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Veronica Dubs, longtime resident
Veronica R. “Ronnie” Dubs, a longtime Ridgefielder, passed away Tuesday, July 6, 2004, in Norwalk. She was the widow of American Airlines captain William C. Dubs, who passed away in 1987.
Ronnie and Bill Dubs, who were married for 44 years, moved to Ridgefield in 1964. They became active members of St. Stephen’s Church and belonged to the Waccabac Country Club.
Her daughter Donna described her mother. “During her long and happy marriage, she enjoyed cross-country trips with her family, traveling all over the world with Dad, playing golf and tennis with friends, and raising my brother William Scott and me. Mom also enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren in Maine and Connecticut, walking, trips to Maine and to the ocean, oil painting, collecting teddy bears, flower gardening, and taking photos of animals. Mom is happy now in the loving arms of her husband Bill and her son William Scott. We mourn her passing, but rejoice in the happiness she brought to each of our lives.”
Mrs. Dubs is survived by her daughter Donna and Donna’s husband Keith Fischer of Belgrade, Maine; grandson Christopher Dubs of Norwalk, granddaughters Darcey Fischer of Waterville, Maine, and Katherine Fischer and Emma Fischer of Belgrade, Maine; sister-in-law, Geneva Fitschen and niece Lois Abbott of Ellicott City, Md.; niece Bobbie Sanders of San Jose, Calif.; Christopher’s mother, Elizabeth Dubs of Norwalk; Christopher’s step-mom, Tianna Conte-Dubs of New Rochelle, New York; and her devoted nurse, Willa Mae Morgan of New Rochelle, N.Y.
Her son, William Scott Dubs, passed away in 1997.
Memorial services took place Saturday, July 10, at Saint Stephen’s Church.
Contributions in her memory may be made to St. Stephens Church, 351 Main Street, Ridgefield CT 06877.
Rosetta Dwyer, 80, teacher, lawyer
Rosetta G. Dwyer of 61 Sleepy Hollow Road, who had careers both in education and the law, died on Friday morning, Oct. 15, 2004, at Norwalk Hospital. She was 80 years old. Her husband, John Patrick Dwyer, died May 4 of this year.
A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mrs. Dwyer was born on Dec. 3, 1923, a daughter of the late Daniel and Mary Elizabeth Harkin Gillen. She grew up in Brooklyn where she attended Bishop McDonald High School, and she graduated from Hunter College.
Mrs. Dwyer started out as a homemaker, and then became a teacher. She taught English at Maxwell Vocational High School in East New York, and later Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, from 1966 to 1986.
While teaching full time, she attended St. John’s University School of Law, where she graduated in 1973. That year, Mrs. Dwyer opened a law office, specializing in admiralty law, and she continued to teach while maintaining a private practice in New York and later White Plains. She was admitted to practice before federal and New York State courts.
She retired from the law in 1995.
The Dwyers bought a summer place in Ridgefield in 1950, and were among the first owners of a home at Eight Lakes Estates. They continued to live in Hollis, Long Island, until moving to Ridgefield full time in 1977.
Although she had two professional careers, Mrs. Dwyer enjoyed such homemaking skills as knitting and crocheting, and also played the piano. She was an avid reader and each month donated many of the new books she read to the Ridgefield Library.
She also kept on top of town affairs, frequently writing letters to The Press, particularly on education. In one 1989 letter, Mrs. Dwyer complained that sports had become too dominant in the lives of young people. “When I was teaching and had a senior class write compositions, required by the college counselor, on what they expected to do in their lives, 90% of the students wrote that they expected to try out for a career in the athletic field,” she said. “I found that completely unrealistic and I realized that our students are living in a fantasy world ready made for them by the nation’s obsession with sports.”
Mrs. Dwyer was a member of St. Mary's Church.
Mrs. Dwyer is survived by two sons, John P. Dwyer Jr. and his wife Victoria of Greenwich and Daniel A. Dwyer of Ridgefield; a daughter, Maryanne Dwyer of Ridgefield; and two sisters, Eileen Sweeney of Oceanside, N.Y., and Sheila Peralta of Flushing, N.Y.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Wednesday in St. Mary's Church
Interment was in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven, Hawthorne, N.Y.
Contributions in her memory may be made to the Dorothy Day Hospitality House, 11 Spring Street, Danbury, CT 06810.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
Marvin Fleischman, 68, physicist
Marvin Fleischman of Ridgefield, a physicist, died on Friday, Sept. 24, 2004, at Danbury Hospital. He was 68 years old.
Mr. Fleischman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Jan. 18, 1936, son of the late Louis and Sarah Schloss Fleischman. He attended New York schools and graduated from Queens College.
Mr. Fleischman moved here with his parents from Flushing, N.Y., in 1972. He was a self-employed physicist and had earlier worked for Vectron Laboratories in Norwalk.
A ham radio operator, he was licensed as N1AWJ, and was a member of American Radio Relay League of Newington, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the Stamford Radio Amateur Radio Association. He also belonged to the American Legion Drum Corps of Greenwich.
Mr. Fleischman is survived by two nephews, Jack G. Fleischman of Groton, Mass., and Stephen Fleischman of Plano, Texas; a cousin, Esther Krutchick; and his close friends, Ernest Laug and Jeannine Cariri.
Services took place Sunday at the Kane Funeral Home.
Interment was in Ridgebury Cemetery.
John D. Foulds, 78, Pepsi executive
John Derek Foulds of Ridgefield, a former executive with the Pepsi-Cola Company, died on Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004, at Danbury Hospital. He was 78 years old and husband of Rinette Alexandrine Foulds.
Mr. Foulds was born in Peterborough, England, on Jan. 19, 1926, the son of Arthur and Elsie Foulds. He was educated in Peterborough and served in the British Navy during the Second World War.
In 1950, after completing an engineering apprenticeship at the Peterbrotherhood company, Mr. Foulds was employed by the Pepsi-Cola Bottler in New South Wales, Australia. In 1953 he joined Pepsi-Cola International, responsible for opening new bottling plants in Far East Asia. He and his family lived in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, and the Philippines.
In 1973 Mr. Foulds was transferred to the PepsiCo World Headquarters in Purchase, N.Y., where he was the director of engineering for Pepsi-Cola International. He retired in 1990 after serving 40 years with the company.
Mr. Foulds and his wife moved to Ridgefield in 1973. He was active in the Mens Club and enjoyed playing golf with his friends. He also loved his house and garden, spending countless hours enjoying them.
“John was also known to tell a good joke or two and was the life of a party,” his family said.
Besides his wife of 54 years, Mr. Foulds is survived by two sons, Peter and his wife Kate of Louisville, Ky., and David and his wife Casey of Brookfield; and five grandchildren, Jonathan, Hale, Michael, Austin and Brittany.
A private memorial service for family and friends will be held on Saturday, Oct. 23.
In his memory, contributions may be made to the Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut Inc. 405 Main Street, Danbury, CT 06810.
Gwen Franco, 76, area restaurateur
Gwendolyne R. “Gwen” Franco of Wilton, a retired restaurateur and antiques dealer who had lived in Ridgefield for many years, died on Friday, Sept. 3, 2004, at Norwalk Hospital. She was 76 years old and the widow of Albert G. Franco.
A native of Canada, Mrs. Franco was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, on Aug. 6, 1929, a daughter of the late Samuel and Stella Bateman McBride. She grew up in Toronto, and on a trip to New York City, she met her future husband while walking in a park in White Plains, N.Y. The couple was married in 1945.
Mrs. Franco got her start as a restaurateur while living in Michigan. “My first experimentation with foods came after I was married,” she told an interviewer in 1983. “After my interest in food was awakened, I discovered I really had a talent for it, although I am not a cookbook person. I began helping out with food in a restaurant in northern Michigan where we were living at the time.”
Her first restaurant was opened in Nyack, N.Y. In 1975, Mrs. Franco came to Ridgefield and opened the Strawberry Place Restaurant on Route 7. There she also operated an antiques shop, called Stonehouse Antiques. She specialized in Americana and made frequent appearances at antiques shows in the region.
Encouraged by her success in Ridgefield, she and a partner opened a larger restaurant in Naples, Fla., called Strawberry Place II and seating 150. In the early 1980s, she returned north and for a while, operated the restaurant at the Hammond Museum in North Salem, N.Y.
Her last establishment before her retirement was the Schoolhouse Café at June Havoc’s Cannon Crossing in Wilton.
Over the years, Mrs. Franco also did a great deal of catering, including for such notables as Paul Newman and Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr., and for IBM facilities and events.
“Mrs. Franco enjoyed a good political debate especially with her son-in-law as well as gardening, travel and exhibiting her exemplary culinary skills but most of all, enjoyed her family,” her family said.
Mrs. Franco is survived by three daughters: Mary Ann Lenahan of Redding, Linda Franco of Ridgefield, and Kimberly Reynolds of Patterson, N.Y.; a brother, Clayton McBride of Los Angeles, Calif; a sister, Margaret Kantola of Charlevoix, Mich.; four grandchildren, all formerly of Ridgefield, Kelly Stackpole and her husband Gregory of Redding, Craig Lenahan and his wife Melissa of South Salem, N.Y., Megan Robertson and husband Christopher of Monroe, and Rachael Reynolds of Patterson, N.Y.; and three great-grandchildren (all born in the last 11 months who “were really special to their great-grandmother,” the family said), Connor James Stackpole of Redding, Katherine Rogers Lenahan of South Salem, and Olivia Ryan Robertson of Monroe; and many nieces and nephews.
Mr. Franco died in 1999. A brother, Vernon McBride, also died before her.
A memorial service will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 4 at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Cantitoe Road, Bedford Village, N.Y.
There will be no calling hours.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Nursing and Home Care Association of Wilton, PO Box 489, Wilton 06897. The family would like to “acknowledge and thank most especially Susan Germain of the Wilton Nursing & Home Care and the entire staff of caregivers for their care, compassion and love to Gwendolyne.”
The Kane Funeral Home in Ridgefield is in charge of arrangements.
Frederick Glissmann, 68, artisan
Frederick G. Glissmann of Ridgefield, an artisan, historian and outdoorsman who had lived in Ridgefield nearly 50 years died at his home on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004. He was 68 years old and the husband of Dorothy Grosso Connors Glissmann
Mr. Glissman was born in New York City on Nov. 14, 1935, a son of Frederick C. and Helen Lang Glissmann. He was raised in New York, attended New York schools and came to Ridgefield from Washington Heights, N.Y., in 1955 when his parents moved here.
Mr. Glissmann joined Schlumberger-Doll Research Center here in 1960 as a model maker and retired in 1995.
An amateur historian, Mr. Glissmann was well known for his involvement in the Fifth Connecticut Regiment, which he help establish in the 1970s and which still reenacts battles of the Revolutionary War. He was active in planning the town’s celebration of the national Bicentennial in 1976 and a year later, in the programs marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Ridgefield. That year, he managed the production of a now-famous medal that commemorated Benedict Arnold’s heroism in the Battle of Ridgefield. A reproduction of the medal was also produced for the 225th anniversary of the battle in 2002.
In his early years, Mr. Glissmann was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed mountain hiking and snow shoeing as well as outdoor photography. He had belonged to the Appalachian Mountain Club. He also enjoyed gardening, traveling, and was an artisan.
In 1990, Mr. Glissmann volunteered his skills as an artisan to restore the gold eagle that has stood for many years over the entrance to the town hall.
He was a member and treasurer of the Danbury Men’s Club, a member of the Ridgefield Men’s Club and belonged to the Benedictine Grange of West Redding.
Besides his wife, Mr. Glissmann is survived by a son, Carl J. Glissmann of Rye, N.Y.; a daughter, Susan M. Glissmann of Ridgefield; three stepsons, Christopher Connors and his wife Cynthia of San Francisco, Calif., Brian Connors of Bethel, and Mathew Connors of Denver, Colo.
He also leaves his dog, Ko-Ko.
The family will receive friends on Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Kane Funeral Home, 25 Catoonah Street, followed by a Vigil Service at 8 p.m..
Memorials in his memory may be made to the Connecticut Quest for Peace, 336 Ridgebury Road, Ridgefield, CT 06877.
Frank Grant, 79, retired detective
Frank R. Grant of Ridgefield, a retired Stamford police detective, died at his home Saturday, Sept. 18, 2004 He was 79 years old and the husband of Joan Gilbert Grant.
Mr. Grant was born in Stamford on April 29, 1925, a son of the late Raymond and Sophia Dongviskis Grant. He attended Stamford schools and graduated from Stamford High School.
During World War II, Mr. Grant served in the U.S. Navy as a motor machinist’s mate second class and was awarded the American Theatre Medal, Asiatic Pacific Medal and Victory Medal.
In 1953, he joined the Stamford Police Department and retired in 1978 as a member of its Detective Bureau.
A resident of Ridgefield for the past 35 years, Mr. Grant was a third degree member of St. Augustine Council #41, Knights of Columbus of Stamford, and a member of the Stamford Police Association. He attended St. Elizabeth Seton Church here.
He was an avid fan of the New York Yankees, New York Giants and the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Besides his wife of 47 years, Mr. Grant is survived by a son Frank R. Grant, Jr. of Ridgefield; a brother, retired Greenwich Police Chief Raymond Grant of Old Greenwich; and several nieces and nephews survive.
A sister, Doris Considine, wife of former Stamford Police Chief John T. Considine, died before him.
The Rev. David Franklin, parochial vicar, celebrated a Mass of Christian Burial on Wednesday in St. Elizabeth Seton Church.
Burial will take place in Ridgebury Cemetery at the convenience of the family.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 300 Research Parkway, Meriden, CT 06450 or to the American Heart Association, 5 Brookside Drive, Wallingford, CT 06492
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
John Charles Grasso, 47, cabinetmaker, sportsman
John Charles Grasso, 47, of Bethel died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest April 15, 2004 at Bridgeport Hospital. Mr. Grasso was born in Greenwich on Oct. 4, 1956, son of Jack and Carol Grasso of Ridgefield. He was a graduate of Ridgefield High School, Class of 1975.
Besides his parents, he is survived by his life partner, Bonnie Yake; his three children, Alyssa, Scott and Joey Grasso, all of California; his five brothers, Greg of Pocatello, Idaho; Rob of Ridgefield, Mickey of Bethel, Steven of New York City, and David of Idaho Falls, Idaho; his two sisters, Missy Galante and Kate Bellagamba, both of Newtown; and by 26 nieces and nephews.
John was a custom cabinetmaker and wood craftsman. His work graced many homes throughout Connecticut. He was an avid competitor in the shooting sports and was nationally ranked. He enjoyed softball, traveling, skiing, trail biking, hiking and camping.
“John will be remembered as a patient, giving, and respected individual, a mentor, a sweet father, son and brother. John made a friend wherever he went. He touched many lives and will be forever missed,” the family said.
A memorial service took place April 21 at The Ridgefield Playhouse. Contributions may be sent to The John Grasso Memorial Fund, to benefit his partner and children, in care of Jeremiah Miller, P.O. Box 937, New Canaan, 06840.
