Award-Winning Painter, Joan Thompson Boghossian, Dies at 89

Sunday, September 12, 2021

Bellows Funeral Chapel

Joan Thompson Boghossian, 89, of Pawtucket and Narragansett, award-winning painter, philanthropist, and beloved mother, grandmother, and friend, died peacefully on September 7 in her family home.

Joan was a much-lauded watercolorist and print-maker and the unofficial “Grande Dame” of the Providence Art Club, where, for many years, she kept a studio, taught printmaking, and supported up-and-coming artists with her inspiration, teaching, and philanthropy. Always ready to lend a hand, learn a new medium, and share her techniques with the young artists around her, she was a steady presence around the Art Club, as well as in galleries from New York to Boston.

During her career, she won more than sixty significant prizes for her artwork, including awards in national and regional juried shows. She was a four-time winner of the Grumbacher Gold Medallion Award in watercolor, a founding member of the Spring Bull Gallery in Newport, and an elected artist member of the New England Watercolor Society, the Copley Society of Boston, the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club of New York, and the Art League of Rhode Island.

Joan was born in Newport in 1932. Her father, Joseph Thompson, was a machinist for the Navy and her mother, Hope Bliss Thompson, kept a local five-and-dime and “movie house” in their living room on Francis Street in Newport. Joan and her late sisters, Jean Thompson and June Thompson Nielsen, all attended Rogers High School, where Joan was elected a “Co-Ed Colonel” in the late 1940s.

Accepted to Cornell to study chemistry, Joan chose to attend the University of Rhode Island because Cornell at the time was overwhelmed by returning GI’s and could not offer her housing. That decision proved auspicious when she met her husband, Paul Boghossian, Jr. at URI. They were married in 1952, just as Paul was shipping out to Korea. Joan would eventually follow him to Tokyo with their newborn daughter, Jody, to spend a year in Japan while Paul helped wind down the war effort.

By 1959, they had four children, Jody, Paul, David, and Nancy whom they raised in the same Pawtucket house where Joan would live for nearly seventy years.

A true Rhode Island Yankee to her core, Joan loved a yard sale, a good recipe or kitchen hack, and WD-40. She was a tournament-level Scrabble player, could fix nearly anything, and once saved a baby on the beach at Sand Hill Cove from choking. A no-fuss, no-frills beauty, she entered the 1947 “Miss Easton’s Beach” contest on a dare and won, in her bare feet, to the chagrin of the high-heeled entrants from New York.

But her true love, after Paul and her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild, was her art. At a charity auction in 1978, Joan bid on and won a series of lessons with artist and RISD faculty member Herman Itchkawich. Soon enough, the student was rivaling the master. Her portraits of children caught at play on the beach were skillful studies of light and form, many of which grace mantles from Southampton to Northeast Harbor.

Joan was a stalwart supporter of the Providence Public Library where the main gallery is named in her honor. Joan and Paul also founded the Boghossian Foundation, which has provided college scholarships to hundreds of Rhode Island students.

Joan leaves four children: Dr. Jody Spencer of Providence, Paul Boghossian of Jamestown, David Boghossian of Cambridge MA, and Nancy Staples of Newport, as well as twelve grandchildren, one great-grandchild, many nieces, nephews, friends, and neighbors. They will miss her bright smile, Yankee-spirit ways, and her gift for finding the beauty in life’s everyday moments.

Because of the rise in Covid cases, the family plans to postpone a celebration of Joan’s life until a time when we can gather safely.

In lieu of flowers, kindly consider a donation to the Providence Art Club, your public library, or go out and buy some art and think of Joan.

For guest book, please visit Bellows Funeral Chapel.

Plant a tree in memory of Joan by clicking here. To send flowers to Joan's family, please visit the floral store.

The establishment of D.W. BELLOWS & SON goes back to September 1821, when Daniel R. Clark opened a small cabinet shop on the corner of Park Place and Main Street, Pawtucket, where the former Pawtucket Registry of Motor Vehicles is located. Mr. Clark made cherry and mahogany tables and chairs and was often called upon to make caskets. As time went on, Mr. Clark was asked to take charge and perform the entire funeral service. A few years later, Mr. Clark gave up the making of furniture entirely to devote all of his time to his funeral work. His business increased gradually, and in 1855 his son, Daniel A. Clark, became associated with his father, later succeeding to the ownership of the business, which he carried on successfully for many years.

In November 1892, Dexter W. Bellows, a native of New London, Connecticut, and Mr. Clark's brother-in-law, came to Pawtucket to assist Mr. Clark in caring for his increasing business. This continued to July 1, 1903, when Mr. Clark passed on ownership of the firm, retiring to Berkeley, California. In 1913, Dexter's son, Dana R. Bellows, began working for his father and in 1919 was admitted into the partnership, under the name D. W. BELLOWS & SON.

In 1906, Mr. Bellows found it necessary to move the firm from its original storefront to the corner of Park Place and Church Street. Our firm maintained a funeral home on that site until it closed in 2008.

In 1952, Dana Bellows was joined by his son, Allan R. Bellows, the fifth generation of the family. Under the guidance of Allan, the firm purchased land from Garelick Farms in Lincoln in 1964. On this land, BELLOWS FUNERAL CHAPEL was constructed. At the time of its opening in 1966, this facility was considered to be the complete modern funeral facility with ample off street parking and large comfortable rooms, to aid in serving the needs of the families taken care of. In 1972, Bradford R. Bellows joined his father and thus became the sixth generation. Shortly thereafter, Roy Funeral Home (formerly Lalime & Son Funeral Home), a firm that had served the people of the Manville section of Lincoln since 1913, came under the ownership of D. W. BELLOWS & SON.

In 2001, Allan R. Bellows II joined the firm, becoming the seventh generation of the family to enter into funeral service. And in 2003, BELLOWS FUNERAL CHAPEL underwent a renovation and expansion to help our firm to better serve families in the twenty-first century.

Our extensive tradition has left us justly proud of the fact that our firm has been serving the Blackstone Valley for over 190 years. We are also proud that we are one of the oldest, active funeral service firms in existence in New England and the United States today. Throughout our history, we have continued to maintain our policy to render the best service possible and to maintain a spirit of helpfulness to those whom we are privileged to serve.

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Award-Winning Painter, Joan Thompson Boghossian, Dies at 89

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