Ian Robinson: An Educational Safari
By Joel Howard Maru-a-Pula, a name which translates to “promise of blessings”, is an apt name for the innovative African school where Norfolk resident and recent high school graduate Ian Robinson is spending time as a volunteer teaching assistant. The educational facility, established in 1972, has grown from a student enrollment of 25 to 660, […]
Local Scholarships Await Graduates
By Joel Howard Litchfield County University Club (LCUC) awarded its first scholarship over 100 years ago, soon after a handful of philanthropic locals banded together to achieve a goal of aiding deserving students in furthering their education. Having been the idea of Norfolk patrons Carl and Ellen Battell Stoeckel, the group held its first meeting […]
MILESTONES
Dorothy Allen Smith, 84, passed away in May in her home at Meadowbrook Senior Housing. She had been a Norfolk resident for 14 years moving here from Newport News VA. A memorial service will be held at the Church of Christ at 1 pm June 13, which was also Dorothy’s birthday. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to […]
Time is Running Out For Norfolk’s Aging Sewer System
Residents could see a big hike in user fees By Kurt Steele Norfolk faces a major challenge in planning a complex project to rehabilitate its 100-plus-year-old sewer system that could cost $3 million according to a preliminary estimate. While the sewer system has certainly stood the test of time, time is running out. Built in […]
Mystery Woman is Finally Revealed
Genevieve Cook’s journal details an affair with Obama, then 22. By Lloyd Garrison In his 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” Barack Obama wrote discreetly of his romance in New York with a young woman who took him one fall weekend to Norfolk. Obama, who withheld the woman’s name, wrote that he was struck by […]
Gridleys in Norfolk 50 Years Later
In Pursuit of Clean Air Rosanna Trestman In the tradition of city dwellers of the early 20th century who flocked to the country for the restorative value of its clean, cool air, in 1962, New Yorkers Bill and Barbara Gridley whisked their four-year-old son, who suffered from asthma, and his older sister, to Norfolk, CT. […]
State Education Bill Makes Ripples in Norfolk
Decrease in state’s funding for Botelle possible By Wiley Wood When the U.S. Department of Education parceled out $4.35 billion in 2010 to states whose schools showed measurable student gains, Connecticut failed to qualify. Its three neighbors—Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island—received almost $1 billion between them. The Education Reform Bill pushed through the Connecticut […]
Scouting for a Contiguous Wilderness
Norfolk Land Trust pursues purchase of Grantville Road property By Colleen Gundlach A 1957 newspaper clipping reported that the Bridgeport Area Girl Scout Old Timers Association sponsored a benefit card party to raise money “toward buying several acres of land for the new Girl Scout camp, Iwakta, at Norfolk,” to add to the small tract […]
Havemeyer Receives Doctorate
A degree 30 years in the making By Lindsey Pizzica Rotolo There’s a new doctor in town. Not a general practitioner, but tireless Norfolk Historical Society Curator Ann Havemeyer, who received her Ph.D. from Yale University at their graduation ceremony on May 21. Her 250-page dissertation, “An Architect of Place and the Village Beautiful: Alfredo […]
More Healthy Life Choices Open to Norfolk residents
Joel Howard Norfolk is undergoing a fitness craze. From Pilates to yoga to Zumba at church, people have more venues to pump it up and shake it out than seen in the recent history of this town. A unique link in this chain is 7day recreationalists, a holistically designed exercise program devised by partners and […]
