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Walter Eugene Reardon
Walter Eugene Reardon, 94, of Stonington CT died on 25 October 2003 at Mary Elizabeth Nursing Center in Mystic. The son of Michael Joseph and Elizabeth (Farley) Reardon, he was born in Pawcatuck on 11 September 1910. He married Ruth Monjo at St Michael’s Rectory in Pawcatuck on 26 June 1936. Reardon graduated from West Broad Street School in Pawcatuck in 1925, Stonington High School in 1929, and the Wentworth Institute in Boston in 1932.
Reardon worked as a major appliance salesman for the Narragansett Electric Company in Westerly RI for forty years, retiring in 1973. During WW II he worked on the guard force at Hamilton Standard Propellers in Pawcatuck and as an inspector at C.B. Cottrell’s and Sons in Pawcatuck.
A member of the Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company of the Stonington Borough Fire Department and a lifetime member of the Stonington Borough Fire Police, Reardon served as a dispatcher for the Fire Police and secretary-treasurer of the Pioneers. He also served as president of the Board of Governors of the Stonington Community Center, and directed the annual fund raising campaigns of the local branches of the American Cancer Society and the Visiting Nurse Association for many years.
Reardon was a communicant of St Mary Church in Stonington Borough, where he served on the Parish Advisory Council and the Steering Committee of the Building Fund Campaign, and was a Parish Trustee for many years. He served as an altar boy in his boyhood at St Michael’s in Pawcatuck, and often served as a substitute altar boy at weekday masses at St. Mary. He was proud of remembering all the responses in the liturgy into extreme old age.
In addition to his wife, Reardon is survived by a daughter Penna North of Holmdel NJ and a son Nicholas of Stonington, a sister Helen Philips of Pawcatuck, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
He was predeceased by three brothers, Edward, Joseph, and John Francis, and a sister Elizabeth.
A funeral mass was held at St Patrick's Church in Mystic, and burial was at St. Mary’s Cemetery
in Stonington.
Contributions in Mr Reardon’s memory may be made to the Stonington Visiting Nurse Association, 403 North Frontage Road, Waterford, CT 06385.
Ruth Lima
Ruth Lillian Lima, 89, of Stonington, died Thursday 16 October 2003, at The Westerly Hospital.
Born on 10 December 1913 in Stonington, she was the daughter of Fred D and Phoebe E Holdredge Clark.
A lifelong resident of this area, Mrs Lima attended local schools. She married James Foley with whom she had three children. Following his death, she married Joaquim Lima, with whom she had two children. He also predeceased her.
An avid Boston Red Sox fan, Mrs Lima maintained a famous flower garden in the Borough, which brought her much pleasure and at which many visitors would stop and take pictures of her prized flowerbeds. She was a member of St Mary Church, Stonington.
Mrs Lima is survived by: two sons, James R Foley, of Orlando FL and Jack Lima, of Essex CT; three daughters, Ruth Underhill, of Ledyard, Janet Foley, of Harrisonburg VA, and Rose Neff, of Pawcatuck; 16 grandchildren; 27 great-grandchildren; and a great-great-grandchild. She was predeceased by all of her brothers and sisters, Fred Clark, Edith Crandall, Helen Barber, Pauline Nichols, Esther Dubber, Lillian Pollard, and her own twin brother, Robert Clark.
A funeral mass was celebrated at St. Mary Church, Stonington, on Monday, 30 October 2003. Burial took place in St Mary Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, her family suggests memorial contributions be made in her memory to the Southern New England Fishermen's and Lobstermen's Assocation, PO Box 90, Stonington CT 06378.
John Ackley
John Ackley, 94, of North Road, Groton, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on 16 October 2003.
Born on 21 Augusut 1909 in the old Winthrop House on Bluff Point in Groton, Mr Ackley was the son of John and Mabel Gottschalk Ackley. He married Alice Daniels in Groton on 28 August 1929; she died on 1 June 1994.
John and his brother Ted started the Ackley Brothers Potato business in 1935 and ran it for 25 years. During that time they employed many of Groton's young men when there were no other jobs available.
Some of the potato fields once farmed by the family are now occupied by Brookside Village, Claude Chester School, Cutler Middle School, Indian Field Estates, and Poquonnock Plains Park. They also had fields in Ledyard, Bluff Point, Waterford, Stonington and Mystic.
John and Ted and their sons, John Ackley Jr. and Ted Ackley Jr., built High Rock Mobile Home Park and Birch Plain Creek Golf Course. He and Ted worked together on numerous local developments until Ted's death in 1989.
Mr Ackley was a life-member of the Poquonnock Bridge Fire Department.
John is survived by six children, John Ackley Jr, Katherine Hespeler, Beverly Cook, Marion Lamb, Calvin Ackley, and Susan Schmidtknecht; and a sister, Edith Sullivan; 19 grandchildren; and 45 great-grandchildren.
John was predeceased by his wife, Alice; his brothers, Ted and Ralph; his sister, Winney; and two grandchildren, Allyn Lamb, Jr. and Dina Umryz.
A funeral service on Monday 20 October 2003 at the Poquonnock Bridge Baptist Church, South Road, Groton. Interment was in Smith Lake Cemetery.
Donations in his memory may be directed to a charity of the donor's choice.
Caroline S. LaCour
(the news of Mrs LaCour's death was received recently)
Caroline LaCour of Stonington died Friday morning, 18 July 2003, at Nutmeg Pavilion, New London, from the long-term effects of Alzheimer’s disease.
Born Caroline Auguste Schreiber in Hoboken, New Jersey, on 4 January 1915, she was the daughter of the late George G. Schreiber and Auguste Vintschger Schreiber.
Mrs LaCour attended Hoboken Academy, Dana Hall and Pine Manor Junior College.
A long-time resident of Saddle River, New Jersey, she moved to Stonington in 1970. She was a member of Calvary Episcopal Church, where over the years she served on the vestry and the altar guild, was President of the Episcopal Church Women, and helped run the Lenten lunches. She was also a member of the Wadawanuck Club. She worked as a volunteer for Planned Parenthood and was active in animal welfare causes.
With a life long love of travel she was proud to have visited most of the continents of the world. She had a winter home (shared with her brother) in St Lucia, BWI and a summer home in Dark Harbor, Maine.
Known as “Oma” to her grandchildren, she is survived by her twin daughters, Carol Souter of Stonington Borough and England, and Betsy Carr of Stonington, and her two sons, Tony Miller of Van Nuys CA and Fred Miller of Palo Alto CA; her brother, George Schreiber of Saddle River, NJ; six grandchildren, Tod Cochran of Little Rock, AR, Bill Cochran of Dallas, TX, Revell Carr of Santa Barbara, CA, Geordie Carr of Boulder, CO, Spencer Miller and Grace Miller of Van Nuys, CA and one great granddaughter Cally Cochran of Little Rock, AR.
Her husband Charles LaCour predeceased her in 1986.
A memorial service was held at Calvary Church, Stonington Borough, on 2 August 2003. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to: Guidedogs for the Blind, Box 151200, San Rafael, CA 94915-1200
Philip Stapp
The late Philip Stapp, center with cap, at the 2003 Blessing of the Fleet Parade
Philip Stapp, 95, of East Grand Street, Stonington Borough, died on Thursday 2 October 2003 after a brief illness.
Throughout his life Mr Stapp was inspired by music and art. As a young man he taught at the Greenwich Country Day School, where one of his students was a future president of the United States, George H W Bush. After a period overseas, Mr Stapp worked at Bennington College with choreographer and dancer Martha Graham, where he designed sets, one of which, for "Every Soul is a Circus", is still in use.
Called “one of the most original and creative animators ever to work in educational films", Mr Stapp came to animation in 1946 at Julian Bryan's International Film Foundation where he made his first file, "Boundary Lines," with music by Gene Forrell, which received critical acclaim. Backed by Alfred Barr of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Ms Graham, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and subsequently invited to join the Marshall Plan to train animators in the film unit's animation studio in Paris.
In 1953, Mr Stapp contributed animation to the John Halas/Joy Batchelor award winning version of George Orwell's Animal Farm. In 1956, he returned to the US where, over the decades, Stapp contributed finely crafted elements to many films in the International Film Foundation catalogue that set the standard for creativity in animating the educational film.
For the past 20 years Stapp designed scrolls using geometrical and musical structures in his studio in Stonington.
He is survived by his partner of 48 years John Bass, a sister, Martha List and several nieces and nephews.
Frances Ainsworth
Frances J. Ainsworth, 89, of Island Road, Stonington, died Tuesday, 30 September 2003, at Mariner Health at Pendleton, where she had been a patient for a short time.
Born in Provincetown MA on 6 June 1914, she was the daughter of Antone and Frances Oliver Pereira. On 28 September1943 she married John Matthew Ainsworth in New Haven CT. They made their home in this area in 1946, moving here from Waltham MA. He predeceased her in October of 1954.
Mrs Ainsworth was a member of the Gold Star Mothers, a Past President of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, and a member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society. She was also active in the Pawcatuck Golden Agers Club.
She is survived by a son, Joseph “Skip” Babin, and his wife, Gloria, of Stonington; five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
She was also predeceased by a son, John “Tank” Ainsworth Jr on 2 July 1967 while he was serving in Vietnam; and by 12 brothers and sisters.
A funeral mass was celebrated at St. Mary Church in Stonington Borough on Friday 3 October 2003, followed by interment in St. Mary Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions may be made in Mrs Ainsworth's memory to Stonington Ambulance Corps, PO Box 424, Stonington, CT 06378 or to the VNA of Southeastern CT, 403 North Frontage Road, Waterford, CT 06385.
Richard Haders
Richard G. Haders of Broad Street, Stonington Borough, died Sunday 28 September 2003, after a short illness, of complications from heart disease.
He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 4 December 1924. He served in the Army in the 82nd Airborne Cavalry as a paratrooper in North Africa and Italy. A well-known and respected executive in the women's sports apparel business, he ended a 40-year career as president of the Ominiform Division of John Meyer of Norwich.
A longtime resident of Stonington, Mr Haders worked with the Caldwell Realty Group of Stonington, was past president of The Stonington Village Improvement Association, a founding member of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club and a devoted member of the Regnum Christi, a lay apostolate affiliated with the Legionaries of Christ.
His first wife, Phyllis Whittkamper Haders, died in 1993. They were married for 49 years.
Mr Haders is survived by his wife, Mary Elliott Haders, and two children, Stephan and Mary Jill Haders; his daughter-in-law, Christine Baker Haders; his grandsons, Andrew and Max Haders; his sister and brother, Ruth Harden and James Haders; and other nieces and nephews.
The family will greet relatives and friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at The Dinoto Funeral Home, 17 Pearl Street, Historic downtown Mystic. A Funeral Mass was celebrated on Wednesday 1 October 2003 at St Mary Church, Stonington Borough.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be sent to the Legionaries of Christ 33 Rossotto Drive, Hamden CT 06514 or to the Hospice of Southeastern CT, 179 Gallivan Lane, Uncasville CT 06382
