Ray Di Pasquale, who has committed much of his life to helping students achieve their goals and fulfill their dreams, will receive The DaVinci Center’s 2016 Community Humanitarian Award Wednesday evening, June 22 at Warwick’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. The award is in keeping with The DaVinci Center, a neighborhood, multi-purpose organization that strives to improve the quality of life for residents in Providence’s North End. The center also provides a broad array of quality services and improvement projects that respond to the community’s needs.

After serving as president of the Community College of Rhode Island for ten years, Di Pasquale retired this year to take on new challenges.

James A. DiPrete, a long-time award-winning public school administrator who helped hire DiPasquale said, “I was fortunate to be a member of the then Board of Governors for Higher Education that hired Ray Di Pasquale. “President Di Pasquale distinguished himself from the onset by his depth of knowledge and experience in the leadership of post-secondary education institutions.”

“He proved over his decade long tenure as CCRI’s President that he indeed knew how to apply President Teddy Roosevelt’s motto: “To speak softly and carry a big stick,” said DiPrete.

And that, DiPrete remembers, wasn’t always an easy thing to do, especially when the Board of Governors for Higher Education hired Di Pasquale, he had taken over a faculty that at the time was in turmoil.

However, as DiPrete said, “Ray’s strengths were that he was a very good listener. Through his ability to bring people together, set collective goals for student success and galvanize the greater CCRI community to establish satellite programs.”

One of Di Pasquale’s greatest accomplishments, as DiPrete and Municipal Court Judge Frank Caprio -- who also served as chair of the Board of Governor’s for Higher Education and will be the Master of Ceremonies on June 22 – will tell you, “Ray left the college a much different and infinitely much improved educational institution; the largest community college in New England.”

Under Di Pasquale’s leadership that began on July 1, 2006 and wound up on January 31, 2016 CCRI enjoyed near record enrollments. In May 2012, CCRI had its largest graduating class ever.

That record enrollment reached nearly 18,000 students each semester and CCRI’s noncredit arm trained more than 30,000 Rhode Islanders annually, making the college and important cog in the state’s workforce development efforts.

The school also added numerous programs and course, initiated significant energy cost-saving projects, expanded career pathway programs, received numerous Federal grants and became focused on adult learners during his tenure. He also spearheaded the CCRI’s first capital campaign, which brought in more than $5-million for improvements to the school’s library, theater and dental lab.

Di Pasquale grew up in the Mount Morris in upstate New York. At the age of 15 his father passed away but he never forgot the humble values and life lessons learned in his hometown and during his days at Mount Morris Central High School, where he served as president of his class and lettered in three varsity sports.

His passion for serving the community became more and more evident as his career evolved. On Wednesday evening, June 22, many Rhode Islanders whose lives Di Pasquale touched, will show their appreciation for his many outstanding contributions to the state in form of the DaVinci Center’s Community Humanitarian Award.

Tickets for the awards dinner are $75 per person and may be purchased by calling John DeLuca, Executive Director at The DaVinci Center, at 272-7474. Sponsorship opportunities are also available.