2008 ISABELLA FITZGERALD
CLT
CRANFORD, N.J.
Isabella was promoted to assistant beverage director at Gramercy Tavern in New York, N.Y. MEGAN KENNEY PVD NEWPORT, R.I.
Megan is the new assistant general manager and event planner for Camille’s Restaurant in the Federal Hill section of Providence. LIANE MCDONNELL PVD
OBITUARY CHEF ROBERT “MOSHE” NOGRAD ’99 HON. A Distinguished Mentor and Colleague Robert “Moshe” Nograd ’99 Hon., dean emeritus of the College of Culinary Arts, found joy from making people happy through food. He chose to be trained as a cook for one reason — to never be hungry again. Born in Hungary, he was only three when his father died and his mother sent him to an orphanage. He was then given to peasants “not for love, but to work.” From a very early age, he told one reporter, “I was always hungry.” Nograd was on his own, a student at age 12, when he worked before and after
MANVILLE, R.I.
school at a carpentry shop to pay for food and a bed in
Liane is director of sales and marketing at Alpine Country Club in Cranston.
a local family’s house. In March 1944 the Germans
SAVANNAH WHITE PVD
meant for eight horses. A four-day journey to
PLAINVILLE, MASS.
Savannah is the sales and client services manager at the Southern California Region office of Amica Insurance.
2009 CHRISTOPHER ALEXIS PVD MOUNT KISCO, N.Y.
Christopher is senior housekeeping manager at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
arrived. By May he and other Jews were forced into boxcars on a train — about 100 people in each car Auschwitz concentration camp ensued — the worst
Robert Nograd ’99 Hon.
of it, he recalled, was the sound of crying babies. An infant’s wail and the sight of cattle cars remained disquieting for the rest of his life. Nograd was then
design and open the campus in North Miami, where,
sent to a work camp in Bavaria, where he toiled 12-
in 2006, the Robert M. Nograd Center for Bachelor’s
hour days hoisting 110-pound bags of cement for an
Degree Studies Kitchen and Dining Room was
underground airplane factory. He envied the kitchen
opened. In 1983 when he was given a special
workers who survived on leftover scraps and prom-
certificate of appreciation, Morris J. W. Gaebe said,
ised himself: “If I would ever go from here, I will al-
“In a single day you accomplish more than the
ways have food.”
average person accomplishes in a week.” Larry Rice,
He weighed 75–80 pounds when American troops
Ed.D., ’90, president of JWU’s North Miami Campus,
liberated the camp on April 27, 1945, “the day I was
recalls his mentorship: “He hired me more than 21
NEWTON, MASS.
born a second time.” After recovering in a German
years ago and like most of us who were here when he
Kyle is a consultant with CFGI in Boston.
hospital, Jewish and United Nation agencies facili-
was dean of culinary education, you knew you were
tated his education. He was sent to cooking school,
prepared to teach students if Dean Nograd approved
apprenticed in France, served in the Israeli Navy for
of your work. He had an unequivocal way of critiqu-
KYLE BRITTO PVD
SIGOURNEY BRYANT ’15 MBA PVD
five years, and then became a cook with a passenger
ing our performance, and sharing great wisdom and
NEW YORK, N.Y.
cruise line out of Haifa, working his way up to its ex-
insights, that instilled within us a strong sense of
Signourney works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
ecutive chef. He later taught at culinary schools. In
pride in seeking to meet his expectations.”
JEFFREY GEMIGNANI CLT CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Jeffrey is the East Coast sales representative for Joyce Farms, a Winston-Salem, N.C.-based producer of premium heritage breed poultry and grass-fed beef.
1979, he came to the U.S., and soon joined the College
Nograd passed away June 3, 2015, in Taramac,
of Culinary Arts at the Providence Campus as the
Florida, his residence since retiring from the
executive chef and food and beverage director at the
university in 1999. He was the devoted husband of
Rhode Island Inn, now the Radisson Hotel Provi-
Ana for more than 60 years and a loving father and
dence Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island. He later
grandfather.
held several administrative positions and, in 1987,
“I never dreamed of being a master chef,” he once
was appointed dean of culinary education, also su-
said. “I never dreamed of being dean of a university.
pervising the programs in Charleston, S.C. and Nor-
I only dreamed of having food in my stomach.”
folk, Va. In 1992, he relocated to Florida to help
— Denise Dowling
www.jwu.edu
33