Longtime Council Member Don Gomez honored

December 10, 2024, PROVIDENCE – R.I. Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) longtime Council Member Don Gomez, who has served continuously on the Council since November 2007, was honored by the CRMC and the General Assembly at the regular semimonthly meeting on December 10.

Gomez, 80 and of Little Compton, worked for more than 30 years as an electrical engineer in Research and Development of undersea warfare technology at the Naval Undersea Warfare College (NUWC) in Newport.

His outlook on life and his busy post-retirement schedule back in early 2008: “If you can call it fun, it’s not work.” Gomez has served on the town’s planning board, zoning boards, charter review commission, municipal trust, chaired the town’s pension committee, its budget committee, school committee, was elected chair of the Little Compton Republican Town Committee and served two years as the town council president.

Gomez received a citation from the Rhode Island House of Representatives in recognition for his years of service to the state. Representatives Terri Cortvriend (D – Dist. 72 representing Middletown and Portsmouth) and Michelle McGaw (D – Dist. 71 representing Little Compton, Portsmouth and Tiverton) presented him with the citation on December 10.

At left is Rep. Terri Cortvriend, middle is Council Member Don Gomez, and at right is Rep. Michelle McGaw, who presented him with the citation for his years of service to the Council.

The citation applauded the Council member for his “many years of dedicated service to the people of the State of Rhode Island at the Coastal Resources Management Council helping to preserve, protect, develop and restore coastal areas in Rhode Island.”

Gomez met his wife Judith Ann in second grade, and they got married in his third year of college at Northeastern University. The university offered a co-op program, which Gomez took part in for four years, and that program started him at NUWC as a GS-3 at $75 a week. By graduation the co-op work experience allowed him to start at a higher pay level than most coming out of college and into civil service. During his time at NUWC, Gomez amassed an impressive resume: he has numerous performance and achievement awards including the prestigious Naval Meritorious Civilian Service Award; he holds several patents and invention disclosures for unmanned undersea vehicles; and he has authored several technical papers. And even after retirement, he kept busy doing R& D work at NUWC for a number of years.

Among Gomez’s many notable accomplishments during his time as a member of the CRMC Council, he was involved in the creation of the Rhode Island Ocean Special Area Management Plan (OSAMP), as well as the review of numerous wind farm development projects permitted by the CRMC including the nation’s first offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm.

“If you want something done, give it to a busy person,” he said back in 2008. And as for his role as Council member, he said, “You teach by example. You talk the talk; you’ve got to walk the walk.”

Don has been a great Council member and friend, and we thank him for his many years of service to the CRMC and State of Rhode Island,” said CRMC Chairman Raymond Coia. “Don always brought analytical thinking and pragmatism to our proceedings. We wish him the best in his retirement from the Council and know we’ll most likely see him in the audience in the future.”