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VOL. XI NO. 6

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CITY BUZZ

Thursday, December 4, 2014 Fall River, Massachusetts FREE

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Fa la la Fall RiverThe city goes all out for Christ-mas fun this weekend with the annual Children's Holiday Parade and Jingle Run happen-ing on Saturday followed by the Christmas Celebration at the Greater Fall River Re-Creation and a tree lighting ceremony at Government Center on Sunday. The parade, now in its 30th year, steps o! from Kennedy Park at 1 p.m. Saturday, head-ing down South Main Street. There will be over 140 units and 30 fl oats, plus numerous giant infl atable balloons, march-ing bands, Clydesdale horses, and an appearance by Santa himself, fl ying in via helicopter. Free parking will be available at the 3rd Street and Pearl Street parking garages on Saturday, courtesy of Business for Better Parking. Also on Saturday, the Jingle Run starts at Kennedy Park at 12:30 p.m., ending at Government Center. Be sure to wear your bells and crazi-est Christmas outfi t. Then, on Sunday, join in the fun at the Christmas Celebration at the Greater Fall River Re-Creation site, 72 Bank St. from 2-4 p.m., after which head on over to the tree lighting at Govern-ment Center taking place at dusk, approximately 4 p.m. For more information on all events, visit www.gfrrec.org.

Sound traditionThe traditional sounds of Ameri-can folk music will brighten the lives of Fall River residents at a free show Thursday hosted by the Marine Museum. Award-win-ning folk duo Atwater-Donnelly will be at the museum playing their unique combination of American and Celtic folk music, interspersed with poetry and dance, from 7 to 9 p.m. In addi-tion to music, the duo delights audiences with dance, poetry and traditional puppetry and tap-percussion. A local Arts Lottery award is making the free show possible. Families of all sizes are welcome. While it's free to attend, reservations are required. Call 508-674-3533 to secure your spot. Visit www.marinemuseumfr.org for direc-tions and details.

First FridayLafrance Hospitality patriarch Richard Lafrance, son of White's of Westport founders Roland 'Aime' and Rita Lafrance, will address the Fall River Area Men’s First Friday Club on Friday. Since that fateful Easter Sunday in 1955 when White's fi rst opened, the Lafrances have grown both the company, adding and developing hotel and restaurant properties, and the family, with four generations now helping run the busi-ness. This special First Friday Club event is expected to be a gathering of old friends with many members having enjoyed Lafrance family hospitality since the club's founding just eight years before White's opened. The evening begins with a Mass at 6 p.m. at St Joseph Church, N. Main St., Fall River, that is open to the public. Any gentle-man interested in attending the dinner after the Mass should contact Daryl Gonyon at (508) 672-4822.

More Spirit■ Page 2: Check our “Plug In” feature for everything you need to know about The Fall River Spirit’s online extras — web-exclusive stories, blogs, videos and more.■ Coming next week: The story of Harley, a 15-year-old fresh-man at Diman Reg. Technical H.S. who has equipped city police cruisers with special custom-made kits for kids during emergencies.

By Phil Devittpdevitt@hathawaypublishing.com

Away from paper and pen and piano, the composer sat perfectly still. His summer home, by the beach in Chatham, was his getaway from a world in love with his music and hungry for more.

Joe Raposo planted his feet in the sand and gazed at the Atlantic Ocean. Out there, 2,400 miles east of the Cape Cod shore, was Sao Miguel, the Portuguese island where his parents were born.

“Can you believe this?” he asked his cousin Noreen Avery, seated beside him. He sounded like a child who had stolen from the cookie jar without getting caught. “Can you believe we were born in Fall River? And look at us now.”

This is the way Avery remembers her cousin, a man who never forgot his hometown and never took for granted the monumental success he achieved in the entertainment business.

It has been 45 years since Raposo wrote the fi rst of more than 3,000 songs for “Sesame Street,” the groundbreaking PBS children’s television show, and 25 years since cancer ended his life at 51, but Avery still pictures him here, on the beach, content and refl ective and grateful.

She grew up with Raposo in a North Main Street duplex where she watched him pound piano keys until he was sore. Then, she watched him rocket to success, propelled by the right combination of hard work, genius and musical genes. Why wouldn't she believe?

Avery had come to Chatham for rare quality time with her lifelong pal, a man she considered a brother. Neither she nor Raposo had siblings, so they happily fi lled those roles for each other. They were "inseparable" as children, getting into and out of trouble together, always able to make each other laugh, always loyal, always loving. Now their own children were chasing each other on the beach, back and forth, in circles, screaming and giggling under the summer sun.

Avery tried to corral the little ones. “Away from the water!” she shouted.

She turned to Raposo, but he was “completely oblivious” to the chaos around him, on the beach but somewhere else, staring at the horizon but perhaps seeing past it, fi lled with a boyhood wonder that had never dimmed, and asking his cousin again: “Can you believe it?”

'KING OF THEM ALL'If you’ve ever caught yourself humming the

“Sesame Street” theme on a long drive, if you’ve ever tearfully nodded to Kermit the Frog’s “Bein’ Green,” if you’ve ever shamelessly swayed to The Carpenters’ smooth cover of “Sing,” you know Joe Raposo.

He composed those classic songs – and many more – for a show that, despite targeting youth, binds generations of Americans. He signed on as musical director at the start in 1969, working with puppeteer

Jim Henson and writer/producer Jon Stone to craft a children’s program unlike any other on television.

“Joe was the king of them all,” says Caroll Spin-ney, who has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street” since the beginning. “He was so prolifi c.”

Raposo and Spinney, a fellow Massachusetts native, met a few years before “Sesame Street” on the set of a children’s television show in Boston. After they reunited in 1969, Raposo often fondly recalled their fi rst encounter.

“He was always impressed we had worked together,” says Spinney. “He wrote so many of the fabulous songs of ‘Sesame Street’ and a lot of songs for me. Of course, you knew it was gonna be great if he wrote it.”

Raposo, leading a team of talented musicians, produced songs at an astonishing pace for “Sesame Street,” some seconds long, many minutes long. He laid simple lyrics over deceptively complex and sophisticated instrumentals, always striving for per-fection. He put his voice on some tracks, including the ethereal “Flying” and matter-of-fact “Everybody Sleeps.”

“He had a funky little voice he loved to use,” Spin-ney says.

Raposo wrote other tunes for the show’s talented

THE SOUL OF SESAME STREET

Friends Jim Henson, Walter Cronkite, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) and the U.S. Marine Band help Joe Raposo (right) perform “Sing” at the White House Christmas concert in 1977. JOE RAPOSO MUSIC GROUP

Joe Raposo sits at the piano in his Bronxville, N.Y., home. JOE RAPOSO MUSIC GROUP

By Phil DevittFall River Spirit Editor

The most famous home on Pennsylvania Avenue has always been good to "Sesame Street."

The White House has hosted "Sesame Street" at its annual Christmas party since the Nixon admin-istration, a tradition started by Joe Raposo, the show's fi rst musical director, veteran Big Bird pup-peteer Caroll Spinney says.

Raposo, a Fall River native, also got to work with two U.S. presidents on separate projects. Jimmy Carter, who enjoyed watching "Sesame Street" with his daughter, asked Raposo to write his campaign music. Raposo met Ronald and Nancy Reagan through mutual friend Frank Sinatra. He wrote a number of pieces for the Reagans, including the music for Nancy's foster grandparents campaign.

"For a poor kid from Fall River, hanging out at the White House was absolutely electrifying," says Nick Raposo, the composer's son.

Spinney fondly recalls visiting Washington, D.C., with Raposo and the cast.

“I’ve gotten to work with an awful lot of First Ladies,” he says.

How did the distinguished women react to working with an 8-foot puppet? Big Bird breaks it down:

PAT NIXON: “I was standing for photos after the performance with the children and cast. Often with Big Bird, I’ll put my arm around the person and bury them in feathers, but I thought with Mrs. Nixon I better not do that since she was acting rather formal. I just put my left arm and wing up on her right shoulder. She reached up with her free hand, grabbed my wing, pulled it straight down and never let go.”

BETTY FORD: “She was a hugger. She buried herself in my feathers.”

ROSALYNN CARTER: “She’s very quiet and shy, very sweet.”

BARBARA BUSH: “She was fun, a very sweet, funny person, very outgoing.”

HILLARY CLINTON: “Hillary was hilarious, a great joker with a wonderful sense of humor. She got down on the fl oor and played with extra pup-pets we had brought. She had fun pulling them out of the Muppet boxes. I also worked with her on ‘Sesame Street.’”

MICHELLE OBAMA: “She is warm and outgoing.” Big Bird recently worked with Obama on her "Let's Move!" campaign.

Raposo started ‘Sesame Street’ White House visits

SEE RAPOSO, A5

The Fall River Spirit | Thursday, December 4, 2014 A5

By Phil DevittEditor

Caroll Spinney can tell you how to get to “Sesame Street.” He’s been commuting to it for 45 years.

From his home in north-eastern Connecticut, it’s a 150-mile journey southwest to New York City, to a nonde-script building in Queens that, from the outside, resembles a bank or police station.

Don’t be fooled. Inside, the days are sunny and the air is sweet.

Here at Kaufman Astoria Studios, “Sesame Street” – the iconic PBS children’s show populated by furry, friendly puppets – comes to life.

Here, the empty body of a giant yellow bird waits for its soul, a gentle man who infuses every feather with personality.

Spinney is Big Bird. He always has been.

At 80, the Massachusetts native is the last remaining original puppeteer on an iconic show he helped defi ne, a show that once counted Jim Henson and Frank Oz among its talent. He has no plans to retire.

“We were born to be together,” Spinney said of Big Bird, his voice slightly lower than but just as warm as the high-pitched, childlike voice he gives his character, a lov-able 6-year-old who towers over everybody at 8 feet, 2 inches.

Spinney, also the man behind Oscar the Grouch, said “Sesame Street” owes its longevity to the “cleverness in its creation.” The program has been teaching children how to count and spell and interact with others for 45 years this fall.

“The great design of that show was that it should be as funny and entertaining as it is educational,” said Spinney. “I think that’s why it’s been such a success. Instead of it being just rote stu! , it’s got humor and a point to it. It’s not just like, ‘Hi, boys and girls. We’re gonna have a sweet time today. Oh, goody, goody.’ None of that stu! . ‘Sesame Street’ made that old hat.”

While some newer shows — including one about “a certain dinosaur”— have thrived with the old method, “Sesame Street” has consistently treated its young viewers as equals, Spinney said. Big Bird, conceived by Henson as “a big, goofy guy,” quickly became a curious child under Spinney’s care, a character to whom children at home could relate.

“So many things have been done right in creating and executing ‘Sesame Street,'” Spinney said. “I was thrilled to be part of it.”

Spinney, a soft-spoken Waltham native who lives “17 feet” from the Massachusetts border, has a slight subur-ban Boston accent that is harder to detect when he is in character. He got his start on Boston television in the late 1960s, drawing cartoons for children as Mr. Lion on “Bozo’s Big Top.” The traveling version of that show occasion-ally took him to Fall River and other parts of southeastern Massachusetts.

Spinney worked just as hard o! camera to combine his life-long passions for puppetry and animation into a show that ended up impressing one of the most famous men in the business. As “everything went wrong, naturally,” during a performance at a Salt Lake City puppet festival, a dejected Spinney had no idea he was about to secure his dream job.

“I’m putting things away backstage. I hear this voice behind me. It said: ‘I liked what you were trying to do.’ I turned around and it was Jim Henson,” Spinney said. “He asked me if I’d like to work for him. He was gonna build two characters: a large, silly bird, a puppet so big you could get inside it; and a grouch who enjoys trash. He drew me a picture of what they were going to be. I thought, ‘I think that’s what I’m looking for.’ Indeed it was. And I got the job that day.”

Spinney initially doubted he was talented enough to work with Henson, but he soon grew into his puppet personas,

imbuing them with his own traits. Bullied as a child for his name, size and lack of athleticism, he identifi ed with his characters’ tendencies to “go their own way.” Big Bird, in particular, resonated with Spinney, becoming the show’s most popular character and a friend to millions of children.

“Big Bird is full of heart,” Spinney said. “I play Big Bird like the child I hoped I could be when I was a kid. I was the smallest kid in the class and he’s the tallest character on television.”

The wide appeal of “Sesame Street” didn’t register with Spinney, who goes largely unrecognized out of cos-tume, until he walked into a bookstore one day and saw Big Bird staring back at him from the cover of a Little Golden Book. The puppeteer decided he was in good com-pany as he glanced at other recommended titles: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White.

“I thought, ‘Wow.’ That’s when I realized we had gotten to a really good place,” he said.

“Sesame Street” has given Spinney many gifts: heartfelt letters from children inviting Big Bird to their sleepovers; countless awards, includ-ing a Grammy and Daytime Emmys; a close friendship with Henson, who died in 1990; and his 41-year rela-tionship with wife Debra.

Spinney, a father of three whose fi rst wife was “embar-rassed” by his profession, met the love of his life on the “Sesame Street” set. “I took one look at her and I knew,” he said. “Everybody loves Deb.”

At a recent screening for “I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story,” a documen-tary now playing the festival circuit, Debra was asked if her husband would be the same man had he never “tapped into” Big Bird.

“I really think he would be the same person because I think Big Bird tapped into him,” she said. “That’s his soul, so he just puts it out there.”

Playing Big Bird comes at a price. Spinney said the role has always been physi-cally demanding, but it gets increasingly difficult with age. Acting in the costume requires constant focus and coordination. Spinney, who at 6 feet tall comes up to the bird’s chest, sees via a video screen strapped to his torso. He holds Big Bird’s 4.5-pound head about a foot above his own. After 10 minutes in character, he’s usually ready for a break.

The challenges are not insurmountable, not enough to make Spinney quit. Being Big Bird is still fun.

“I’m apparently in good enough shape to keep going,” Spinney said.

When production resumes early next year, Spinney will commute to New York City a couple of times a month to continue telling the story he started nearly half a century ago.

Big Bird and Oscar, two “wonderful, perfect” charac-ters, are waiting for him in a darkened studio.

“It ’s kind of amazing,” Spinney said. “It’s been a won-derful life. I’m so happy that I got this job.”

After 45 years, Spinney still loves being Big Bird cast. “C Is For Cookie,” for

instance, went to the program’s ravenous blue monster in residence.

Raposo had worked with Henson and his Muppets before "Sesame Street" on “The Ed Sul-livan Show.”

“I think Joe was very much in touch with the child within himself and could express it and could see the world through that child and could write songs about it,” Henson says in “Sing! ‘Sesame Street’ Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music,” a 1990 PBS special.

Nick Raposo, one of the com-poser’s four children, is licensing manager of The Joe Raposo Music Group, which owns the copyrights to his father’s work. “No one in 1969 could have guessed that children’s music from a television show would last so long,” he says, but every day, at least one request rolls in from someone who wants to use a Raposo tune in a show, movie or advertisement.

“My father always said that children are not stupid people – they’re just little people,” Nick says. “I believe it’s this respect for kids, and the music certainly refl ects this, that resonated with so many people and continues to resonate to this day.”

The music led Raposo to what his younger self could never have imagined: the chance to compose themes for other TV shows, “The Electric Company” and “Three’s Company” among them; visits to the White House; admiration and song covers from some of the 20th century’s most iconic performers, including Barbra Streisand and Ray Charles; and a sweet friendship with the most iconic of them all.

The music, as it always had, gave Raposo gifts he couldn’t believe.

FROM FALL RIVER TO FAMEEnglish was not Raposo’s fi rst

language. Born in Fall River in 1937, the only child of Azorean immigrants, he spoke Portuguese in his humble North Main Street home.

There, he also developed a love for another language, one with-out words: music.

His father, Jose Soares Raposo, was an accomplished musician in his native Sao Miguel before he moved to the United States in 1917. In Fall River, he found work in the mills but quickly realized he could do better by teaching guitar and violin. He founded Raposo Music Schools in 1928, the year before he mar-ried mill worker Maria Vascencao Victorinho.

Raposo grew up with his cousin, Avery, whose maiden name is Paiva. Avery, who was the oldest of the two by about a month, remembers starting piano lessons with Raposo in fi rst grade.

“For the fi rst three years, I was better,” says Avery, now a Bel-mont resident. “I practiced; he didn’t. Then, one day, it was like he woke up.”

Avery and Raposo attended school at St. Vincent’s orphan-age across the street from their home. Raposo was a natural on the chapel organ, impressing the strict nuns enough to secure a regular gig at midnight Mass starting in fourth grade, Avery says. By age 13, he was behind the organ every Sunday at Santo Christo Parish on Columbia Street.

By age 17, he could play and sight-read anything. After graduating from BMC Durfee High School in 1954, he studied at Harvard University, playing piano at bars and clubs every night to make money.

“While this might sound like hyperbole, his fi ngers would actu-ally be bleeding at the end of a night of work,” Nick says. “He was, even in the estimation of his critics, an astonishing piano player.”

Nick says his father was his own toughest critic, but if any-thing was lacking from the pieces he composed, he was the only person who noticed.

Raposo also never took him-self too seriously, Avery says. While leading the band during a Harvard alumni event in muggy Bermuda, he told musicians they could cool o! by playing in their underwear as long as they remembered to wave rather than stand and bow at the end.

“He really had a great personal-ity,” Avery says. “He was the type that if you were angry or upset with him, within three seconds he would have you laughing so hard you couldn’t even talk.”

Raposo’s professors sent him to Paris to study orchestration and conducting. After he graduated

in 1958, he went back to the City of Light for two more years of study. When he returned to Boston, he conducted for radio and television, and performed at jazz venues including Sto-ryville, accompanying legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.

He settled in New York City with fi rst wife Sue Nordlund, the mother of Nick and his brother Joe, in 1966. (He later married television journalist Pat Collins, with whom he had two more chil-dren, and moved to Bronxville, a New York suburb.)

In the Big Apple, surrounded by showbiz glitz and glamor, Raposo was busier than ever. It was there he reconnected with former Durfee classmate Morton Dean, a respected CBS journalist.

“Everyone in the world of entertainment knew Joe Raposo,” Dean says. “He was a special type of guy.”

Dean says he remembers visit-ing Raposo when he had an o" ce at Carnegie Hall, and being in awe that a fellow Fall River native worked there.

“We used to joke that there had to be something in the water, in the Watuppa (Pond),” Dean says, noting the success stories Fall River has produced. “I think we all learned from Fall River the value of hard work, that there was a greater world out there.”

When “Sesame Street” came calling, Raposo drew from his childhood in Fall River to reach a new generation of children, all while raising children of his own.

“My father was a wonderful person,” Nick says. “He had the ability to make you feel you were the only person in the world that mattered. He was a loving and gentle father, always protective

and always supportive. You can hear it in his music.”

SIGNATURE SONGSome songs take on lives of

their own.So it was with “Bein’ Green,”

Kermit the Frog’s meditation on his “ordinary” color. Henson per-formed it as Kermit for the fi rst time in 1969.

“One night we needed a song for the frog,” musician Danny Epstein recalls in a “Sesame Street” 35th anniversary docu-mentary. “I remember Jon Stone calling after Joe in the hallway: ‘I need the damn song tomorrow. Remember, the thing is green.’ (Joe) wrote ‘Green’ overnight. That is a work of art if you know the lyrics to that song. It’s a piece of literature. It’s profound. Jim Henson singing songs like 'Bein' Green.' It's not Pavarotti but it sure is magic. It's a magic that can never be duplicated.”

It turned out the song wasn’t only for frogs. One of Raposo’s favorites, it also is one of the most covered tunes in the composer’s catalog. Van Morrison, Diana Ross and Ray Charles put their stamps on it decades ago. Cee Lo Green sang it with Kermit on NBC's “The Voice” last year.

What did Raposo make of other artists interpreting his work?

“He was ecstatic,” Nick says. “Some people – particularly those from wealthy, upper-class back-grounds, mistook his absolute astonishment and excitement for boasting, but that wasn’t what it was at all. This was a guy whose family had a Christmas branch for the holidays.”

Spinney was with Raposo the morning after Frank Sinatra debuted his cover of “Bein’ Green” in 1971.

Joe was appreciatively excited over that because if you write a song and Frank Sinatra records it, you know you’ve made it. And so Joe said, ‘Gosh, I guess I’ve made it,’” Spinney says. "He was just an incredible talent.”

According to Dean, Raposo set-tled into a hip New York dinner party one night and noticed the seat next to him was empty. The seat was for Sinatra, who walked in fashionably late.

“Joe could be very much the small-town boy,” Dean says. “He could be very sophisticated but he could easily retreat. Frank Sina-tra? He couldn’t believe it.”

Raposo eventually “worked up the courage” to ask Sinatra why he wanted to record “Bein’ Green,” Dean says. Sinatra, without miss-ing a beat, looked Raposo in the eyes and said, "Because it's me."

People all over the world iden-tifi ed with the song, according to veteran “Sesame Street” per-former Bob McGrath, who has incorporated it into concerts.

“You look in the audience and you just see everyone sort of nod-ding their heads like, ‘Yes, I know where Kermit’s coming from,’” McGrath says in the anniversary documentary. “It’s not easy being whatever they are.”

Spinney says Henson adopted the song as his "personal theme" for Kermit. In a packed New York City cathedral, during Henson's 1990 memorial service, Spinney donned his Big Bird costume and sang "Bein' Green" for his old friend.

“I was surprised I didn’t cry during the song because I tend to cry easily," Spinney says. "I’m very emotional.”

The song made a lifelong fan and friend out of Sinatra, who once called Raposo a "genius" and recorded four Raposo tunes for his 1973 album "Ol' Blue Eyes is Back."

“You Will Be My Music,” the fi rst track on the album, remains one of Avery’s favorite Raposo songs.

"I'll never fi nd the words to tell you all the things I need to say," the second verse goes. "And I'm afraid that as time goes by that someday soon you'll go away."

LASTING IMPRESSIONSRaposo kept his cancer a secret.For several years, Avery was

one of the few people who knew her cousin was battling lymphoma.

“He was worried that if word got out, no one would hire him,” she says. “It was a long haul and it wasn’t pretty.”

Raposo worked until the end. In 1989, the year he died, he com-posed the theme for “Shining Time Station,” a PBS children’s show starring Didi Conn and Ringo Starr. By then, his profes-sional legacy was clear.

“What he and Jim Henson and Jon Stone did back in the early 1970s on ‘Sesame Street’ changed the way the entire world approached children's entertain-ment,” Nick says. “The three of them used their uniquely child-like — not childish — abilities to fi nd the genuine and the beauti-ful and the silly that is in each of us.”

Raposo left another legacy to his children, who are split between New York and Los Angeles, and who all work in the entertainment business.

“His main lesson to us was, ‘It's not getting there that matters; it's how hard you work along the way. That's the reward,’" Nick says. “I do believe my grandparents' tra-ditional Portuguese household and their relative poverty during the Great Depression left the strongest imprint on his charac-ter. There are echoes of that in all of us.”

Raposo was buried in Cha-tham, not far from the beach where his cousin still pictures him lost in good thoughts and still hears him asking, “Can you believe it?”

She has a response: “I think I was just blessed I had him for all that time.”

RAPOSOFrom Page A1

Caroll Spinney has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on “Sesame Street” since the show started in 1969. GIL VAKNIN/SESAME WORKSHOP

Joe Raposo hangs out with Big Bird (friend Caroll Spinney) on the “Sesame Street” set. NEWSWEEK VIA JOE RAPOSO MUSIC GROUP

CITY BUZZ

Thursday, November 20, 2014 Fall River, Massachusetts FREE

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By Phil DevittEditor

The first surprise was the applause.

Al D’Ambrosio had not yet crossed the threshold of Fall River's Morton Middle School cafeteria when his old friends and colleagues started cheer-ing for him.

The second surprise was the street sign, blue with bold, white lettering: “ALBERT A. D’AMBROSIO WAY.”

It will hang high on the former Brownell Street, which wraps around the school D’Ambrosio helped build before his retirement several years ago.

“It was a big surprise,” said D’Ambrosio, 88, a Fall River native now living in Dart-mouth. “When I saw the people I used to work with, I knew something was up.”

D’Ambrosio was employed for 30 years by the Fall River School Department, oversee-ing construction of school after school.

“I was happy working,” he said, which might explain why he didn’t retire until his early 80s. “I worked with good people. That made the di! erence.”

D’Ambrosio sat quietly as city officials unveiled the sign and placed it in his lap for closer inspection. Later, between bites of pastry, he chatted with former cowork-ers he had not seen in years.

“He used to make me look good,” Fall River School Committee member Robert Maynard said. “Any time I had a project, I just called him. He was good to everybody. These days, you don’t find many people like him.”

Fall River Community Main-tenance Director Ken Pacheco said the dedication for the

man he calls “Al D.” was long overdue.

“He is quite a human being, a testament to public service,” said Pacheco, who worked with D’Ambrosio on the construc-tion of six buildings. “Al was the key man, making sure the keys for everything were in the right place. Al had a system that we still use today. It’s true and tested.”

During a brief ceremony, Fall River Mayor and School Committee Chair Will Fla-nagan said the Morton cafeteria would be named for D’Ambrosio, before revealing that the street that connects President Avenue with North Main Street would bear his name, too. The School Com-mittee approved the naming last month.

“He dedicated thousands of hours to … making sure our children’s interests were at the forefront,” Flanagan said. “The reason the city of Fall River is such a great place to call home is because of people like Mr. D’Ambrosio.”

A Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War, D’Ambrosio spent the cer-emony thinking of the one person he wanted by his side: Whilamena, his wife of 63 years. The woman everyone called “Whilly” died on Christ-mas morning three years ago.

“She put up all those years with me,” he said. “She was just number one.”

D’Ambrosio and his wife had four children: Mary D’Ambrosio of Westport, Robert D’Ambrosio of Dart-mouth, Albert D’Ambrosio of Berkley and Dr. Joseph D’Ambrosio, who lives out of state.

“It’s fantastic,” son Robert said of the street sign surprise. “It brought a smile to his face.”

D’Ambrosio said his key to

success in the school depart-ment – and before that, as a third-shift general fore-man with Firestone Tire and

Rubber Company – was fol-lowing the golden rule.

“I always treated people the way I wanted to be treated

and they never let me down,” he said.

That’s the real D’Ambrosio Way.

ALBERT A. D'AMBROSIO WAY

SIGN HONORS WORKERD’Ambrosio recognized for 30 years of service to school

Giving HeartsA Thanksgiving dinner will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day at the VFW, 486 Bedford St. The volunteer-based event is open to the needy in and around the city of Fall River. The dinner’s orga-nizers said they received an overwhelming response from the community at the recent food drive held at the post. Sta! at Crystal Springs, a school in Assonet providing special education services to children, adolescents and adults, has spent the last six weeks collect-ing non-perishable food items to donate to the cause. Trot-tjoseph Lee, a local veteran and one of the dinner’s organizers, said of the outpouring of sup-port, “We knew that we would need a lot of help if this was going to be successful, and we were hopeful. But the response we’ve gotten far exceeded our expectations. It’s really encour-aging. And to have agencies like Crystal Springs get involved, I think it speaks to the heart of our local community. People care, they really do; and every-one deserves a Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving Day.” To learn more about how you can help, contact Angie Taylor, community outreach coordina-tor at 774-855-3301 or ataylor@crystalspringsinc.org.

Crafting TurkeysLooking for fun Thanksgiving Day activities to do with the children? The Fall River Public Library has you covered. This Thursday, the library will be hosting the return of its most popular turkey craft ever - the handprint turkey. The craft, making turkeys out of con-struction paper, will take place from 4-5 p.m. at the East End Library, 1386 Pleasant St. For more information, contact Conor Murray at 508-324-2709 or cmurray@sailsinc.org.More turkey crafts will be held from 3:30-4:30 p.m., Nov. 24, at the Main Library, 104 N. Main St. Contact David Mello at 508-324-2700 for information.

Futuristic Operating RoomConstruction is beginning on an “operating room of the future” at Charlton Memo-rial Hospital as part of a new heart and vascular center. The new center, called the Harold and Virginia Lash Heart and Vascular Center, will house an expanding cardiovascular ser-vices department, according to Southcoast Health, as well as a state-of-the-art hybrid operat-ing room.

More SpiritPAGE 2: Check our “Plug In” feature for everything you need to know about The Fall River Spirit’s online extras — web-exclusive stories, blogs, videos and more.COMING NEXT WEEK: Learn how a newspaper article written 25 years ago and one man's persistence helped rewrite history for a Portu-guese diplomat who "refused to succumb to the banality of evil," but who died in obscurity.

FOR JOBS WELL DONE

Fall River School Committee member Robert Maynard (right) catches up with old friend Al D’Ambrosio.

Local emergency workers were honored for selfless actions at White’s of Westport Nov. 14 during the Greater Fall River/New Bedford Emergency Medical Services Coordinating Committee’s annual confer-ence. Curt Scherny (left), who rescued an 86-year-old man from an apartment fire in March and assisted the Fall River Fire Department in locating a 26-year-old woman still trapped inside, received the EMS Impact Award. Ryan Bielawa of the Saint Anne’s Hospital Emergency Depart-ment (center) was named EMT of the Year. Lisa Porawski (right), a nurse in the Saint Anne’s emergency depart-ment, was named Nurse of the Year. In addition, Ryan Cabral, who works in Dartmouth and Stoughton, was named Paramedic of the Year; Fall River and Somerset medical director Wayne Christiansen was named Physician of the Year; and Christine Saurette of Fall River, who recently saved a young student from choking at Watson Elementary School, was named Citizen of the Year. PHOTO BY PHIL DEVITT

Al D’Ambrosio says he was “surprised” to learn the street that wraps around Morton Middle School would be named after him for his decades of service to the Fall River School Department. PHIL DEVITT/CHRONICLE

VOL. XI, NO. 4

Arts ........................................... 2On Stage ................................... 3Autograph tales ....................... 4PT Boat arrives ......................... 4

INDEX