Ralph R. Papitto, longtime chairman of the board of trustees at Roger Williams University and the man for whom its law school is named, stepped down Monday. The university said Papitto’s retirement was motivated by his age and his desire to spend more time with his family.

But a former trustee says Papitto, a board member for about 40 years and chairman for the last 18, was forced to resign after he uttered a racial slur at a May 2 trustees meeting. The trustee, along with two other trustees who demanded Papitto’s resignation, has since been removed from the board. She says they were terminated — two without explanation _ as retaliation for pushing for Papitto’s removal.

Dr. Barbara H. Roberts, a trustee for two years and Papitto’s former cardiologist, said she decided to go public with Papitto’s conduct because of the gravity of the racist comment and her dismay at the way the trustees have handled the situation.

At the May 2 meeting, Roberts said, Papitto and the trustees were discussing a sternly worded report criticizing the board’s lack of diversity — of its 16 members, 14 are white men. Papitto became agitated, Roberts said, and used the word “n-----” while talking about diversifying the board.

At a May 9 emergency meeting, trustees Roberts, Joseph A. Caramadre and Sally E. Lapides demanded Papitto’s resignation. (Lapides was not present at the May 2 meeting.) After two months of meetings and negotiations, Papitto stepped down Monday, replaced by Richard L. Bready, a trustee and longtime business associate of Papitto. Lapides, Roberts and Caramadre were all removed from the board.

Papitto, 80, yesterday refused to comment on the epithet and maintained that he left the board of his own accord. “This is a private institution and we consider board-meeting discussions confidential,” he said. “I stepped down because the time has come.”

But in a July 2 letter to Roberts, Papitto wrote, “I formally and without any equivocation apologized to the Board for a highly inappropriate statement I made at a private session of the Board. Any further publication itself is potentially tortious activity that can only harm the University and will be considered a serious negative action.”

BASED ON INTERVIEWS and a review of letters, e-mails and prepared statements related to the board of trustees, it appears that the board under Papitto failed to follow its own bylaws in several key areas — an issue serious enough to jeopardize the accreditation of the university, which has experienced tremendous growth and an improved reputation under President Roy J. Nirschel.

In April, the university received a formal “Notice of Concern” from a regional accrediting organization, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

The organization warned university officials that if the board of trustees did not start following its own bylaws, and appoint a more diverse board, the university was “in danger of being found not to meet one or more Standards if current circumstances or trends continue,” according to a letter sent to the university on March 23. This, in turn, could jeopardize the institution’s accreditation.

Barbara Brittingham, director of the NEASC commission, said her organization gives out “just five or six” notices of concern a year, out of a couple of hundred actions taken by the organization.

“They are designed to get the institutions to draw attention to issues that if left uncorrected could cause problems down the road,” Brittingham said.

Even before the report, Roberts and Lapides — the only two women on the board — said, they had pushed for more minorities and women to be added the board, but had been rebuffed.

Of the remaining board members, several still have close ties to Papitto, who founded a Fortune 500 company, Nortek Inc., and has given more than $7 million to the university over the years. Members include Bready, who succeeded Papitto at Nortek in 1990; Papitto’s son-in-law Harry M. Crump; and Mario J. Gabelli, a major stockholder in Nortek. (The business school at Roger Williams is named for Gabelli.)

“There is so much conflict of interest on this board, no one would say anything,” said Roberts, who was Papitto’s doctor until she called for his resignation. “I decided I was going to be the one to do this.”

The board of trustees is the governing body of the university. Its members hire the president, oversee the budget, construction projects and capital campaigns, approve academic programs, grant tenure and promotions, and serve as the legal and fiduciary representatives of Roger Williams.

Lapides said the board at Roger Williams was run differently than other boards on which she serves.

“I think the board was very exclusive, not inclusive,” Lapides said. “And what I mean is that there was a very powerful chairman of the board and a powerful executive committee, and the board of trustees acted more as a rubber-stamping board rather than a decision-making board.”

Several of the trustees’ bylaws were not followed. These include having two alumni serve on the board; electing, not appointing, new members; having a weak, ineffectual committee structure; and having trustees serve no more than six years. All these rules were violated, Roberts and Lapides said.

ON MAY 2, the trustees were discussing the NEASC report when Papitto became agitated about the call to add more women and minorities to the board, Roberts said.

“He started saying, ‘They want us to add more poor kids and they want us to add more, well, I can’t call them n------, I learned that from Imus,’ ” recalled Roberts. Papitto was referring to ousted New York talk-show host Don Imus, who was fired over a racial epithet in April.

Present at the meeting were Papitto, Nirschel, trustees Gary R. Chapman, Bradley P. Dorman, Raymond H. Keller, Stephen B. Kistner, Edward Pieroni and J. Lynn Singleton, vice chairman John A. Tarantino, Caramadre and Roberts, and Robert Avery, the university’s general counsel. Two other trustees participated by phone: David J. Calabro and Gabelli.

While Papitto, Nirschel and Tarantino refused to comment on what was said at the meeting, Caramadre, a philanthropist and owner of Estate Planning Resources, confirmed Roberts’ version of events when contacted by The Journal.

“If you are asking me did chairman Papitto use a racial slur — the n-word — I would be inclined to tell the truth and the answer is yes,” Caramadre said.

It also appears that Papitto had made racial comments before. In a May 6 e-mail exchange between Roberts and Nirschel — supplied to The Journal by Roberts — she wrote that other trustees had told Papitto that “his comment was unacceptable and inexcusable.”

In his e-mail reply, Nirschel wrote: “None of it came [as a] surprise. He has lambasted blacks, Muslims and Jews before in front of staff.”

LAPIDES, OWNER of Residential Properties, was traveling out of the country on May 2, but when she learned about what had happened, she joined in Roberts’ call for Papitto’s dismissal at an emergency meeting May 9.

“The comment of the chairman last week regarding diversity on the board was shocking, unacceptable and inexcusable,” Roberts said in a statement she read at the meeting, a copy of which she provided to The Journal on Thursday. “I think that the chairman’s comment last week demonstrates a lack of real commitment to diversifying the board and a degree of racism that is unacceptable to someone holding that office. Therefore my … recommendation is that the chairman resign and be replaced by a new chairman elected in accordance with the bylaws.”

Shortly afterward, Papitto called Lapides and told her she had been voted off the board because of three absences. Lapides said Thursday that her attendance record for the first three years was excellent, and that in the last year she missed meetings because of travel conflicts — which she had informed the board about in advance.

“I’ve served on many, many other boards and chaired many of them, so [my removal] was very startling to me,” Lapides said. “I supported Dr. Roberts’ statement on May 9 asking the chairman to step down after his very offensive words, and he stared at me and said, ‘I’m going to look at the bylaws and see how to get someone off the board.’ ”

Roberts said that, based on meetings and e-mails, she believed that Nirschel and several trustees supported her push for a change in leadership. She did not know her own position was in jeopardy until she received a letter from Papitto on June 14.

“This is to advise you that at a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Roger Williams University, it was voted unanimously not to continue your trusteeship as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University,” the letter read. “We wish to thank you for your efforts and contributions on behalf of the Board and the University.”

Roberts said she immediately contacted Tarantino and Nirschel, who told her the executive committee could not summarily dismiss a member, and that the entire board would have to vote on her removal. They told her to disregard the letter, Roberts said.

Roberts became concerned that deals were happening behind the scenes.

“I got the distinct impression there was evolving a quid pro quo that Ralph [Papitto] would resign if Rick Bready were appointed chair and if the three of us were thrown off the board,” Roberts said.

On July 6, Lapides, Caramadre and Roberts met with the lawyer representing the board of trustees, Robert G. Flanders Jr., and said they wanted Papitto to resign and their positions as trustees secured.

Instead, three days later, Caramadre and Roberts were told they were off the board. When they asked for an explanation, the trustees refused to answer, Roberts said.

SEVERAL TRUSTEES declined to comment. Nirschel, who was hired and can be removed by the trustees, said he could not go into detail about what happens at board meeting.

“The university has changed dramatically in recent years and the board has been working with us to make the board more global, more diverse, more international,” Nirschel said Thursday. “We want the board to be consistent with our core mission here, bridging the world. It’s important to have a board that is larger, that has stronger committee structures. Sometimes boards have to catch up to where the university is going.”

Yesterday, he said, “No one should be associated with the university who espouses racist thoughts, words or deeds.”

Nirschel said the board of trustees would add 11 to 13 new members — bringing the board to about 21 — over the coming year, including women, minorities and alumni. He also said the university would address the “governance” problems criticized in the NEASC report.

At the July 9 meeting, when Papitto stepped down with the honorific “emeritus” status, seven others resigned or were not reappointed — trustees Keller; Kistner; Pieroni, who is Papitto’s certified public accountant; Tarantino — and the three trustees who say they were wrongfully removed from the board — Caramadre, Lapides and Roberts.

Yesterday, the board of trustees called a public-relations agency, the RDW Group, to issue a statement. “The board of trustees is intolerant of any form of racial bias or prejudice and they would not tolerate that from anyone,” RDW spokesman Mike Doyle said. “The board came to the conclusion that certain board members needed to be replaced, and actions were taken to achieve that goal.”

Caramadre, Lapides and Roberts say they have clear consciences and believe the behavior of the board needed to be exposed.

“This has been such an ordeal, I can’t tell you,” Roberts said. “I’ve lost weight, I’ve lost sleep. But one of my former professors, Dr. Bernard Lown, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985, and I asked his advice about this, because I really struggled with what to do. When I told him I was coming forward, he sent me an e-mail and told me that “what you did was very courageous and it makes me proud to know you.”

jjordan@projo.com