lit a candle 1h ago84 years old. That's a full life of building something real. Thinking of Ann, Beth, Carmen, Dominick, John and Jennifer and the whole family right now.
Their story
Carmine J. Puniello was a Rhode Island mechanical engineer who spent his working life at Arden Engineering Constructors, the Pawtucket firm he joined in the early 1960s and co-owned from the 1980s, helping it grow into one of the largest mechanical contractors in New England. He was also a long-serving…
Carmine J. Puniello was a Rhode Island mechanical engineer who spent his working life at Arden Engineering Constructors, the Pawtucket firm he joined in the early 1960s and co-owned from the 1980s, helping it grow into one of the largest mechanical contractors in New England. He was also a long-serving member of the Bristol Planning Board and one of the founders of the Tomorrow Fund at Rhode Island Hospital. He died on 13 October 2026, aged 84.
He was born in Providence on 14 May 1942, the son of Dominick and Philomena (Cupolo) Puniello. He graduated from Colt Memorial High School in 1959 and studied at the University of Rhode Island's School of Mechanical Engineering, in the class of 1963.
Puniello joined Arden Engineering in the early 1960s, bringing a background in power piping and process systems. According to company histories, he developed the quality assurance programme that led to Arden obtaining ASME certifications, and he was later appointed vice president. In 1986 or 1987, accounts differ, he and the general manager Robert H. Bolton bought the business from the Arden family, forming Arden Engineering Constructors, Inc. They refocused the firm on work close to home, and by the time it was sold to PSEG Energy Technologies in 1999 it had grown from a 7 million dollar to a 34 million dollar business, with projects including Providence Place. Puniello stayed on as one of its managers. He also served on many national committees of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America, and his son John later became president of the company.
His public service centred on Bristol, where he lived for more than sixty years in a house he designed himself. He sat on the town's Planning Board for twenty-five years, fifteen of them as chairman. He served on the advisory committee of the School of Engineering at Roger Williams University and on the Training Division of Professional Regulation at the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. For years he managed teams in the King Philip boys' baseball and girls' softball leagues, and two of his all-star teams won Rhode Island state championships.
He was married for fifty-four years to Bernadette (Casey) Puniello, who died before him, and they raised six children. He was an artist, designer, photographer and gardener, played the saxophone, and took great pride in his Italian heritage, researching his ancestry and writing volumes about his family's history.
Puniello died on 13 October 2026, surrounded by his family. The cause was not made public. The Mechanical Contractors Association of America said it was saddened by his loss, and his funeral was held in Bristol on 17 October 2026.
Biography adapted from Obituary, Sansone Funeral Home, Bristol (October 2026); Mechanical Contractors Association of America (15 October 2026); Construction Owners (18 October 2026); Providence Business News (1999); Arden B.
Photos
1by People Forever
well said, that's a lot of kids to raise and still build a company