William A. Orme

William Aloysius Orme, 87, of Narragansett, Rhode Island, and Naples, Florida, died on Saturday August 6, 2011. He was the husband of the late Marjorie Frances (Higgins) Orme and is survived by his eight children, 12 grandchildren and a wide circle of other cherished relatives and life-long friends. Known to friends and family as Bill, William A. Orme was born in Providence on June 30, 1924, the youngest of three children of the late William Aloysius Orme Sr. and Catherine (O’Neill) Orme. He was a graduate of Hope High School, a U.S. Naval Air Force pilot in World War II, and an active member of the University of Rhode Island class of 1949. A past president of the URI Alumni Association, he was a founding board member of the URI Foundation and served on the Advisory Council of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. He was also a trustee of the Rhode Island Higher Education Assistance Corporation. In the early 1960s he was the Democratic Party chairman in Ward 1 in Warwick and served on the Warwick Board of Public Safety, overseeing the city’s police and fire departments. For most of his professional career Orme worked for the General Electric Corporation, beginning at its then-new Jet Engine division in Massachusetts in 1950 and continuing as head of public affairs for General Electric in Rhode Island. For a decade, until his 1984 retirement, he ran the Connecticut-based General Electric Foundation, managing the company’s philanthropic donations to community groups, universities, and other beneficiaries. He received widespread recognition for increasing corporate funding to disadvantaged urban areas and expanding educational support for minority students in engineering and other fields. During his tenure at the GE Foundation he served as national chairman of the Conference Board Contributions Council and on advisory committees to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and the National Council on Arts and Education. Orme left General Electric from 1963 to 1965 to serve as associate director of the United Fund of Rhode Island. Earlier in his life, as he always proudly noted in his professional biographies, he had also worked as “a lifeguard, a bouncer, a shipyard worker, and a U.S. Naval Aviator.” Trained as a fighter pilot, he was honorably discharged as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant in 1945 and received a commercial pilot’s license from the Civil Aeronautics Administration in 1946. For more than 50 years Bill and his wife Marge spent summers with family at the shorefront home he built on Great Island, Narragansett. He was an engaged participant in South County civic affairs, serving on the Narragansett Public Library Board of Trustees and working to restore the century-old Plum Beach Lighthouse in North Kingston, among other volunteer activities. In Naples, Fla., where he made his primary residence after retirement, he was an active member of the Nature Conservancy and the Naples Council of World Affairs. He leaves behind eight children and their families: William A. Orme, Jr. and Deborah Sontag and David, Emma and Adam Orme, of Brooklyn, NY; Mary Jane Orme and John Sofia and Katie and Sarah Sofia, of Wakefield, MA; Nancy and Ralph Martini and Michael and Sophie Martini, of Concord, CA; Sally Orme and Daniel Orme of Cambridge, MA; Betsy Orme and Hugh Bodrug and Cameron and Dylan Bodrug of Concord, CA; Joanne Orme and Sal Arena and Daniel and Jonathan Arena of Trumbull, CT; Michael Orme of Oakland, CA; and Carolyn and Alex Penkrat and Lindsay and Christian Penkrat, of Marblehead, MA. A wake will be held from 4-7 pm on Tuesday August 9th at the Avery-Storti Funeral Home, 88 Columbia Street, Wakefield RI 02879. A memorial mass will be celebrated at 10 am on Wednesday August 10th at the De La Salle Christian Brothers Center, 635 Ocean Road, Narragansett RI 02882. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the William Orme Campership Fund, YMCA Camp Fuller, 619 Camp Fuller Road, Wakefield, RI 02879. A counselor at Camp Fuller in his youth, and later the grandfather of a new generation of Fuller campers, Bill Orme established the fund to help provide summer camp opportunities to other children in the state and region.