Working as a laborer in his youth alongside his cousins was one of William J. Gilbane Jr.’s most valuable experiences at his family’s construction company. One summer, they built reinforced concrete dormitories at the University of Rhode Island, stripping forms and handing them up to carpenters on the floor above for hours without seeing sunlight.
“After jackhammering most of the day, my hands were so sore I couldn’t hold an ear of corn over dinner,” Gilbane recalls. “My mother would strip the corn off the cob for me.”