan” was a meeting with
J. Clement “Bud” Cicilline, president
and CEO of the Newport County
Mental Health Center, and attorney
Joseph T. Houlihan, now deceased.
“Joe told me my best bet was to
leave Newport,” Slom said.
“I was fortunate. I got into a transitional program in Narragansett,
got a job and went to school at night.”
He had earned a bachelor’s degree
before his time in the ACI and earned
a master’s degree in social work from
Rhode Island College afterwards.
MIDDLETOWN — A Middletown High
School physical education and health
teacher has been placed on paid leave as
local police investigate his relationship
with a 17-year-old student.
Patrick M. Aylward, 39, recently was
arrested by Portsmouth
police on a charge of
assaulting the girl on
Feb. 16 while the two
were sitting in his car
outside the Founders
Brook Motel. Aylward
headbutted the girl after he had rented a Aylward
room for the two at the motel, police said.
According to a redacted police report
provided to The Daily News on Tuesday,
it was not the first time Aylward was
physically abusive to the girl. He punched
her in the stomach “during occasions,”
according to the report, and threw a vase
at her inside the motel, cutting her hand.
Lt. Brian P. Peters said the incident
remains under investigation. Asked if
Aylward and the student, a junior at Middletown High School, had a sexual relationship, Peters said they had a “substantive dating relationship.”
In Rhode Island, state law specifies the
age of consent is 16.
Middletown School Superintendent
Rosemarie K. Kraeger said Tuesday that
the School Department is looking into
the matter.
“There is a police investigation and
we’re doing our own internal investigation,” Kraeger said. “The School Department has taken steps to protect the
teacher and the student while those investigations continue.”
Employed by the Middletown school
system since 2001, Aylward is popular
with students and known for his work
after school, such as serving as the Student Activity Coordinator for extracurricular groups like the Student Government Association.
EX-OFFENDERS A8
CHARGED A8
Jacqueline Marque Staff photos
Cheryl Robinson, director of Turning Around Ministries, talks Tuesday about the program she runs during a panel hosted by
the Newport County Citizens to End Homelessness at Calvary United Methodist Church. The panel discussed the problems
ex-convicts face finding homes and jobs after being released from prison.
Opening doors for ex-offenders
Program helps people with
criminal records through the
difficult task of finding jobs
and housing.
‘I don’t want to see
people go through
what I’ve gone
through.’
PETER SLOM
By Sean Flynn
Staff writer
Peter Slom comes from a prominent Newport family. His mother,
Rita Slom, is a former president of
Touro Synagogue and was canvassing clerk for the city. His father, the
late Aaron Slom, served as chairman
of the Newport School Committee.
But 23 years ago, Slom left Newport in handcuffs to begin serving a
sentence at the Adult Correctional
Institutions in Cranston for felony
drug offenses. He served 26 months
from 1990 to 1992 and remained on
at left, who served time in
prison for felony drug offenses
probation until 2008.
Now a resident of Charlestown,
married with two sons, and a supervisor at the Rhode Island Training
School in Cranston, where he has
worked for the past 16 years, Slom is
committed to the cause of helping
ex-offenders get back on their feet.
He was back in Newport on Tuesday night at the invitation of the
Newport County Citizens to End
Homelessness to discuss the difficulties those with a criminal record
face in finding a place to live, getting
a job or receiving support services
after they are released from prison.
“I don’t want to see people go
through what I’ve gone through,”
he said.
Slom is past president and a
Black smoke again: Cardinals don’t agree on pope
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinals remained divided over who
should be pope today after three
rounds of voting, an indication
of disagreements about the direction of the Catholic church
following the upheaval unleashed by Pope Benedict XVI’s
surprise resignation.
In the second day of the conclave, thick black smoke billowed from the chimney of the
Sistine Chapel, prompting sighs
of disappointment from the thousands of people gathered in a
COMING
attractions
Some things you
won’t want to miss
rain-soaked and chilly St. Peter’s
Square.
“I’m not happy to see black
smoke. We all want white,” said
the Rev. ThankGod Okoroafor,
a Nigerian priest studying theology at Holy Cross University
in Rome. “But maybe it means
that the cardinals need to take
time, not to make a mistake in
the choice.”
Cardinals voted twice this
morning in the Vatican’s famed
frescoed Sistine Chapel following an inaugural vote Tuesday to
elect a successor to Benedict XVI,
who stunned the Catholic world
last month by becoming the first
pope in 600 years to resign.
The cardinals broke for lunch
at the Vatican hotel and planned
another two rounds of voting
this afternoon.
The drama — with stage sets
by Michelangelo and an outcome that is anyone’s guess —
is playing out against the backdrop of the church’s need both
for a manager who can clean up
a corrupt Vatican bureaucracy
and a pastor who can revive Catholicism in a time of growing
secularism.
The difficulty in finding both
attributes in one man, some analysts say, means that the world
should brace for a long conclave
— or at least one longer than the
four ballots it took to elect Benedict in 2005.
“We have not had a conclave
over five days since 1831,” noted
the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of
THURSDAY
WEATHER
PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY
for 57th annual Newport
St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
33
40
IS THERE A PLAN B
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Omni Drive property?
Tonight, mostly
clear. Low
around 33.
Thursday,
mostly cloudy.
High around 40.
On newsstands today/newportmercury.com
Associated Press
Nuns wait for the chimney smoke in St. Peter’s
Square during the second day of the conclave to
POPE A8 elect a new pope today at the Vatican.
Details, A8
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The Newport (R.I.) Daily News
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
53-year-old musher becomes oldest Iditarod champ
NOME, Alaska (AP) — A 53-year-old
former champion has won the Iditarod
Trail Sled Dog Race to become the oldest winner of Alaska’s grueling test of
endurance.
Mitch Seavey and 10 dogs crossed
the Nome finish line to cheering
crowds at 10:39 p.m. Alaska time Tuesday.
“This is for all of the gentlemen of
a certain age,” he said on a live stream
posted to the Iditarod website after
completing the race in temperatures
just above zero. His race time in the
1,000-mile race was nine days, 7 hours
and 39 minutes.
Seavey’s victory came after a dueling sprint against Aliy Zirkle, last
year’s runner-up, along the frozen,
wind-whipped Bering Sea coast. Zirkle
crossed the finish line 24 minutes after her rival, who greeted her after a
while.
“You did a good job,” Seavey told
Zirkle as a camera crew filmed them.
“You’re going to win this thing, probably more than once.”
At a news conference after the race
Zirkle gave credit to her rival’s strategy.
“Mitch has this ability to sit on the
Associated Press
Mitch Seavey sits with his two lead dogs, Tanner, left and Taurus on
Tuesday after winning the Iditarod race in Nome, Alaska.
sidelines and refuel because he knows
he needs to refuel, while everyone else
is zooming by,” she said. “It’s smart,
and that’s probably why you won.”
Immediately after finishing, both
mushers rushed to pet their dogs, with
Seavey singling out his main leader,
6-year-old Tanner, posing for photos with the dog and another leader,
Taurus, wearing yellow garlands.
Zirkle’s dogs wagged their tails as
she praised them. “My dog team is my
heart,” she said.
The pair jostled for the lead, with
Zirkle never more than a few miles behind, in the final stretch.
“I just now stopped looking over my
shoulder,” Seavey said after winning.
Also trailing by a dozen or so miles
was four-time champion Jeff King,
who was followed by a cluster of contenders, including Seavey’s son, Dallas
Seavey. The younger Seavey at age 25
last year became the youngest Iditarod
winner ever, beating Zirkle to the finish line by one hour.
Mitch Seavey first won the Iditarod
in 2004. Before his Tuesday night win,
King had been the oldest Iditarod
champion, winning his fourth race at
age 50 in 2006.
The oldies were still stellar performers in a race that ended last year
with a top field featuring many finishers in their 20s and 30, noted Iditarod
race spokeswoman Erin McLarnon.
“Last year, we saw a lot of those
youngsters in the top 10,” McLarnon
said. “Some of those 45-plussers are
taking back the lead this year. They
are showing the young ‘uns what they
can really do out there on that trail.”
Zirkle, 43, had hoped to be only the
third woman to win the race and the
first since Susan Butcher won her
fourth Iditarod in 1990. Before this
year’s race, Zirkle noted the long time
that had passed since a woman won.
“This is my 13th year, and I’ve
‘They say talent is hereditary. But I think what is hereditary
is a sense of vision and that all-important drive.’
John E. ‘Fud’ Benson, talking about his son Nicholas W. Benson
Duo
Continued from A1
Washington, D.C.
John Benson is a graduate of the
Rhode Island School of Design, which
has awarded him an honorary doctorate. Nicholas Benson is a graduate of the
State University of New York-Purchase
and spent a year studying at the Schule
fur Gestalstung in Basil, Switzerland.
“Well, this is a tremendous honor,”
John Benson said Tuesday. “It is gratifying to see that little college that has become so successful acknowledge the locals. They don’t need to reach out to the
locals, but it is nice that they do.”
He said he and his son soon will map
out their presentation, with Nicholas
Benson most likely serving as the primary speaker. “I’ll introduce him and
probably give a brief history of the
shop,” John Benson said. “It is proper
and fitting that Nick be the star. And it is
wonderful that he is getting so much recognition.”
In 2010, Nicholas Benson won a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”; in
2007, he was the recipient of a National
Heritage Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
John Benson began working in the
shop as a teenager, under the tutelage of
his father, John Howard Benson. Nicholas Benson started working at the shop at
age 15 and returned after college.
“Nick is doing the same kind of work
I did,” John Benson said. “But he surpasses what I did, working in a more
genteel way and using 21st century techniques. I can’t say enough. He is great at
what he does. He’s a great dad, a great
husband and a great guy.”
Both Bensons grew up in Newport and
now live in Jamestown. Nicholas Benson’s brother Christopher is an artist living in New Mexico.
CORRECTION
◆ Discussions about
creating a third northsouth corridor along the
west side of Aquidneck
Island no longer involve
property “inside the
fence” of Naval Station
Newport, according to
Tina Dolen, executive director of the Aquidneck
Island Planning Commission. Several alternatives
have been proposed to
connect Defense Highway (Burma Road) from
the Gate 17 Access Road
to Coddington Highway
in Middletown, but none
have met with the approval of Navy officials,
Dolen said. A story in
Friday’s Daily News that
John Benson said he feels the honorary doctorate will salute his family’s legacy, and a stone-carving craft that can be
traced in Newport to John Stevens.
“That is exactly how I feel,” he said.
“It is a tribute. And it is very gratifying.
They say talent is hereditary. But I think
what is hereditary is a sense of vision
and that all-important drive.”
Nicholas Benson could not be reached
for comment Tuesday. In the announcement from Salve, he said he is honored
that the school is highlighting his family’s work.
“It certainly speaks to the integrity of
my predecessors and that of my father in
particular, who have left me with a lifetime of inspiring work to study and revere,” he said. “In some measure, it also
speaks to the greater history of Newport.”
[email protected]
Pope
referenced connecting the Melville area in
Portsmouth to Newport
other than via West Main
Road contained incorrect information about
the proposed location of
such a corridor.
The Newport Daily
News seeks to be
fair and accurate in
reporting the news. If
you believe we have
published an error,
please let us know. Call
the city editor at 8493300, Ext. 254, send
an email to CityDesk@
NewportRI.com or write
us at 101 Malbone Road,
Newport, RI 02840.
Charged
Continued from A1
Kraeger said she learned of
the allegations against Aylward
on the night of March 5 and he
was placed on indefinite leave
the next day. He will remain out
of school pending the results of
the investigation, she said.
Middletown High School
Principal Gail Abromitis referred all questions about Aylward to Kraeger.
Portsmouth Detective Michael C. Arn wrote in his report
that Middletown police notified
Portsmouth police on March 8
about the alleged incident at
the Founders Brook Motel several weeks earlier. The one-page
narrative said Aylward rented
a room, where he and the student argued. The bickering
continued into his car, where
the teacher allegedly headbutted the girl, causing her face to
swell and bruise. The injury
was visible to a family member when the girl was dropped
off at home later in the day, the
report states.
The girl was uncooperative
when questioned by police, they
said.
Based on the information
they gathered, Portsmouth police obtained an arrest warrant for Aylward charging him
with domestic assault, a misdemeanor. He turned himself in
at the Portsmouth police station Saturday morning and
Continued from A1
“Inside the Vatican,” a bible of sorts
for understanding the Vatican bureaucracy. “So if they are in there
over five days, we know they are in
trouble; they are having a hard time
forming consensus around a particular person.”
The names mentioned most often
as “papabile” — a cardinal who has
the stuff of a pope — include Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop
of Milan, an intellect in the vein
of Benedict but with a more outgoing personality, and Cardinal Marc
Ouellet, the Canadian head of the
Vatican’s important bishops’ office
who is also scholarly but reserved
like Benedict.
Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer
is liked by the Vatican bureaucracy but not by all of his countrymen. And Cardinal Peter Erdo of
is scheduled to be arraigned
Thursday in Newport County
District Court.
An order has been issued
prohibiting Aylward from
having any contact with the
17-year-old girl.
No one responded to multiple calls at Aylward’s home
Tuesday afternoon. Attempts
to reach his attorney, Kevin
Hagan, were unsuccessful.
Middletown Police Lt. Robert
S. Nutt said local police are conducting their own investigation
of Aylward as a result of a call
from police in Fall River, Mass.,
on March 5. Fall River police
were investigating an incident
at Aylward’s home the previous night involving a 17-yearold Middletown girl, Nutt said.
According to Fall River police, an officer was sent to Aylward’s house in the southern
part of the city on March 4
around 11:30 p.m. for a report
of an unwanted person. Police
cited a 17-year-old Middletown
girl on a charge of breaking and
entering.
Additional information on
that case was unavailable Tuesday from either Middletown or
Fall River police.
“The (local) investigation
began after we were contacted
by the Fall River Police Department,” Nutt said. “I cannot comment further because
it is still under investigation.”
Asked if Middletown police
had prior contacts with Aylward, Nutt provided a report
Hungary has the backing of European cardinals who have twice
elected him as head of the European bishops’ conference.
On the more pastoral side is Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, the
favorite of the Italian press, and
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the backslapping, outgoing archbishop of
New York who has admitted himself that his Italian is pretty bad — a
drawback for a job that is conducted
almost exclusively in the language.
Thousands of people braved a
chilly rain this morning to watch
the 6-foot- (2-meter-) high copper
chimney on the chapel roof for
the smoke signals telling them
whether the cardinals had settled
on a choice. Nuns recited the rosary, while children splashed in
puddles.
After the smoke poured out, the
crowds began to dissipate, though
a few hangers-on appeared ready
to wait out the afternoon balloting.
of a July 2, 2012, incident at the
Comfort Inn on Aquidneck Avenue about 3:05 p.m. Patrol Officer Michael R. Kravchuk wrote
that he found Aylward standing
outside a Ford pickup truck
with Massachusetts plates, talking to a 17-year-old local girl in
the parking lot.
The teacher said he was a
“mentor of sorts” to the girl,
who had a troubled past and
had not seen her therapist as
she should. Aylward told Kravchuk the girl was upset because
her boyfriend had recently broken up with her and she needed
a ride to work.
Aylward said he agreed to
pick her up but the girl became
upset during the ride and questioned why he was not consoling her. He told her he was
“acting only as a mentor” and
“their relationship was strictly
platonic,” Aylward told the police officer.
The girl got upset, Aylward
said, and screamed and threw
things inside the truck, forcing
him to stop in the parking lot
and walk away from her.
The girl also told Kravchuk
her relationship with Aylward
was “platonic,” the report
states.
Citing the ongoing investigation, Nutt declined to comment whether the 17-year-old involved in that call was the same
one involved in the incidents at
Founders Brook and Fall River.
[email protected]
W E AT HER
wanted to win every year,” she said
before the race, which began March
2 with 66 teams at a ceremonial start
in Anchorage.
The competitive part of the race
began the following day in Willow 50
miles to the north. Since then, the race
changed leaders several times. Those
at the front of the field included fourtime champions Lance Mackey and
Martin Buser, who later fell behind.
En route to Nome, the race turned
into an aggressively contested run
among veterans along an often punishing trail.
Conditions on the Yukon River required dogs to go through deep snow
and navigate glare ice. Above-freezing temperatures also led to overflow
along the trail, a potentially dangerous
situation where water has pushed up
through the ice and refrozen, creating
a weak top layer of ice that teams and
mushers can break through.
For reaching Nome first, Seavey
wins $50,400 and a new 2013 Dodge
Ram pickup truck. The rest of the
$600,000 purse will be split among the
next 29 mushers to cross the finish line
under the famed burled arch on Front
Street, a block from the sea.
Ex-offenders
Continued from A1
“Peter is a living example of
what can happen if someone is
given a second chance,” said
Cicilline, one of the speakers
at the meeting of about two
dozen committee members
that took place at the Calvary
United Methodist Church on
Turner Road in Middletown.
“He has a lot of personal determination, but he had to be
given a chance,” Cicilline said.
The Newport County Mental Health Center operates a
re-entry program for people
released from prison, with a
focus on finding them housing and employment.
Cicilline quoted a former
inmate who was in the program: “I served my time, but
I wasn’t sentenced to a life of
unemployment.”
“Housing is critical,” Slom
said. “If ex-offenders don’t
have a place to stay, they can’t
get a job.”
He talked about Open
Doors’ successful effort to
buy a former factory building in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Providence, refurbish it, and create 19 units of
housing for ex-offenders who
commit to participate in a financial management program
and other services. Rhode Island Housing provided funding for the project.
“If would be nice if you
could duplicate the model
down here,” Slom said.
Turning Around Ministries
is the organization in Newport
that provides assistance to the
previously incarcerated and
the homeless. But it has few
housing alternatives for those
in need, said Cheryl Robinson,
TAM’s director, and the third
main speaker of the night.
Because of the rules of area
housing authorities, ex-offenders are ineligible for public
housing, she said. They also do
not have the income to be able
to rent on the private market.
That’s a recipe for recidivism, a return to the ACI.
“Desperate people do desperate things,” she said.
TAM relies on the Housing Hotline, a local nonprofit
initiative founded by Patrol
Officer Jimmy Winters, to
provide some transitional
housing, but neither organization has the funding to provide housing for more than a
couple of weeks.
TAM calls employers individually to try and line up
jobs for its clients, which is
not an easy sell, Robinson
said. The organization served
111 people in fiscal 2012 with
very limited funding. It receives no government grants
and depends totally on private
donations.
Newport County Citizens
to End Homelessness also had
invited two officials from the
state Department of Corrections to Tuesday’s meeting but
they were unable to attend.
Committee members discussed Senate bill S338,
which would eliminate the
box on job applications that
asks applicants if they have
ever been convicted of a felony. The employer could still
ask the question in an interview, but the applicant would
have the opportunity to explain himself or herself. That
would give “a person a chance
to prove their worth and not
have their application immediately discarded,” according to
the information sheet passed
around at the meeting.
TAM will hold its annual
fundraiser on Saturday, April
20, at the Ramada Inn, 425 East
Main Road, Middletown, beginning at 6 p.m. Dinner will
be served, and there will be
a silent auction. For tickets
and information, call 846-8264
or email [email protected]
[email protected]
, 6/$1'%22.6
COASTAL RHODE ISLAND
Tonight, mostly clear.
Low around 33.
Thursday, mostly cloudy.
High near 40. Thursday
night, mostly cloudy. Low
around 25.
EXTENDED
Friday, mostly sunny.
High near 39. Friday night,
mostly cloudy. Low around
34.
Saturday, a chance
of rain. High near 43.
Saturday night, partly
cloudy. Low around 30.
Sunday, mostly sunny.
High near 41. Sunday
night, mostly cloudy. Low
around 32.
MARINE
Tonight, west wind 5-10
knots. Waves 2-3 feet.
Thursday, northwest
wind 5-10 knots,
increasing to 10-15 knots
in the afternoon. Gusts
up to 20 knots. Waves
2-3 feet. Thursday night,
northwest wind 10-15
knots with gusts up to 25
knots. Waves 2-3 feet.
TIDES
Thursday’s sunrise 6:58,
sunset 6:51. High tides:
10:25 a.m., 10:41 p.m. Low
tides: 3:39 a.m., 3:37 p.m.
Tuesday’s temperatures:
high: 49, low 41.
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