Robert Cummings

CUMMINGS, ROBERT, who headed a Providence investment firm for 50 years, died on August 22 at the age of 80. Mr. Cummings, who never retired from the work he loved, faced cancer for 24 years with great courage, humor, and dignity, and died peacefully in his Little Compton home encircled by his wife and family.

Mr. Cummings began in the brokerage business in 1949 at Cummings & Co., which his father founded in 1927. He succeeded his father in 1957, and merged with another Providence firm in 1984 to form Brown, Lisle/Cummings, Inc., where he served as President until 2002. Mr. Cummings also founded the R.I. Association of Investment Firms and served as its first president and he was past vice chairman of the NASD District Committee 13, headquartered in Boston.

Louis G. Murphy, Jr., who has worked with Mr. Cummings as protege and partner ever since college 25 years ago, said, 'Bob was an 'old school stockbroker' whose advice ranged far beyond investments for most of his clients, many of them second and third generation. I think all his clients considered him a friend first, and a stockbroker second.'

During World War II as a merchant midshipman on the M.V. Cape Alava, Mr. Cummings participated in landings on New Guinea, on the Admiralty Islands, and Leyte Gulf in the Philippines. Two days before the war ended in Europe in April 1945, his ship landed in Bari, Italy. In 1946 he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy with an Ensign Commission in the Naval Reserve. Recalled to active duty as a Lieutenant during the Korean War, he served as the ship's legal officer and officer on deck for flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Antietam from 1952 to 1954.

Mr. Cummings held great love for his alma mater, Brown University, serving as an Alumni Trustee and Class Marshall. He graduated in 1950 as Secretary of his class and president of the Class Secretaries Association. In 1948 he founded and played as the first goalie for the Narragansett Lacrosse Club, the predecessor to Browns varsity lacrosse team. Mr. Cummings participated in the Brown University Sports Foundation and Browns Alumni Lacrosse events until his death.

For over forty years, Mr. Cummings served on the Board of Directors of Women & Infants Hospital and as Chairman from 1980-85. He worked diligently in moving the former Providence Lying-In Hospital to its current facility next to R.I. Hospital. In other community service, Mr. Cummings founded the Ocean State Charity Trust, served as treasurer of the Providence Boys Club, vice-president of the Community Chest of R.I. and as trustee for the Wheeler School and the South Kingstown Land Trust. His social clubs included the Hope Club, Turks Head Club, Agawam Hunt, Point Judith Country Club, Sakonnet Golf Club, Ida Lewis Yacht Club, and the Yale Club of New York City.

An avid art collector with a wide range of taste, but a focus on Rhode Island painters, Mr. Cummings opened the Barn Gallery in Matunuck in 1965 and served on the Art Committee for Women & Infants' Hospital. He loved prowling through attics and antique stores looking for overlooked paintings. He once identified an undiscovered John Singleton Copley portrait hanging in a Matunuck home and, so he could appreciate it, rented the house for the summer.

A resident of Providence and Matunuck until his move to Little Compton in 1990, Mr. Cummings is survived by his wife, Greta P. Brown; his two sisters, Mary C. Chatterton and Margaret C. Perkins of Providence; his former wife, Shirley Ellis Cummings of Wakefield; their five daughters, Marcie of Kingston, Dede of Brattleboro, Vt., Connie of Malibu, Cal., Alex of Matunuck, and Ann of Mill Valley, Cal.; and his three step-children, Jim of Providence, Scott of Beverly, Ma., and Kristin of Norwich, Vt; and 14 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, August 31 at the United Congregational Church, Little Compton. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the South Kingstown Land Trust, 133 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879, or the Friends of the Little Compton Nursing Association, PO Box 171, Little Compton, RI 02837.