Rev. Adrian G. Dabash

1931 - 2017

DABASH, O.P., REV. ADRIAN G.
85, a Dominican Friar of the Province of St. Joseph and of the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College, died at Rhode Island Hospital, on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, following a lengthy illness, For the past several years, he had been a resident of the Scandinavian Home in Cranston.
George James Dabash born on Feb. 22, 1931, in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Najeeb James and Skeey (Ajamy) Dabash, Greek Melkite Catholics originally from Lebanon. Educated in public and parochial schools in Brooklyn and then Richmond, VA, he studied for one year at the University of Richmond before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1950, specializing in aviation maintenance and serving until 1955. He then spent two years working, while attending Fordham University, Bronx, NY. He studied at Providence College 1957-1959 as a Guzman Hall pre-ecclesiastical student.
He entered the Novitiate of the Dominican Friars at St. Joseph Priory, Somerset, OH, in August 1959, receiving the religious name Adrian and making his simple profession of vows there on Aug. 16, 1960. He studied at St. Stephen Priory, Dover, MA, 1960-1963, receiving a bachelor's degree in philosophy and art and a master's degree in philosophy; he made his solemn profession of vows there on Aug. 16, 1963. He then studied at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Dominican House of Studies, Washington, DC, receiving a Pontifical bachelor's degree in theology in 1966, when he was assigned to Providence College to begin teaching art. He was ordained a priest at St. Pius V Church in Providence on Jan. 28, 1971, by Bishop James. M. Dempsey, O.P., of Lokoto, Nigeria. He spent 1972-1974 away from the college, earning a master's degree in theology and liturgy at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN, and a master's degree in art and painting and a master's degree in fine arts at the University of Dallas in Texas.
Fr. Dabash returned to Providence College in 1974 and spent the next thirty-some years teaching in the art and art history department, eventually rising to the rank of full professor. He served as assistant chaplain of the college 1972-1982 and then as chaplain 1982-1992. He moderated various student clubs at PC, including the art club, the yoga club, the fencing club, and the scuba diving club. He was active in the local and regional art scene, participating in group and individual exhibitions. He created interior designs and liturgical appointments for spaces, secular and sacred, on campus and elsewhere. He took his passion for art into Rhode Island correctional and mental health facilities. He ministered regularly over the years to Greek Melkite Catholics in the area, especially at St. Basil the Great Melkite Catholic Church, originally in Central Falls and later in Lincoln. Ever the inveterate wanderer, he traveled extensively throughout the United States and beyond its borders.
Fr. Dabash was well known and loved within the PC community—by students, faculty, staff, and alums, all of whom were saddened when his health began to fail, necessitating his formal retirement from the faculty in 2010 and his need for extended health care away from the priory on campus.
He was pre-deceased by his parents and by his only brother, Edward R. Dabash. He is survived by his Dominican brothers and by a cousin in Florida.
His body will be received into the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas at Providence College, at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30th. Visitation will follow, concluding with the Office of the Dead at 7:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated for him in the same chapel on Tuesday, Jan. 31st, at10:00 a.m. Burial will follow in the Dominican Friars' Cemetery on campus.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Providence College, Office of Institutional Advancement, One Cunningham Square, Providence, RI 02918, for the Angel Fund.
Arrangements by Russell J. Boyle and Son Funeral Home, 331 Smith Street, Providence, RI. boyleandsonfuneralhome.com