RHODE ISLAND
National Catholic Reporter
by Tom Gallagher | Feb. 18, 2013
Editor’s note: Robert G. Sylvestre, of Westerly, R.I., who spent 35 years — his entire career — in the trust department at Fleet Bank, now Bank of America, played a pivotal role in the lives of Timothy Mee and his widow, Gabrielle Mee, for 25 years. A lifelong Catholic, Sylvestre attended La Salle Academy and Providence College in Providence, R.I. It was Sylvestre who introduced Gabrielle Mee to the Legion of Christ. Sylvestre was deposed in September 2011 by lawyers representing the Legion of Christ; Gabrielle Mee’s niece, Mary Lou Dauray; the Estate of Mrs. Mee; and Bank of America and Sylvestre. The following story is based on Sylvestre’s deposition. See all stories in this series.
Robert “Bob” Sylvestre began working in 1960 for Fleet Bank while attending Providence College, and in 1967 or 1968 became a trust officer. It was about this time he met Timothy Mee and was assigned his trust account. For the next 17 years, until his client died in 1985, Sylvestre played a pivotal role in Mee’s estate planning and financial affairs.
“I knew them well,” said Sylvestre of Mee and his wife, Gabrielle.
Timothy Mee, who also served on the board of directors of Fleet Bank and was a shareholder there, had lost his first wife and twin boys “in the ’38 hurricane,” Sylvestre testified. Years later, in 1948, Mee married Gabrielle. Sylvestre said he came to know her when “I met with Tim a number of times at his home, and she was present.”
Sylvestre’s close relationship with Timothy Mee was professional, he said. The two did not socialize. However, he was “a client I felt very strongly towards,” Sylvestre said.
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