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Rhode Island
Gov. Don Carcieri
- January 7, 2003 - January 4, 2011
- Republican
- December 16, 1942
- Rhode Island
- Brown University
- Married Suzanne; four children
About
Don Carcieri is the oldest of five children. He went through the East Greenwich public school system before attending Brown University on an academic scholarship, graduating with a degree in international relations. After teaching, he turned to business and built a career at Old Stone Bank. In his ten years with the bank, Carcieri rose to the position of executive vice president. In 1981, he moved his family to Kingston, Jamaica, where he headed the Catholic Relief Service’s West Indies operation. He brought his family back to Rhode Island in 1983 after joining Cookson America, where he eventually advanced to the position of CEO and joint managing director of Cookson Group Worldwide. He and his wife Sue cofounded the Academy Children’s Science Center in East Greenwich.
Carcieri was elected governor in 2002 and reelected in 2006. During his two terms in office, he was faced with a number of state disasters and emergencies. Among them was a fire—sparked by pyrotechnics inside a West Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub—that resulted in the deaths of 100 people. Carcieri responded by declaring a moratorium on pyrotechnics under the conditions that had prevailed when the fire erupted. And in early 2010, Rhode Island was the site of severe flooding, resulting in President Barack Obama declaring the state a disaster area.
Source
Almanac of Famous People. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Inc., 2007.
The Complete Marquis Who’s Who 2010. New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who’s Who.