In memoriam: Roc Ritchie Caivano
February 12, 1944–July 8, 2021
Roc Caivano (left) helping Jackson Gillman ‘78.
By John Gordon
Roc Ritchie Caivano, who gave shape to COA’s earliest work in environmental design, died on July 8, 2021. He was born February 12, 1944 and grew up in Tarrytown, New York. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1966 and Yale School of Architecture in 1970. In 1974, responding to an ad in The New York Times, Roc took a job at College of the Atlantic and led the charge to build a curriculum in environmental design. In 1983, Roc and his family moved to Philadelphia, where he worked for Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown Architects as an associate for five years before joining Lyman Perry Architects as a partner. In 1990, the Caivanos returned to Mount Desert Island and opened Roc Caivano Architects, where he practiced architecture until his retirement in 2012. During that time, Roc designed several hundred projects across MDI and beyond.
In 1966, Roc met his life partner Helen Lee McGregor ’80. They married on November 30, 1969 in NYC. Their first daughter, Katharine Starlight, was born in 1975, and their second daughter, Lilly McGregor, was born in 1981. Roc fondly enjoyed his time with granddaughter Juniper Helen. Quoting from his published obituary, “The true love Roc and Helen shared is legendary to anyone fortunate enough to know them. Roc was a deeply loving father, ‘Be careful,’ and, ‘I’m so damn proud of you’ being his most common refrains.”
Roc possessed a profound understanding of the shingle-style aesthetic of many historic Mount Desert Island cottages. His unparalleled ability to reinterpret the local vernacular deeply enriched the island’s built environment. Non-residential buildings of significance designed by Roc include the Wendell Gilley Museum in Southwest Harbor, the iconic, arching footbridge in Somesville (often claimed to be the most photographed structure in Maine), the Acadia National Park visitor center pavillion, and Schoodic Institute’s Wright Hall.
In addition to being an early faculty member, Roc designed and constructed several buildings on the COA campus. These include a student workshop (the current Buildings & Grounds shop/offices), the 1976 restoration of The Turrets (an outgrowth of an early design class taught by Roc and primarily supported by student work), and the Blair-Tyson student residence hall.
Barbara Sassaman ’78 remembers Roc’s teaching style as “calm, smart, and funny” and as being incredibly fair to his students. He didn’t espouse a specific design style, but rather focused on knowledge and skills required for students to discover their own style and approach to design. Sass remembers design assignments as oftentimes being fun while Roc promoted an iterative process of “doing it over and over and over.” Roc enjoyed working alongside his students as they “built stuff” including the many beloved bus shelters scattered across MDI (reportedly, the last known shelter is located just off Beech Hill Road on the way to COA Beech Hill Farm).
I worked for Roc in 1994-95. My primary duty was project manager for the Blair-Tyson construction. Roc’s mentoring and willingness to share hard-earned wisdom had a profound impact on my life as an architect. I fondly remember desk crits with Roc—if you’re familiar with the notion of a desk crit, you know that they are seldom fondly remembered. Here’s a brief summary of one such memorable session. I had been working away for hours on trying to find the “just right” fenestration (composition of windows and doors on the exterior wall) for a house design. Roc comes over to my desk, sits down, rolls out the tracing paper and grabs a pencil (pre-CADD days), then commences mastery. He sketches away and helps me to understand why my effort was coming up short, doing so without berating me at all. In relatively short order, he arrives at a suitable solution. Then, he says, “Let’s add two lights flanking the front door, just like buttons on a shirt.” Nearly 30 years later, I think of Roc every time I add “buttons on a shirt” to a design.
Roc served on many local nonprofit boards and committees and was most proud of being a volunteer firefighter with Bar Harbor Fire Department. His BHFD service included designing an addition to the Town Hill fire station. After retirement, Roc devoted most of his time to making things. He loved to paint and pretty much did so full time. It was during this time that Roc painted oil portraits of four of the founders of College of the Atlantic—Ed Kaelber, Les Brewer, Father Jim Gower, and Ann Peach. These paintings now hang in The Turrets, one of Roc’s most beloved buildings and site of his Celebration of Life on July 24, 2021.
Roc Caivano wore many hats during his lifetime—son, brother, student, husband, father, grandfather, carpenter, filmmaker, teacher, architect, painter, and mentor. His intelligence, creativity, charisma, passion, and resolve had a deep and lasting impact on many, many lives during his 77 years.
