Newtown is mourning the loss this week of a friend to many and one of the town's greatest advocates for open space preservation.

Albert Goodrich, formerly of Boggs Hill Road, died early Monday, January 19, after a brief illness. He was 83 years old, and had lived in Newtown for 43 years. (See obituary on Page 3).

Al drew his first map as a Boy Scout growing up in Erie, Penn., and had been involved in map making and engineering ever since.

A career engineer, he retired in 1983. It was then that he began spending time exploring trails throughout Northwest Connecticut. He has walked through Newtown's forests, followed streams, mapped trails, blazed new trails, and rediscovered and mapped the network of abandoned railroad trails that crisscrosses the town.

Back in 1988, Mr Goodrich, a retired mechanical engineer and then-director of Newtown Forest Association, began walking the 23 open space properties that the association possessed at the time. "I thought that I needed to get to know the properties in Newtown. After I saw every one of them, I wanted to show them to other people," he said.

It was then that he and his close friend Mary Mitchell began creating the Newtown Trails books. The pocket-sized guidebooks are designed to assist people wishing to take an adventure right here in Newtown. They feature fold-out maps, historical commentary, illustrations, and a few photographs of features that hikers might encounter. The original Newtown Trails book was published in 1991, and several updated versions have since been released. In 1997, a Rail Trails section was included. Proceeds from the book benefit the Friends of the Booth Library.

Mr Goodrich and Mrs Mitchell are also the co-authors of the 1996 photographic book Touring Newtown's Past published by the Newtown Historical Society, of which he was a longtime member.

When asked once how much time he figured the two of them had devoted to walking and marking trails, taking pictures, and writing their books, Mr Goodrich responded, "I enjoy it. It would spoil it to keep track of the time."

Mr Goodrich also mapped 15 trails for the Weantinoge Walk Book published in 1997 by Weantinoge Heritage, a New Milford-based land trust that has saved more than 4,000 acres in 13 area towns.

In 1999, Mr Goodrich was recognized by Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection with The Green Circle Environmental Award for dedicating several hundred hours to mapping and color-coding the hiking trails at nearby Huntington State Park. Over the course of three months that year, Mr Goodrich single-handedly placed three-inch metallic squares at regular intervals along the horse and bike paths and hiking trails within the park.

In November 2000, aided by his sons David and Gary Goodrich, and park superintendent Andy Sullivan, Mr Goodrich built a 24-foot bridge just beyond the Newtown border providing access to Huntington State Park's blue perimeter trail. The bridge enabled Newtown residents to enter the park from within town borders without having to drive to the park entrance in Redding.

Mr Goodrich and Mrs Mitchell were named Parade Marshals for Newtown's 40th Annual Labor Day Parade in 2001, as the two friends blazed another kind of trail together riding down Main Street on a hot and sunny September morning. Parade organizers said their selection "was only natural" when considering the parade's theme: "Let's Celebrate Newtown's Natural Beauty."

Most recently, Newtown's Ad Hoc Open Space Committee decided, at the suggestion of committee member Pat Barkman, to name an eight-mile greenway path — Al's Trail — in honor of Mr Goodrich. He had served on the town's first greenway committee alongside chairman Judy Holmes when the two of them began brainstorming a continuous hiking trail through town. The route they conceived was very similar to what is being blazed today.

"Al spent ten years working on this trail. It is still not complete," Ms Barkman said Monday after hearing of his death.

"He was a wonderful gentleman, a brilliant thinker, a hard worker, and a dear friend."