FROM A FARM IN CARRIGKILTER · CHAPTER TEN
Service, Work and the Twentieth Century
William Joseph Dorgan Jr. and the Next American Generation
From a Farm in Carrigkilter — The Dorgan Family of East Cork: Land, Migration, and Memory
William Joseph Dorgan Jr. was born in Providence on 7 July 1923.
His grandfather Patrick J. Dorgan had been born in Ireland and had crossed the Atlantic as an adult.
His father, William John Dorgan Sr., had crossed as an infant.
William Jr. belonged to a different generation.
He was born in Rhode Island.
The places that shaped his early life were no longer Carrigkilter, Cloyne or Queenstown.
They were Providence streets, schools, wartime training stations and, eventually, the South Pacific.
956 Chalkstone Avenue
After the separation of his parents, William Jr. grew up largely within the McIntosh–Connell side of the family.
The 1930 United States Census placed his mother, Helen Louise McIntosh Dorgan, and her three children in the household of Helen’s mother Ellen and stepfather Joseph Connell at:
956 Chalkstone Avenue, Providence.
Ten years later, the 1940 census found William there again.
He was sixteen.
His mother and sisters Helen and Corinne remained in the household, and the census reported that William had been living in the same house in 1935.¹
That address became the documentary anchor for his adolescence.
School and Work
William later graduated from Mount Pleasant High School.
His obituary also identified him as a graduate of Bryant College, although the exact graduation date has not yet been fixed by a school record.²
By the summer of 1942, the United States was at war.
William registered for the draft on:
27 June 1942.
The card recorded his birth as 7 July 1923 in Providence and named his mother, Helen Louise Dorgan, as his contact.
His employer was recorded as:
B and B Department — Bridge Repairing.
The registration also described him as five feet ten inches tall, 137 pounds, with blue eyes, blond hair and a ruddy complexion.³
It is an unusually detailed snapshot of William immediately before military service.
United States Navy
On 11 December 1942, William enlisted in the United States Navy at Providence.
His service number was:
205 32 13.
His later rating was:
RM3c V6 — Radioman Third Class.⁴
During 1943 he received specialized radio training at the U.S. Naval Training School at Bedford Springs, Pennsylvania.
Family material identifies his class as:
S 2/c — Section 4B-43.
The precise beginning and completion dates of the course have not yet been recovered.
What can be established is that the training occurred after his December 1942 enlistment and before his assignment to South Pacific forces in December 1943.⁵
An older family date placing this training in 1941 is therefore incorrect.
The South Pacific
Navy muster evidence records William as being received by the Commander Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, South Pacific Force, on:
7 December 1943.
He was serving as a Radioman Third Class.⁶
Additional muster rolls follow him through 1944 and early 1945.
A 31 May 1944 Report of Changes specifically places him with:
Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Eleven.
Other muster rolls record him on 31 August 1944, 31 December 1944, and 31 January 1945. The wider naval record associates this service with South Pacific and Northern Solomons forces.⁷
The surviving records establish his unit and radioman service.
They do not yet establish a specific PT boat or particular combat action.
Those details should not be supplied from family assumption or from the history of the squadron generally.
William’s own service must remain tied to the records that name him.
Home Again
After the war, William returned to Providence.
By 1946, family research places him at:
151 Regent Avenue.⁸
On 31 August 1946, he married Mary Anne Gorman at:
Blessed Sacrament Church, Providence.
Mary Anne was the daughter of Stephen Gorman and Johanna O’Brien.
She had been born in Providence on 7 March 1925.⁹
The marriage joined another Rhode Island family to the Dorgan line and began the postwar household from which the next generation descended.
Loss and a New Generation
William and Mary Anne experienced loss early in their marriage.
Their infant daughter Mary Ann Dorgan died on:
29 September 1947.¹⁰
The following year, the direct family line continued.
At 2:08 a.m. on 6 December 1948, William Joseph Dorgan III was born at:
Providence Lying-In Hospital.
The Rhode Island birth certificate named his father as William Dorgan and his mother as Mary Gorman.
The family residence was:
151 Regent Avenue, Providence.
The certificate also recorded William Jr. as employed by the Police Department.¹¹
This provides an important contemporary anchor for William’s police employment.
Later career dates in older family notes do not entirely agree with his obituary, so the exact appointment and promotion chronology should remain open until Providence Police personnel records are available.
A Providence Household
The family continued to grow.
By 1954, family research places William, Mary Anne and their children at:
85 Herschel Street, Providence.¹²
That house became part of the remembered geography of the family.
It was not simply another address in a directory.
Years later it would also become one of the places where generations separated by family history briefly met again.
That part of the story belongs to the next chapter.
William and Mary Anne’s family included additional children, while another infant son, Daniel Patrick Dorgan, died on 25 March 1959.¹³
As with the earlier infant deaths in the family, Daniel belongs in the full chronology without expanding the documentary record beyond what survives.
Providence Police
William built his principal civilian career in the Providence Police Department.
His 2006 obituary states that he served for 29 years and retired in:
1976
as:
Captain and Director of Personnel.¹⁴
That public record is presently the strongest summary of the duration and endpoint of his police career.
Older family notes give somewhat different beginning and retirement years.
Until the official personnel file establishes the precise sequence of appointment and promotions, those older dates should not be substituted for the obituary’s documented 29-year career and 1976 retirement.
The surviving evidence therefore allows us to say something substantial without pretending to know more than we do:
William began police work by at least 1948 and eventually rose to captain and personnel director.
The exact dates of the intervening promotions remain to be documented.
A Second Public-Service Career
Retirement from the police department did not end William’s working life.
His obituary records that he served for another ten years as:
Director of Safety and Security
at the Community Colleges of Rhode Island.¹⁵
Again, the duration is well supported.
The exact beginning and ending years should remain open unless contemporary employment records establish them.
The pattern, however, is clear.
The descendant of an East Cork farming family had spent his adult working life in American public service.
Mary Anne
William and Mary Anne had been married for more than three decades when Mary Anne died on:
28 June 1982
in North Scituate.
She was fifty-seven.
She was buried on 1 July 1982 at St. Ann Cemetery, Cranston, Section 39, Lot 694.¹⁶
St. Ann Cemetery had already become part of the family geography.
Patrick J. and Mary Catherine Hartnett Dorgan were buried there.
Now another generation of the family returned to the same cemetery.
Later Years
On 17 December 1987, William married Dolores S. Carbone at St. Joseph Church in North Scituate.¹⁷
The marriage belonged to the later decades of his life.
By then William had already lived through childhood separation, wartime service, marriage and parenthood, a long police career, and a second career in public safety.
The End of a Twentieth-Century Life
William Joseph Dorgan Jr. died on:
26 August 2006
at Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence.
He was eighty-three.
His obituary identified him as:
Captain PPD (Ret.)
and summarized a life that included twenty-nine years with the Providence Police Department, retirement in 1976 as Captain and Director of Personnel, ten years directing safety and security for the Community Colleges of Rhode Island, service in the United States Navy in the South Pacific, and education at Mount Pleasant High School and Bryant College.¹⁸
He was buried at St. Ann Cemetery in Cranston.
Four days after his death, on 30 August 2006, his son William Joseph Dorgan III delivered the eulogy at the funeral Mass at St. Joseph Church, North Scituate.¹⁹
That eulogy belongs to a different kind of evidence.
It is not a census.
It is not a muster roll.
It is not a personnel record.
It is family memory.
And that is where the story now turns.
From Records to Memory
The first chapters of this family history depended heavily on surviving documents:
parish registers,
valuation books,
land records,
passenger manifests,
census returns,
court files,
military rolls.
By William Jr.’s generation, the archive changes.
There are still official records.
But now there are also living memories.
Photographs.
Letters.
Recollections of houses and relatives.
A grandson discovering that the grandfather he had never known was still alive.
Correspondence returning the family to East Cork.
And, eventually, a journey back to Carrigkilter itself.
The records established the line.
Memory would reconnect it.
Notes and Sources
1. 1940 U.S. Census. William Jr., age sixteen, at 956 Chalkstone Avenue with his mother Helen, sisters Helen and Corinne, and the Connell household. The census states that he had lived in the same house in 1935.
2. Education. William’s obituary identifies him as a graduate of Mount Pleasant High School and Bryant College. Exact graduation dates remain unresolved.
3. World War II draft registration, 27 June 1942. Birth 7 July 1923; B and B Department — Bridge Repairing; mother Helen Louise Dorgan; physical description recorded.
4. U.S. Navy enlistment. William enlisted at Providence on 11 December 1942, service no. 205 32 13; later rating RM3c V6.
5. Bedford Springs radio training. Specialized naval radio training in 1943; class identified in family material as S 2/c, Section 4B-43. Exact course dates remain unresolved.
6. South Pacific assignment. Navy muster evidence records William received by Commander Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons, South Pacific Force, 7 December 1943.
7. Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Eleven. Muster rolls document William as RM3c V6 with Squadron Eleven through 1944 and January 1945. No particular PT boat or combat action should be assigned without further evidence.
8. 1946 residence. Family research places William at 151 Regent Avenue. Exact underlying directory citation remains to be attached.
9. Marriage — William Joseph Dorgan Jr. and Mary Anne Gorman. 31 August 1946, Blessed Sacrament Church, Providence; Mary Anne was the daughter of Stephen Gorman and Johanna O’Brien.
10. Mary Ann Dorgan. Infant daughter died 29 September 1947.
11. Birth of William Joseph Dorgan III. 6 December 1948 at 2:08 a.m., Providence Lying-In Hospital; residence 151 Regent Avenue; father recorded as employed by the Police Department.
12. 85 Herschel Street. Family research places the household there by 1954; direct directory citation remains desirable.
13. Daniel Patrick Dorgan. Infant son died 25 March 1959.
14. Providence Police career. William’s obituary reports 29 years of service and retirement in 1976 as Captain and Director of Personnel. Exact appointment and promotion dates remain pending official personnel evidence.
15. Community Colleges of Rhode Island. Obituary records ten years as Director of Safety and Security; exact beginning and ending years remain unresolved.
16. Mary Anne Gorman Dorgan. Died 28 June 1982; buried 1 July at St. Ann Cemetery, Section 39, Lot 694.
17. William Jr. and Dolores S. Carbone. Married 17 December 1987 at St. Joseph Church, North Scituate.
18. William Joseph Dorgan Jr. obituary. Died 26 August 2006 at Roger Williams Medical Center; obituary summarizes Navy service, education, police career and later community-college work.
19. Funeral and eulogy. William Joseph Dorgan III delivered his father’s eulogy at St. Joseph Church on 30 August 2006. William Jr. was buried at St. Ann Cemetery.
Continue the Family Story
Next: Chapter Eleven — Memory Returns to Ireland
A chance encounter in Providence reconnects Bill with his grandfather. Decades later, letters, photographs, local friendships and a journey to East Cork bring the family story back to the places where it began.