Know your history, part I

Patrick T. Conley, the colorful and sometimes controversial historian-developer, stopped by the set of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers this morning to talk up the latest class of inductees to the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. A banquet to celebrate the occasion will be held Saturday, May 3, at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet.

I remain a big fan of one of the inductees, the late, great Jack White, the Pulitzer-winning reporter and longtime investigator at Channel 12, who died in 2005. Another inductee who has left us is John Partington, the former Cumberland police chief, US marshal, and Providence public safety commissioner.

Joining the 601 other individuals in the Heritage Hall of Fame, which was established in 1964, are also:

Joseph R. DiStefano

Ernest S. Frerichs

Ira C. Magaziner

James Procaccianti

US Senator Jack Reed

David R. Stenhouse

Marjorie Joy Vogel

Conley said the Heritage Hall of Fame will be based in 55,000 square-feet of space at the long-delayed Heritage Harbor Museum, which is under development by Struever Brothers Eccles & Rouse, and, he says, due to open in 2010. As it stands, says Conley, Rhode Island is only one of three states without such a museum.