2025 -- H 6051

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2025

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

EXPRESSING DEEPEST CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF ARMAND M.

LAMONTAGNE

     Introduced By: Representatives Messier, Shekarchi, Blazejewski, Chippendale,
Kennedy, Ajello, Cortvriend, Shallcross Smith, Solomon, and Bennett

     Date Introduced: March 11, 2025

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, It is with deep sadness that this House has learned of the passing of Armand

M. LaMontagne of North Scituate. He was the beloved husband of Lorraine A. LaMontagne; and

     WHEREAS, Armand LaMontagne was born in Pawtucket, a son of the late Raymond and

Jeanne LaMontagne. Mr. LaMontagne graduated from Worcester Academy where he was an

outstanding athlete who lettered in baseball, basketball, and football. Mr. LaMontagne was

awarded a scholarship to play football at Boston College; and

     WHEREAS, Armand LaMontagne was a self-taught and talented artist who also had the

opportunity to study for a year in Italy as a result of receiving the Russell Grinnell Foundation

Award. Mr. LaMontagne was renowned for his life-sized wood and bronze sculptures, which

have included such famous personalities as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams on display at the

Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown New York, and Larry Bird, Bobby Orr, Carl Yastrzemski,

Harry Agganis, and a second Ted Williams sculpture on display at the New England Sports

Museum in Boston; and

     WHEREAS, Armand LaMontagne had the high honor of creating the General George S.

Patton, Jr., sculpture at the Patton Museum in Fort Knox, Kentucky, a sculpture of President

Gerald Ford displayed at the University of Michigan and the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand

Rapids, Michigan, and a sculpture of Eleanor Roosevelt on display in Hyde Park, New York. Mr.

LaMontagne also created a sculpture of Roger Williams on display at Roger Williams University

in Bristol, Rhode Island, another statue of Ted Williams on display at the Ted Williams Museum

in Fort Myers, Florida, and a second Larry Bird sculpture located at the Basketball Hall of Fame

in Springfield, Massachusetts; and

     WHEREAS, Other distinguished works by Armand LaMontagne include a sculpture of

Gladys Tantaquidgeon, a Mohegan medicine woman, located at Mohegan Nation in Uncusville,

Connecticut, as well as a bust of Elvis Presley, located at the Country Music Hall of Fame in

Nashville, Tennessee. Mr. LaMontagne also painted portraits of former Rhode Island Governor,

J. Joseph Garrahy, former Providence Mayor, Joseph Paolino, former Speakers of the Rhode

Island House of Representatives, Matthew J. Smith, Joseph DeAngelis, and John Harwood,

former Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Thomas F. Fay, and former President of Rhode

Island College Dr. John Nazarian; and

     WHEREAS, Armand LaMontagne has received numerous honors and accolades

throughout his distinguished career. He was a charter member of the Pawtucket Hall of Fame, and

was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1998. In 1998, he also was honored

by Rhode Island College with an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, and in April of 2000, Mr.

LaMontagne received the Distinguished American Award from the Rhode Island Chapter of the

National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. In his free time, Mr. LaMontagne

enjoyed the outdoors. He loved to garden, training his bonsai trees, and shaping the bushes and

trees in his yard; and

     WHEREAS, In addition to his wife, Lorraine, Mr. LaMontagne leaves behind his

daughter, Lisa A. LaMontagne, Mr. LaMontagne was the brother of Lucille Coutu, Annie

Gabriault, Henry LaMontagne, and the late Roger LaMontagne, Raymond LaMontagne, Ernest

LaMontagne, and Lucien LaMontagne; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island hereby

expresses its deepest condolences on the passing of Armand M. LaMontagne; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Mrs. Lorraine A. LaMontagne and Family.

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