Paul Bracken
Strange things
Lawrence Hoyt
Cavalry and Chamber
Anticipating “a difficult budget season” 25 years ago, school Superintendent Jerry Marcus ordered a freeze on the current year’s spending, the Jan. 31, 1991, Press reported.
The move was designed to save money in the current year to offset “insurance increases, reductions in state aid, or other cuts” in the $28.3-million budget he requested for the next year.
More than 1,000 people stopped by a Desert Storm troop support rally Sunday morning in front of town hall, organized by Gloria Stearns.
“We may get a tactical military victory,” foreign policy specialist Paul Bracken told about 600 Ridgefield High School students about Desert Storm. But if a victory were achieved in an “unacceptable” manner — by nuclear weapons, for instance, or with wholesale slaughter of Iraqi civilians — it may “be a long-term defeat.” Dr. Bracken, a Ridgefielder, also warned the students: “War does strange things, and if you’re interested in fairness or justice, international politics and diplomacy is not what you want to study.”
The new Ridgefield police patrol cars were blue and gray instead of the black and white they’d been for nearly 20 years. “We were due for a change,” said Capt. Phil Mitchell.
Edsel Dodson, Ridgefield native and popular local contractor, died at the age of 43.
The Ridgefield Archives Committee had its first town hall exhibit, and the subject was, appropriately enough, the town hall. (The exhibits have continued ever since, now organized by the committee’s successor, the Ridgefield Historical Society.)
Patricia Fossi was granted an eight-year lease for the food concession at the Ridgefield Golf Course.
Katie O’Toole won three events and Nicola Crabtree two as the Tiger girls indoor track team won the FCIAC eastern division championship. The boys placed third.
In an interview, Edna-May Olson, the town’s agent for the aging, described her 34-day around-the-world trip that included a submarine ride around the Great Barrier Reef, and a balloon trip over Kenyan bush country.
Newcomers in town were Edward and Karen Reynolds after Mr. Reynolds was transferred to Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury.
Dr. Harvey Sadow retired as chairman of the board of Boehringer Ingelheim.
50 years ago
The town’s grand list of taxable property rose by 6.6% to $65.5 million, the Feb. 3, 1966, Press reported. Most of the increase was due to the completion of 172 new houses in the past year.
Mrs. Francis H. Gage, 74, died in a fire at her house at the corner of Route 7 and Topstone Road. Her old house had neither running water nor central heating, and she was using an electric space heater at the time of the blaze.
Israel Grossfeld met with U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to learn what might be done to help him find his missing son, Fred, last seen on Nov. 30 in Boston.
Lawrence W. Hoyt Jr., an insurance man who had been in the cavalry in World War I, was elected president of the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce, succeeding Edwin B. Allan.
Stan Engelhardt scored 32 points as the Tiger basketball squad toppled New Milford, giving Ridgefield a 12-2 record.
Hickory and Tweed at 114 Main Street was advertising ski bus trips every Saturday.—J.S.
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