Sandra L. Michaud, 83, died peacefully at home on October 1, 2025, surrounded by family including her cat, Maya.

She was born February 21, 1942, in Bridgeport, the first child of Mary Kirby. She became a big sister a few years later when her brother Carl was born.

Sandi met Raymond Michaud while they were both in school. The high school sweethearts were wed August 17, 1960, before he left to serve in the US Army Signal Corps in the Cold War. Sandi and Ray were married for 62 years, until his death in January 2022.

Sandi followed Ray to Germany, joining him immediately after he finished his training. Their first child, Liana, was born in Germany. The family returned to the United States in the early 1960s, buying their first home in Connecticut.

A son, Marc, followed 13 months after Liana was born. The Michauds moved from Bridgeport to Sandy Hook in the mid-1960s, into a home on Great Quarter Road. That house backed up to the Lower Paugussett State Forest and Sandi would regularly take her children into those woods to lead home science expeditions.

In 1978 the family moved to Black Walnut Drive in Newtown, where Sandi lived until her death. The property was designed to host large groups, and the Michauds regularly did that, hosting informal family parties and neighborhood gatherings their family and friends still remember and talk about.

Sandi returned to school in the 1970s, when she earned dual degrees in earth sciences and education, with a minor in geology, at Western Connecticut College in Danbury.

She had a love of science, and intuitively understood the workings of the environment.

Sandi was a seventh and eighth grade science and social studies teacher for a few years at St Rose School, where her passion for educating others was well served. She then became a full-time housewife and mother, before becoming an active conservationist and steward of our local environment.

Sandi’s passion for the environment came from a deep-seeded commitment to do the right thing. She continued a multi-generational family tradition and passion for contributing to the community.

There was never a challenge Sandi didn’t dig in and tackle. The brick walkway and pool deck that run behind the family home in Newtown is a perfect example of her tenacity. When her husband told her they couldn’t afford a brick walkway, Sandi went out and purchased bricks. She then hand set every one of the bricks that continue to be in place today, wearing a rubber mallet down to a nub while doing so.

She was the kindest, sweetest, most intractable human one would ever meet. She never fought, but she also did not back down from doing the right thing.

She led by example, and her children and grandchildren now live the same way: doing the right thing because it’s the best thing to do. She didn’t carry a stick and punish others. She made connections and inspired others to succeed.

Sandi didn’t belong only to her family, she also belonged to the community. Her work had a direct impact on the town she called home for 60 years.

Sandi authored the petition that was submitted in March 1989 to the federal government calling for the Pootatuck and Housatonic aquifers to be designated as sole sources. The federal government accepted the petition in March 1990. A state law was then passed to protect these irreplaceable resources.

Sandi also worked on much of the Town’s conservation regulations, focusing on water use and wetlands protection and the codes impacting their usage. Her work created some of the ordinances that continue to be followed by the Inland Wetlands Commission.

She served for eight years on Newtown Conservation Commission (then Newtown Conservation and Wetlands Agency), including five as its chair before stepping down in December 2003. She made a point of walking nearly every property the commission oversaw.

During her tenure, Sandi was also a member of the commission’s evaluation committee for the construction of Garner Correctional Institution.

In January 2004 Sandi received a citation from the Connecticut General Assembly noting in part her “commitment to the community and for [her] service. You have exemplified the spirit of Newtown citizenry.”

She contracted a tick-borne illness that led to neuropathy, which plagued her for the rest of her life.

Less than a week before she died, Sandi spent hours with one of Newtown’s Selectmen, who visited Sandi’s home to go through documents and memories related to the town’s conservation plans, regulations and ongoing mission.

Sandi didn’t call attention to herself. She preferred to do her work in the background. She did not expect accolades, but she was committed to making the lives of everyone around her, and future generations, better.

Sandi loved gardening. She transformed one acre of her home’s 2½-acre property into a small farm, often growing enough tomatoes and other foods to can and cook for her family year-round. Sandi’s father built shelves in the basement of her home, which she eagerly filled with home preserved vegetables. Her crops also included corn, squash, zucchini, potatoes, asparagus, beans, strawberries, peppers, cucumbers, carrots – Sandi made sure her family rarely needed to buy vegetables.

One year, after deciding she’d waited long enough for someone else to do so, the 98-pound Sandi once picked up a chainsaw and felled a tree in her front yard to make more room for her growing farm.

The outdoors was her playground. She loved to ski, hike, canoe, and swim. While recent months were spent nearly always indoors, Sandi missed being outdoors and watching nature. Her son and daughter-in-law installed a home security camera, nicknamed “Critter Cam,” which allowed Sandi to watch turkeys, bears, bobcats, coyotes and other animals as they made their way through the backyard.

She is survived by her brother, Carl Anderson, of upstate New York; a stepsister, Cynthia Anderson, also in update New York; her daughter and partner, Liana Shepherd and Jim Murray of New Milford; her son and daughter-in-law, Marc and Pammi Michaud of Newtown; granddaughter Nancy Michaud of Brooklyn, N.Y.; grandson Alex Michaud of Sandi Hook; step-granddaughters Cara Brundage of Asheville, N.C., and Veronica Brundage of Fairfield, Conn.; and her cat, Maya.

She was predeceased by her mother and her stepfather, Constant “Stubby” Anderson; and a stepbrother, Tommy Anderson.

Sandi’s inner light dimmed greatly following the death of Ray. She missed him deeply.

A private service will be conducted. Sandi will then be buried at St Rose Cemetery next to her late husband, who she mourned profoundly for the last three years of her life.

The family wishes to extend their thanks to the two Newtown Police Department officers and three Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps members who responded to their home on October 1. Their compassion and professionalism were an immense help to the family as they said their final Farewell to Sandi.

In lieu of flowers, Sandi’s family requests donations in her name to Newtown PD and/or Newtown Ambulance.

The Newtown Bee October 10, 2025