A while back, Ken Dooley '49, wrote to us about his years at La Salle and said “La Salle Academy has done a lot more for me than I have done for it over the years.”  A month or two later, Ken came back to La Salle to see his school and talk about his life.

“I wasn’t an athlete or a particularly good student in my La Salle career, except possibly for English,” said Ken on his visit to the school in late November 2009 with his brother Bob.  “I do remember an experience I had with Brother Paul, the director in 1949.  He had filled in on an English class in which we were required to write and read a short story.  When I finished mine, he looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Dooley, I don’t know in what fashion, but will make your living someday in the writing field.’”

It turns out Brother Paul’s comment was prophetic as Ken is currently writing his 38^th book – a non-fiction book in concert with Boston Celtic greats K.C. Jones and Sam Jones entitled From White to Black, The Long and Painful Journey of Black Pioneers into the National Basketball Association. 

Ken’s other recent projects include a one-person play based on the life of Red Auerbach entitled No One Called Him Arnold Except Dorothy Auerbach and Bob Cousy and a play based on the life of John Gordon, the last person executed in the Rhode Island entitled The Murder Trial of John Gordon.

“I also recently completed a screenplay entitled Ghosts over Providence, based loosely on the executions of Eddie Slovik and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg,” said Ken who for 10 years from the mid-1980s through 1995 was the president of Madison Productions, a film company based in Madison, Connecticut during which time he wrote and directed Red Auerbach: Dedication and Desire, along with more than 80 other motivational and training films.  Ken also wrote MBA: Management by Auerbach in 1990.

“When I had Madison Productions, I had several interns whom I taught directing and screenwriting. I really enjoyed teaching them the fundamentals, most of which I learned from seminars with Syd Field, the greatest screenwriting teacher ever,” said Ken.  “I took formal courses at New York School of Film, but I learned more from Field.  As a way to give something back to La Salle, maybe I could teach a course in screenwriting.  On the other hand, I've heard about the excellent drama department at La Salle, so that may already be well covered.”

Ken talked about his close friends at La Salle – remembering in no particular order Andy Fitzpatrick, Owen Egan, Sherm Strickhauser, class president John McCauley, Paul Warnock, John Mazza, John Henry (now Fr. John), Jon McGirr, Jim McAlice, John Dinneen and his best friends, Wes and Loring Forcier.

“I remember being late to class my first year and seeing Brother Flavian with a stern look on his face but I had nothing to fear because he was a very kind person who understood young men.  By the second day of school, he knew every kid.  I remember Brother Thomas who was very bright and taught chemistry in a way that we could grasp it,” said Ken.  “In those days, there weren’t too many lay teachers but one in particular, Lou Cimini, was very helpful to me at a time when I had lost my father.  Ironically, Lou lost his father the year that I had him for home room – in 1948.”

(Ken recently wrote the following note to Lou Cimini who has been recovering from an accident:  “If not for your kindness to a very confused young man in 1948, I probably would have ended up delivering books instead of writing them.  I hope you make a speedy recovery.  Perhaps I’ll be able to hand deliver my next book which will be published in April.  Warms Regards,  Ken Dooley")

“After graduating form La Salle, I went to Providence College but left to join the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War,” said Ken.  “I fought the Korean War in Europe as a reporter.  I went back to PC and graduated in 1959  with a B.A. in English and got a job as a technical writer and hated it.  But it wasn’t long before I was working for Prentice Hall in Waterford, Connecticut in both the book and newsletter divisions.”

Ken’s Professional accreditations include being a member of Writers Guild of America, 

a certified seminar instructor in Employment Law and Human Resources training for the American Management Association and being a member of the Board of Directors, Catholic Charities in New London, Connecticut.

His continuing education credentials include the Director’s Course at the Eugene O’Neil Theater in Waterford, Connecticut, courses in screenwriting and directing at the New York School of Film and courses in Human Relations and Labor Relations at the American Management Association.

“As a kid growing up in St. Paul’s Parish in the Edgewood section of Cranston and one of eight kids with five brothers and two sisters, I never thought that my folks $150 investment in a La Salle education would have brought me to this point,” reminisced Ken.  “Life has been good and La Salle played a major role in that life.”