Norfolk Couple Practices Law and Conservation Together

By Bob Bumcrot

Molly Ackerly and Mike Sconyers have been partners in life and in law for many years

In 1980, Mary (Molly) Ackerly was assigned by Shipman & Goodwin, her Hartford law firm, to take a young job applicant named
J. Michael Sconyers to lunch. They liked each other from the start, began dating in 1986 and got married on January 2, 1988,
thereby avoiding the 1987 marriage tax penalty. "My wife's a tax lawyer," explained Sconyers.
Sconyers, a former Marine pilot, was soon assigned to Shipman & Goodwin's Lakeville office with fellow Marine retirees Frank
Dooley  and Stuyvie Bearns. "You know the only difference between the Boy Scouts and the Marines?" he joked. "The Boy
Scouts have adult leadership."  As a Marine, for a year beginning in October, 1967 Sconyers flew close air support missions in
"Hueys," slang for the UH1-E helicopters popularized by many Vietnam movies. He logged 980 "red ink" hours of combat flying,
took five rounds of direct hits, one air burst and one lightning strike and was awarded 38 Strike Flight Air Medals.
The son of a military officer, Sconyers spent his first five years in occupied Germany. He grew up in Virginia except for "four
wonderful years," attending 5th, through 7th grade in Japan.
Although born in southern Connecticut, Ackerly's Norfolk roots are deeper. As a child she summered at the family cabin on
Doolittle Lake. Long before, her mother went to a summer camp said to have been run by Alfredo Guido Taylor's maiden aunts.
As a child, Ackerly learned to ride horses from her father, who had been a cavalry officer in World War II. She resumed riding
about ten years ago, inspiring Sconyers to take up the sport as well. They can be seen riding at Rustling Wind Stables on
Canaan Mountain nearly every Saturday.
When Ackerly was campaigning, by bicycle, for Norfolk Judge of Probate, some long-term residents seemed doubtful about the
length of  her residence in Norfolk. She easily dispelled these doubts. One old-timer was heard to say, "Why I caddied for her
grandfather when I was a kid!"   She served as Judge of Probate from 1987 to 1995. She is a past president of the Norfolk
Library Board of Trustees and currently sits on the board of the Foundation for Norfolk Living.
By 1987, six months after moving into the second floor of what is now Turi Rostad's studio on Norfolk’s Village Green, Sconyers
was asked by Kevin O'Connor to serve as an alternate on the Board of Finance. He has been on the Board ever since, for many
years as its chairman. "We're bean counters," he said. "But it's fun making the town run. There is a lot of breadth and depth of
experience on the Board." Recently he and other members of the Board of Finance played an important role in preparing for the
bond issue to finance the Botelle School windows project and the emergency services building.
In 1991 Ackerly started her own firm, Ackerly & Brown, in Litchfield. For two years, Connecticut Magazine's "Super Lawyers"
issue has listed her under the Trusts and Estates specialty. Sconyers joined the firm in 1995, and they continue to practice law
together.
The couple's dedication to environmental preservation begins to be seen in the land around their home near Litchfield Road, the
former stable along the private lane leading to the house that Alfredo Taylor built for himself. Ackerly's love of nature and
conservation stems mainly from her early visits to the area. She was raised in New Canaan but has lived here full time for 41
years. Sconyers' love of the land grows out of a family history of dirt farming in Mississippi. Their three acre stand of wild
blueberry bushes in Norfolk are carefully and laboriously maintained. "We find the ‘Weed Wrench’ to be invaluable," Ackerly
said. "We're nuts about native plants. You can find some unusual ones in the meadow next to the blueberries." In 1982 Ackerly
helped to found the Norfolk Land Trust. She was on the board of the Connecticut Nature Conservancy for ten years until her
time limit was reached in 2005. Now Sconyers sits on the board.
Deer and bobcat are frequently seen on their land, but the most extraordinary natural event was the appearance, a few winters
back, of a large number of "snow rollers" in the meadow. These are natural snowballs, some ten to twelve inches in diameter,
formed by a rare combination of wind and snow conditions. The occurrence is sufficiently unusual to be included in the
University of Kansas "weird weather phenomena" web site. They made photographs of scores of the rollers with clearly visible
paths made during their formation. "That's one reason why I love living here," said Ackerly. "We visit the city sometimes, but I'm
always glad to get back."