Thousands of students spent their summers on the Battel Stoeckel campus during Bill Gridley’s tenure as a trustee there, and untold thousands came to enjoy the music and art that resulted. Gridley is widely credited with maintaining the estate through a difficult period, 1992-2012, and initiating the renovations to Whitehouse. At a dinner and concert held on July 20 to honor Gridley and his wife, Barbara, the couple, right, were presented with a handsome bronze plaque, which is now affixed to the Mountain Rd. entrance to the estate. The Gridleys will be further honored on September 9 in New Haven by Dean Robert Blocker and members of the Yale University School of Music. “The plaque says ‘welcome,’” said the famously modest Gridley.

Photo by Bruce Frisch.