The Consummate Volunteer––

Gordon Williams Named Labor Day Parade Marshal

By Dottie Evans

Mention almost any recent Newtown community undertaking and you will find the name Gordon Williams deeply embedded –– always among the hardworking volunteers, often at the top of the organizational list as one who willingly accepts leadership.

In recent years, Mr Williams has served as president of the Lions Club and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Cyrenius H. Booth Library. Currently, he is president of the Newtown Historical Society.

“We could not have found a better candidate for 2004 Newtown Labor Day Parade Marshal,” said Kym Stendahl on July 1.

Ms Stendahl is a 14-year veteran of the Labor Day Parade Committee and serves as chairperson. Others on the 2004 committee are Brian Amey, Terri Bell, Steve Bigham, Laurel Butler, Annemarie DeWeese, Nancy Kotch, and Helen Sefari.

Philip Kotch, Gordon’s good friend, was in total agreement with their choice.

“In my mind, he is the ideal for our community. Library and Lions come to mind first, but I know he’s been involved in so many groups. He’s a good parent and a good husband. We’ve been friends since retirement, and we have done a lot together,” said Dr Kotch.

Among their most recent pursuits was hiking the entire 55 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut.

“We did it with two cars in five-mile segments,” Dr Kotch said.

The out-of-doors and blazing trails have been consistent themes for Gordon Williams. He was co-chairman with Tammy Marks on the Lions project begun by Ms Marks, the Treadwell Park children’s playground building project. He also led the Lions in the club’s ongoing development of the Orchard Hill Nature Center.

Most recently, he has been putting in some serious hours working on Al’s Trail, the nine-mile Newtown greenway slated for completion in spring 2005. Granted that as a past Lions president, he is expected to show the flag for a project that community service group embraces. But he’s one of the first to show up Saturday mornings with work gloves and loppers, ready to go.

 

A Montana Boy Who  Came East

Gordon Williams’ love of the outdoors began out west in Montana, where he grew up surrounded by wide-open spaces and horizon to horizon views.

“Actually, I didn’t live out on a ranch or anything. We were in Billings, a big city, and I went to a high school with 368 in my graduating class. But something about my life in Montana in those days has stayed with me,” he said.

He earned his undergraduate degree majoring in English and American history at the University of Denver.

In his early years as the “only grandchild,” he found himself spending a good deal of quality time with both sets of grandparents.

“My grandparents were almost real pioneers –– they were in the second big wave that went west. Grampa Sandy was a Mason and a Shriner. Gramma Carrie was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star and he set a great example for me,” Gordon said.

[The Order of the Eastern Star is an adoptive rite of Freemasonry with teachings based on the Bible. Its objectives are both charitable and benevolent.]

“The older I get, the more important I feel it is to be a part of a fraternity of individuals who dedicate themselves to service. I like helping people work together,” he added.

Gordon met his wife, Lina, in Yellowstone Park, Wyo., the fifth summer he spent working there. After a long distance romance, he persuaded her to come to Anaheim, Calif., where he had his first teaching job, and the couple married. They soon moved east to Connecticut, and he began what would become a 39-year teaching career with the Trumbull School System.

The couple moved to Newtown in 1966 and at first lived on 103 South Main Street where Frank Hufner’s house and nursery stand used to be. Then they built a home on Baldwin Road. Buying their historic home in 1990 at 32 Main Street was a significant milestone, since by then Gordon had grown to love old houses.

“I’d been selling real estate part time to help pay college tuitions, and when I started showing people the old homes, I realized how much charm they had. I decided big isn’t always better,” he said.

His teaching career in Trumbull began at the elementary level, but he soon moved to middle school and then high school, teaching history and humanities. He was named Trumbull’s Teacher of the Year in 1986.

One of his most prized achievements was receiving the Milken Family Foundation Educators Award of $25,000, “something you don’t apply for,” he explained. “It just came totally out of the blue.” He was selected along with six other Connecticut teachers and administrators by the state Department of Education.

“As the years went by, I really got into learning and took a lot of classes on the side in American history,” he said, mentioning that he earned a second bachelor of arts degree and then a master’s degree in that subject.

 

His Goal Is To Serve

In his early years as a Newtown resident, Gordon was a member of the Jaycees, but he had to leave that organization after turning 35 because, “in those days they were really strict about that rule.”

He and Lina joined the Newtown Congregational Church, and he soon found himself on the Nunnawauk Meadows Board of Directors for its original building project. In 1996–98 he chaired the renovation committee for the Booth Library renovation and addition.

“The library committee was really a triumvirate. Bill Lavery worked with the contractors, Kathy Geckle was in charge of interior decorating, and I tried to keep the board motivated and moving forward,” he said.

Building the handicapped accessible playgrounds at Treadwell Park in the late 1990s was one of his favorite memories.

“The Lions were looking around for a major project, and Tammy Marks came to us with this idea of a children’s playground. We realized that [Parks and Recreation Director] Barbara Kasbarian couldn’t do it all by stuffing envelopes into mailboxes. We connected, and after a lot of fundraising and five terrific weekends, the playground was built.”

Gordon retired from teaching in 1999, one year short of his 40th anniversary year, having decided after a brush with prostate cancer that it was time to leave the classroom.

The town of Newtown was the immediate beneficiary of that decision, since he has become even more involved in town projects and organizations since his retirement. The Tercentennial Commission is one of the latest groups he was asked to join.

When asked how he felt about being named Parade Marshal, Gordon admitted he was “stunned to say the least” at being chosen.

“When I think of all the wonderful people in this town, I am very honored,” he said.

Gordon and Lina Williams have three grown children, Christopher, Cara, and Emily, who live in Lynchburg, Va., Redondo Beach, Calif., and Exeter, N.H., respectively, but the family dog, Molly, is still “at home.” The three of them live at 32 Main Street, a historic Newtown home dating back to the middle of the 18th Century once known as The Baldwin Inn.

Three town clerks named Caleb Baldwin have lived in that house, as did Newtown’s first postmaster in 1800. The Williams have lived there since 1990, and they will play their part as another bit of local history takes place there this coming Labor Day.

Perhaps Gordon’s beloved “part water dog, part mutt” Molly will be watching from the front yard as her master rides down Main Street at the head of Newtown’s 43rd Labor Day Parade.

Cost of the Labor Day Parade is approximately $18,000. To make a parade donation, use the coupon in The Bee or simply send a check to Labor Day Parade, c/o Fleet Bank, 6 Queen Street, Newtown CT 06470