02/23/23 ***
January 27, 2023 - Welcome to my Stacy House website. This site is now over 22 years old. I now use it to keep my friends and family informed about my activities since my retirement from the computer industry in 2000 to managing my investment property Stacy House Apartments.
I will continue to post my 'Creative Activities' to this website. As you will see, the site has many diverse sections. Each section covers a different aspect of my life. Among other things these include photography, website development, railroading, community planning, elective office*, graphic arts, music, and movie production.
From January 2009 until January 2014, I served as the Rhode Island State representative from District 75 - Newport. It was a great experience.
Now that I have finished my community based volunteer activities, my political career and my work developing websites, I have revisited my music training. I now spend my time learning and playing the piano.
From July 2019 until January 2020, I was hired by the Marriott Hotel in Newport to play on Fridays and Sundays. As of December 2020, I sold the property, which I had owned since May 1978, and have 'retired' again to my new condo.
I currently play the Yamaha grand piano in the atrium of the Newport Hospital on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at noontime. I am also playing a few 'gigs' including at the Rhode Island Veterans Home in Bristol, and some private parties.
Information about my other accomplishments, and some unexpected public recognition that I received, during my time in office has been provided in the District 75 section of this website. For more information, click on this link.
For a photographic tours of District 75 - Newport, and for a little review of your French, click here: Newport en Francais
I learned about this case by attending a stage play, "The Murder Trial of John Gordon," which ran at the Park Theatre in Cranston, RI during January and February of 2011. John Gordon, was an Irish immigrant who was hanged in 1845 for a murder which many knowledgeable people believe that he did not commit. I was asked to submit a resolution to the Rhode Island House of Representatives which would ask the Governor to grant Gordon a pardon.
On June 29, 2011, based on a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Governor Chafee granted the pardon to John Gordon. There was a 'John Gordon Memorial Weekend' in October of 2011, consisting of a celebration on the 8th at the St. Mary's Cemetery and on the 9th at the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial.
For more information, click on this link .
Following the pardon of John Gordon, I was asked what I thought could be done to bring honors to 2nd Lt. Robert Thorpe, a Rhode Island native who was 'shot down and executed' by the Japanese in WWII. His sacrifice, at the age of 20, had never been given official recognition. I worked with the House Veterans Affairs Committee and the Permanent House Veterans Advisory Council to bring honors to Lt. Thorpe. As a result, he was posthumously awarded the Rhode Island Star, the highest military honor granted by the State of Rhode Island at the Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Exeter, RI on Memorial Day 2013.
For more information, click on this link.
I have now moved onto other interesting activities. During the winter of 2015, I worked with my friend, Ken Dooley on the production of a book 'Relentless Pursuit'.
Author Ken Dooley and I are happy and proud to have combined our experiences; his as a noted author and playright, and mine as designer and computer specialist, to have written and produced a book about World War II, Relentless Pursuit - the Untold Story of the U.S. 5th Air Force's 39th Fighter Squadron.
This started as a simple request to get honors for 2nd Lt Robert Thorpe. It quickly became a more encompassing book about the 39th Fighter Squadron activities in the Pacific theatre during WWII.
For more information, click on this link
As one can see from the Photo Collections section, I lived very close to the Newport Secondary railroad track. Since returning home in 2000, I had spend a lot of my time doing volunteer work for the Old Colony & Newport Railway. Many of my better railroad photos can be seen on New England Railroad Photo Archives. I have also built a 20 page brochure and a PowerPoint presentation for trade shows.
For about 6 years until I ran for office, I served as a qualified engineer and brakeman for the tourist runs. This was mentioned in a news article in 2007
For more than 30 years, I had enjoyed an interesting career as a Software Developer and Product Marketing Manager in the business world. One of my more interesting activities, since 'retiring in 2000,' has been to continue to use my 'technical skills' as a volunteer in the development and maintenance of about websites for charitable organizations.
I build websites, including this one, in native HTML code and Java Scripts. That makes them operate very effectively and allows viewers to navigate them efficiently.
Click here to see the list of sites that I have developed and/or maintain.
The 2003 display of my photography at the Ocean Coffee Roasters has led to a new venture. I produced a line of note cards that I call 'PhotoNotes'. These cards feature my photos of popular Newport scenes and matching envelopes. The first few have to do with the OCNRR Railroad, Trinity Church, the Gulls at Cardines Field, the Commissioning of the USS Chafee [DDG 90], and the local fishing fleet.
Click here to see the latest designs and ordering information.
- Newport Daily News published photo that I took from the top of the Newport Bridge as the decommissioned aircraft carrier, The Saratoga was towed out of Narragansett Bay.
- Newport This Week published an article that I wrote [and an accompanying photo about the Hibernians sending 'care packages' to our soldiers in Iraq. It appeared in their March 2008 issue.
- Boston Globe - I was asked to submit my 'Newport Green' photo of the Old Colony & Newport Railway to the Boston Globe for a travel section special which was published on May 4, 2008.
- USS Chafee Commissioning - On October 18, 2003, I attended the commissioning ceremony for the USS Chafee. I wrote an article about the ceremony that was published in the Newport Daily News. I have also published a photo of the event which is now hanging on the quarterdeck of the ship. Copies of the photo were hung in then Senator Lincoln Chafee's offices in Washington and Newport.
- Hibernian Digest - Following the Newport This Week publication, I was asked to submit an article to the National Hibernian Digest it was about the Rhode Island Hibernians efforts to support returning and homeless veterans, as well as, the program to ship care packages to Iraq. It appeared in the May - June 2008 issue.
- Newport This Week published an article that I wrote [and an accompanying photo about the Hibernians sending 'care packages' to our soldiers in Iraq. It appeared in their March 2008 issue.
- Newport This Week asked me to take photos of Jim Gleason for an article which was published on January 2, 2008.
- The Conway Scenic Railroad requested permission to publish a photo that I had taken of one of their engineers. It was published in their Fall Newsletter
- Railpace Magazine published two of my photos of the Island Touring Train being delivered by barge to Melville in their July 2007 issue.
- A Tour of the Newport Harbor and Narragansett Bay - These photos were taken by me during a Harbor Tour conducted by the Friends of the Waterfront on June 27, 2004 Waterfront Tour. They are a link on the Friends of the Waterfront website.
- The Newport Dinner Train published their 2001 and 2002 brochures with three photos from my 'Kennedy Special' collection.
- One of my earlier photos was published on the back and inside front covers of 'Reflections Poems & Songs' by Sheila Laureta [2000 - Dando Press, San Francisco, CA].
- The Old Colony & Newport Railway photo section of this website has been completely updated. You can now view most of the 13 mile Newport Secondary track on this site. In order to share these photos with the 'real rail buffs', I have placed the best of them on the New England Railroad Photo Archives,
- I have just published some photos of the Newport Gulls Baseball Club. Check them out in the Photo Collections section.
- Visit my Photo Collections section to see my recent photos of Macroom, Ireland.
Attention Bike Path seekers: The information which was referred to in the Newport article on the proposed Aquidneck Island Bike path can be found in the "Community Planning" section of this website. The initial information for that survey was posted in 2003. The interest lives on!