Caroline D. Gentile

Caroline Doris Gentile (January 24, 1924 – September 19, 2008) was an American academic and physical education instructor. The longest-serving faculty member of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, she joined the staff in 1946 and developed the curriculum for the physical education department. She continued as a classroom instructor until her retirement in 2005. She also made the largest-ever gift to the university, a $500,000 donation toward the establishment of a health and physical education complex which was named in her honor. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors in 2003.

Early life and education Caroline Doris Gentile was born in Newton, Massachusetts to Gerardo Gentile and his wife, Donata Bucchelli Gentile, both immigrants from Italy. She had four brothers and four sisters. She earned her B.S. from Sargent College, a unit of Boston University, in 1946, and her M.A. from New York University in 1949. She also pursued graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University. Gentile was one of seven staff instructors who revived the school, which had been closed during World War II. She developed the curriculum for the physical education department, which began offering a teaching degree in health, physical education, and recreation in 1949. She was the longest-serving faculty member at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. In 2004 the University of Maine's Board of Trustees announced that the facility would bear her name, an exception to the board's policy of not naming campus buildings after current employees. The $9 million, Caroline D. Gentile Hall opened in January 2006 with "a pool, track, multipurpose courts, fully equipped fitness center and climbing wall", and classroom and laboratory facilities.

Memberships Gentile was a member of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, filling the roles of local president, Maine State Federation president, and chair of "virtually all of its committees" since joining the organization in 1947. She was a member of the Governor's Advisory Commission on HPER and the Maine HPER Curriculum Committee. She also served as publications director for Maine for the American Association of HPER and initiated the Maine Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. and the Maine Sports Legends Hall of Honors at Husson University in 2003, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Presque Isle Chamber of Commerce in 2007. The Alumni Association of the University of Maine at Presque Isle established the Caroline Gentile Scholarship for students in the field of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, or Elementary Education, in her name.