John P. Bourcier papers (Ms.2009.005)

Biographical note

John Paul Bourcier was born in Providence, Rhode Island on March 27, 1927. He attended high school at La Salle Academy in Providence until he enlisted in the United States Navy during his senior year in 1944.

Judge Bourcier enrolled at Brown University in 1946 as part of the Veterans Extension Program, which was created to help returning veterans obtain a college degree regardless of their financial means or academic preparation. He graduated in 1950, and on August 20, 1951 he and Norma M. DiLuglio were married. The Bourciers had two daughters, Carol Bourcier Fargnoli and Norma Jean Bourcier Bucci.

Judge Bourcier received his LL.B. degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1953. While there he was the associate editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review. After returning to Rhode Island in 1953, Judge Bourcier worked as a trial attorney at his firm, Bourcier & Bourdier, until his appointment to the Rhode Island Superior Court in 1974. During this time he was also the Johnston, Rhode Island town solicitor as well as a probate judge.

While on the Superior Court Judge Bourcier was involved in many well-known cases. In 1981 he presided over the trial of Raymond L.S. Patriarca, reputed leader of organized crime in New England, who was accused of being an accessory to murder. He was the judge in the trial of then Mayor of Providence Vincent A. Cianci, Jr. on assault and kidnapping charges in 1984. In 1985 he presided over the trial of an antinuclear group which became known as the Trident II Plowshares, who were accused of breaking into Electric Boat's Quonset Point plant and damaging four Trident Missile tubes in October 1984.

In September 1994 Judge Bourcier was chosen to preside over Providence's "Gun Court", a special division of the Rhode Island Superior Court which was created to try anyone charged with using a gun in the commission of a crime. By February 1995 Judge Bourcier had disposed of sixty-four cases out of a backlog of seventy and had sentenced eighty percent of the defendants in his court to prison. While serving on the Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Bourcier was also a lecturer and instructor at Roger Williams College (1982-1995), Brown University (1979-1995), Bryant College (1990-1993), and Rhode Island Community College (1989-1990).

In May 1995 Governor Lincoln Almond appointed Judge Bourcier to the Rhode Island Supreme Court. While there Judge Bourcier also served as the chair of the Committee on the Future of the Courts and on the Alternate Dispute Resolution Task Force. In 1998 he was elected to the La Salle Academy Hall of Fame.

Judge Bourcier served on the Rhode Island Supreme Court until his death on August 25, 2002, at the age of seventy-five.