Rhode Islanders, especially the state’s past and present high school student/athletes, lost a good friend on Tuesday with the death of Dick Santaniello.
Santaniello, 83, was a star student/athlete at La Salle Academy in the early 1950s. A Providence Journal All-Stater in basketball, baseball and track, he was named the 1952 Providence Journal Honor Roll Boy, the award presented annually by the Journal to the state’s top male high school student/athlete.
After graduating from La Salle, Santaniello went on to an outstanding college athletic career at Holy Cross. He was a standout for both the Crusaders' basketball and baseball teams. He, along with future Boston Celtics Hall of Famer Tom Heinsohn, was a member of the 1954 Holy Cross team that won the National Invitation Tournament title.
After college he spent a few years playing professional baseball in the Baltimore Orioles farm system before returning to Rhode Island to raise a family of five daughters and embark on what would become a 30-year teaching career at Zambarano Hospital. Throughout his career he worked with special-needs individuals who suffered from tuberculosis, cerebral palsy and other chronic conditions.
A deeply spiritual man, Santaniello seemed to practice his faith with the simple belief that helping others, especially those less fortunate than himself, was the greatest vocation a man could pursue. In addition to his 30 years of work at Zambarano he was involved in many community activities. He was a Special Olympics coach; he was active in church-related activities in Cranston and Johnston; he was a weekly volunteer at the St. Charles soup kitchen in Providence; and was a volunteer in a weekly prison ministry program at the state Adult Corrections Institutions.
He was elected to the all-inclusive La Salle Hall of Fame, whose membership includes alumni who achieve outstanding accomplishments in sports, business, governmental service and community involvement.
He also never forgot his athletic roots and how much high school sports can play a major role in the development of a young person’s life. Of all the awards and recognitions he had received in athletics, his professional life and for his community service, I sensed he always considered the 1952 Honor Roll Boy selection one of his greatest accomplishments.
For the past 30 years he was a member of the selection committee for both the Providence Journal Honor Roll Boy and Honor Roll Girl awards. Every year he would painstakingly examine each of the nomination forms submitted by every high school in the state, which listed the accomplishments of one male and one female member of the school’s graduating class.
Even last spring, when illness had bedridden him, Santaniello took the time to examine every one of the approximately 80 nominations submitted for the two awards. If he didn’t feel the application gave him a complete picture, he always asked if more information could be obtained about the nominee.
He took pride in not only helping select the Honor Roll Boy and Girl, but also spreading the word about the accomplishments of all the student athletes who had been nominated for the awards.
“Every year he would call and read me, and his grandchildren, the stories of the Honor Roll nominees. He wanted everybody to know about the wonderful things these young people had done in both sports and in their communities,” one of Santaniello’s daughters told me a few weeks ago.
He never forgot that high school sports played a major role in his life and never stopped giving himself to others.
Can any man leave a better legacy?
Condolences to his family and legion of friends.