UConn scholar dies in Cape accident
Pedestrian, 77, was social work pioneer
Early yesterday morning, Albert S. Alissi and his wife, Sarah, set out together from their summer home on Cape Cod for their routine morning walk. They typically took separate routes, because Alissi, a longtime social work professor at University of Connecticut, was a brisk walker who quickly outdistanced his wife, police said.
On her return home, within a block of their West Dennis home, Sarah Alissi passed an accident scene but did not think much about it until later, when her husband did not return home.
Dennis police officers had found Alissi, 77, at 6:45 a.m. on Lower County Road lying dead in the road near the back of a 1999 Mercury Sable. The driver, Todd Jenkins, 42, of Dennis Port, had been traveling eastbound when he crossed over to the opposite lane near Trotting Park Road and hit Alissi, who had been walking on the north side of the road, Captain William M. Monahan said.
After striking Alissi, Jenkins crashed into a utility pole and a fire hydrant, which flooded the road and created a sinkhole that grew to 12 feet wide and 6 feet deep and half-swallowed his car. He was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where he was treated and later released.
Jenkins told police that morning sun had blinded his view of the road, according to Monahan.
Witnesses told police Jenkins was sitting on the ground after the accident, appearing very distraught and talking on his cellphone, Monahan said. No charges have been filed, he said.
The road reopened yesterday evening after the hydrant and pole were repaired. Officers were expected to be on the scene this morning to continue their investigation.
Alissi and his wife, who live in Weatogue, Conn., have a son, Mike, and a daughter, Amy Donofrio, and three grandchildren.
"He was just so healthy and vibrant," Mike Alissi said. "He basically dedicated every day of his life to helping others and to teaching. Nothing really meant more to him than his family."
Alissi was a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Connecticut, where he had taught for 36 years. He was well known for his dedication to group work, an approach to social work that emphasizes people coming together to resolve problems, such as helping children with self-image issues or preventing juveniles from joining gangs.
If he had an idea, he would get excited. And the more excited Alissi got, the quicker he would speak, said Raymie Wayne, an associate professor of social work at St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn.
"My first thought is what a healthy energetic person; it's just so shocking," Wayne said. "It's not surprising that he was out exercising or walking. . . . At a meeting he couldn't even sit still."
The author of five books and more than 25 articles, Alissi was known as an international expert in group work, colleagues said.
And he made work fun, often bringing out an accordion at informal gatherings and group work sessions.
He always had his sleeves rolled up as he weaved in and out of offices at UConn, searching for the action, said Wayne's mother, Julianne Wayne, an associate professor of social work at the University of Connecticut school of social work. "If one could teach warmth, he could help you major in it."
For many years, he served on the board of The Open Hearth, a Hartford homeless shelter for men. The Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, which he led as president in the early 1970s, honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.
Alissi insisted on holding meetings in the community, away from the ivory tower of the university, colleagues said. His classes were often the most popular and many times overenrolled, said associate dean Catherine Havens, who spoke with Alissi just before he left for vacation. He was working on an article for a social work encyclopedia, Havens said.
"It's really hard to believe when somebody is so vibrant and they don't exist anymore," Julianne Wayne said. 