Members of the Providence Housing Authority Board of Commissioners have decided to name a new community center after Thomas Anton, a former PHA chairman and Brown professor, who passed away June 6 at the age of 71 following a battle with cancer.
Stephen O'Rourke, executive director of the PHA, said the new Thomas J. Anton Community Center at Hartford Park will offer programs aimed at helping public housing residents gain self-sufficiency and break free from poverty. O'Rourke said the dedication is a fitting tribute for the PHA's "beloved chairman."
"It's something we want to do to remember someone who contributed so much to our community," he said. "He was a people person who was very concerned about ... helping people help themselves."
Anton served on the PHA Board of Commissioners for 20 years and held the position of chairman for 16 years. According to O'Rourke, Anton headed the board during the organization's "troubled years" and helped the PHA garner national recognition for its work.
O'Rourke said Anton will be remembered for his leadership skills. "He set broad parameters and made sure they were achieved," O'Rourke said. "If they weren't, he would want to know why."
Anton was also a founder-director of the Providence Plan, a nonprofit organization started in 1992 with the aim of promoting community revitalization.
In addition to his work with the PHA and the Providence Plan, Anton was also an internationally acclaimed political scientist. He was the founding director of Brown's Taubman Center for Public Policy from 1984 to 2000 and a professor of public policy at the University. Before coming to Providence, Anton earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1961, taught at the University of Illinois and at the University of Michigan, where he worked as the director of Michigan's Institute of Public Policy Studies.
Anton also authored or co-authored 14 books and monographs and published more than 50 scholarly articles. His book "American Federalism and Public Policy: How the System Works" won the 1989 Gladys M. Kammerer Award from the American Political Science Association.
O'Rourke said the PHA's community center dedication is scheduled to take place in November.
