{"id":83319,"date":"2025-07-24T14:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T18:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=83319"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:49:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:49:37","slug":"alumni-reunion-in-honor-of-dr-john-grandin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/alumni-reunion-in-honor-of-dr-john-grandin\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Reunion in Honor of Dr. John Grandin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Faculty, staff, alumni, friends and family gathered in the Fascitelli Center’s Toray Commons in name of Dr. Grandin. Credit: Jennifer MacNeil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 11, 2025 \u2013 On June 7, 2025, faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends gathered for a very special IEP alumni reunion and tribute celebrating the life and legacy of the program\u2019s founder, Dr. John Grandin, who had passed away in November 2024. We appreciated the opportunity to bring together so many members of the IEP community, with alumni attendance spanning all the way from this year\u2019s grads to some of the IEP\u2019s first participants, demonstrating the enduring impact that Dr. Grandin has had on the lives of URI students and others throughout the decades since the IEP came into existence.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Chris Lepore ’03 shares his favorite memories of Dr. John Grandin with attendees. Credit: Jennifer MacNeil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dr. Sigrid Berka facilitated the gathering\u2019s speaking program, inviting several colleagues, former students and family members to the podium to share remarks. This included Dr. Thomas Spengler from our partner university TU Braunschweig, Dean Emeritus of the College of Engineering Dr. Ray Wright, German professor emeritus Dr. Norbert Hedderich, and a number of IEP alumni – Kristen Riley, Erin Papa, Sarah Koenig, Chris Lepore and Dave Rego. Thank you all, as well as to the speakers from the Grandin family (Peter, Abbey, Ethan and Ashley), for your passionate speeches!<\/p>\n\n\n

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A group of IEP alumni from the earlier years of the IEP reminisce about their many adventures as a part of the program. Left to right: Greg Klein ’00, John Greene ’00, Mike Smith ’01, Erin Papa ’01, Ph.D. ’16, Chris (Peterson) Smith ’02. Credit: Jennifer MacNeil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In response to our event invitation, we received many heartwarming remembrances and photos that we compiled into a slideshow to represent Dr. Grandin\u2019s impact as a part of the IEP and beyond. The sharing of memories between groups of IEP alumni both continued long after the reunion was officially over, with many grads meeting up afterwards to continue to swap stories about their academic journeys and global adventures under the leadership of Dr. Grandin. Study tours in Germany, the opening of\u00a0the IEP Living and Learning Community, mentorship moments and more – through the lives and careers of those he touched, Dr. Grandin\u2019s legacy will live on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more photos from the event, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends gathered on June 7 for an IEP reunion in honor of the program\u2019s founder, Dr. John Grandin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2296,"featured_media":83356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iep"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2296"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83319"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85047,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83319\/revisions\/85047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}