PROVIDENCE — Kiely and Cambria DeQuattro, Elyse Brassard and Lila Schaumburg, students from St. Augustine School recently interviewed W. Albert Martin, the 2019 recipient of St. Augustine’s Distinguished Graduate Award.
Martin was a member of St. Augustine’s first graduating class of 1955. When interviewed, he shared fond memories of Principal Sister Marie Edward and Pastor Reverend Thomas P. Gilfillan. The Sisters of Saint Ursula lived in the convent on Elmcrest Avenue and taught in the school. Martin shared his favorite things about school which were recess, lunch and winning the Blueberry Pie-Eating Contest. He added that the Religious Sisters prepared him well for high school and the Catholic values that they instilled in him.
Martin has been giving back to the school and parish for the last 50 years. He has been actively involved in Catholic Charities and was Chairman of the St. Augustine School Finance Committee for ten years working closely with Pastor Edward Egan concerning school, financial and legal issues. He was instrumental in introducing computer education to the curriculum for all grades in the mid -1980s. He and his family continue to support the school — his wife Helene volunteers at the school and he volunteers reading to the early grades.
He feels very strongly that “the school is the future parish.”
