November 18, 2015

Gustave C. Coté backs School of Business with leadership gift

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BY VICKI-ANN DOWNING

For more than 35 years, Gustave C. Coté was a dynamic presence at Providence College, a lively professor who darted about the classroom, impeccably dressed in a suit and dark-rimmed glasses, enlivening even the driest accountancy lessons for students.

After he retired in 1989 and was named professor emeritus of business administration, Coté maintained his unflagging generosity to PC and his ties to former students. He supported every College fundraising campaign and made substantial gifts for construction of the Smith Center for the Arts and St. Dominic Chapel.

Now 92 and living in Cumberland, R.I., Coté has donated $500,000 to a project especially close to his heart — the Arthur and Patricia Ryan Center for Business Studies, a home for PC’s School of Business that is expected to open in 2017.

In appreciation, PC will name the accounting and finance instructional laboratory off the building’s atrium for Coté and his wife, Rita, who died in 2009.

“Gus Coté was a masterful professor who set a standard — as an engaged, caring, and knowledgeable teacher — that we endeavor to follow to this day,” said Dr. Sylvia Maxfield, School of Business dean. “His generous support carries extra meaning for us, because it reflects a lifetime of commitment to Providence College and its students.”

Cote said the gift acknowledges three of his loves: teaching, accountancy, and the young people he taught along the way.

“My wife is no longer with me, but she was very, very much involved with me in helping out young people, primarily,” said Coté. “The idea is that we had no children, and so we pretty much steered our help toward what we love, like the College. I’ve been a pretty happy individual. I don’t have one reason for giving. I give because I enjoy it.”

“An impact beyond anything he might imagine”

A native of Woonsocket, R.I., where he graduated from Mount Saint Charles Academy, Coté served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He graduated from La Salle University in 1951 and earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1952, the same year he was hired to teach Cote_Gustave_9_177063business administration at PC.

Coté was named assistant professor in 1955, associate professor in 1959, and professor in 1965. He served as vice chair of the business administration department from 1969-1973 and as chair from 1973-1978. From 1962-1965, he was on leave to work for Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery, an international accounting firm that now is PricewaterhouseCoopers. During that period, he also earned his C.P.A. from the state of Massachusetts.

When Coté retired from PC, a Faculty Senate resolution declared, “He has always been a voice of moderation: temperate in times of tempest, clear in cases of confusion, and wise before the winds of whimsy. … More than once his was the swift sword to cut the Gordian knot of seemingly hopeless entanglement.”

Joseph P. Brum ’68, special assistant to the president for development projects, said that when he travels the country to meet alumni, “the one person I get asked about the most — to this day — is Gus Coté. He had an impact on his former students that goes beyond anything he might imagine.”

“Gus was transformational”

Mary Ellen Woodmancy-Danby ’75 met Coté when she applied to transfer to PC as a business administration major her sophomore year. She became a regular visitor to his third-floor office in Harkins Hall and remembers his “very deep, pleasant, and sincere laugh.”

The two have kept in touch ever since. Woodmancy-Danby was part of the first full graduating class to include women and was the first female president of the National Alumni Association. When her husband, Tim, died in 2011, Coté attended the funeral and sent her a small statue of the Infant of Prague, a devotion he shared with his wife.

“He has always been a deep, faith-filled man,” Cote_Gustave_1_177053said Woodmancy-Danby. “He always made time for his students and was very sincere. He is just a wonderful person, a kind-hearted man, with tremendous values and morals. Not a doormat, but kind and humble, too.”

If not for Coté, Michael A. Grande ’83 never would have been an accountant.

A political science major, Grande also took multiple business classes with Coté. When the nation’s top accounting firms came to campus to recruit students during Grande’s senior year, Coté urged Grande to submit a résumé, despite Grande’s insistence that he was destined for law school.

“He said to me, ‘Michael, you have an opportunity to make money rather than spend money.’ So I went for the interviews,” said Grande. “By January 1, I had job offers from three of the biggest accounting firms of the time — Pricewaterhouse, Peat Marwick, and Deloitte. I went to work for Peat Marwick, the largest of the Big Eight in Providence.”

After a career with Peat Marwick, Grande established his own accounting practice. Since 2009, he has taught accountancy at PC as a member of the full-time practitioner faculty.

“The long and short of it is that Gus was transformational,” said Grande.

“Without a doubt the best teacher I ever, ever had

Rev. Kenneth Sicard, O.P. ’78 & ’82G, executive vice president and treasurer at PC, said Coté was instrumental in his decision to become a Dominican. Father Sicard attended a Jesuit high school and considered becoming a Jesuit or a Franciscan until Coté spent an entire accountancy class discussing the Dominicans at PC.

“Mr. Coté was someone I admired very much. For him to spend a whole class on something like that, you knew it had to be very important to him,” said Father Sicard. “He told us about the sacrifices the Dominicans made in the early days, and the commitment and dedication of the priests and brothers and sisters. So I knew there must be something really special about them. It opened my eyes.”

Father Sicard, who majored in accountancy, said Coté “was without a doubt the best teacher I ever, ever had. I tried to imitate his style when I was first teaching as a Dominican. He was always so excited about what he was teaching us. He would be jumping around the room and writing all over the board. He made accounting interesting, enjoyable, understandable. He took a topic that can be very, very dry and turned it into a party.”

Cote_Gustave_5_177055Joseph A. Gemma ’75 & ’77G, assistant professor of management, assistant dean of undergraduate studies, and a longtime friend of Coté, said he is not surprised by Coté’s gift to the business school.

“Everywhere he’s gone, he’s left a mark. In short, he’s simply a generous Christian gentleman who gives instinctively by nature,” said Gemma.

Gemma said that Coté and the late Dr. John J. Breen, Jr. ’47 & ’58Hon., who also was a business administration professor and department chair, kept the business program going in its early days.

“Both of them gave me a clear sense of the foundation on which business at PC has been built,” said Gemma. “They carried these programs forward. There were times in the College’s history when people thought business didn’t belong at PC, didn’t fit in with the liberal arts. Now with accreditation and a new business school, the circle is complete. It really is significant.”

Coté said it’s “just marvelous” that PC will have a building to house its business school.

“It was a long time coming,” said Coté. “But it’s time.”

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Watch video interviews about the Cote gift.