USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 13
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The post war period saw the introduction of several new sport- ing models of firearms and new ammunition. These included rim and center fire rifles, an automatic shotgun, and a lightweight version of the old standard Model 12.
In 1954 Olin Industries and Mathieson Chemical Corporation merged to form Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation. Since this time, there has been a concentration into six product lines and one in- ternational division. This has resulted in the elimination of various unrelated products and the consolidation of others. In 1956, commer- cial ammunition operations were moved to East Alton, Illinois.
As of this writing the New Haven operations of Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation include plants of the Winchester-Western Di- vision, the Metals Division, the Energy Division and one of the cor- poration's largest research centers.
The Metals Division produces brass and other nonferrous alloys, manufactured in coils, sheets and strips, as well as many fabricated parts for customers throughout the nation. The Metals Division headquarters are at East Alton, Illinois. The laboratory in New
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Haven operates extensively in the fields of aluminum and brass, and conducts research and development work on nuclear fuels.
Newest of the Energy Division operations is Nuclear Fuel, which was started in 1956, with a pilot plant for the manufacture of nuclear fuel elements and nuclear reactor cores. They now have a new facility at Montville, which was opened in 1957.
The research organization includes research and development de- partments for such diversified products as arms and ammunition, high energy fuels, packaging, film, industrial chemicals, organic chemicals, plastics, insecticides, fertilizers, hydrocarbons, and glass metals.
To summarize the history of firearms through the years, Win- chester has assembled one of the finest gun collections in the world. This collection is located in the Winchester Gun Museum at New Haven, which has been opened recently to the public.
FAMILY AND PERSONAL RECORDS
Conn. III-11
Dubarry. Redway
CONNECTICUT
ALBERT SESSIONS REDWAY
New Haven industrialist Albert Sessions Redway has held the office of president and director of Rockbestos Products Corpora- tion, which manufactures insulated wires and cables. He also serves on the boards of directors of Acme Wire Company, the New Haven Board and Carton Company, and First New Haven National Bank, all of New Haven, and the Fuller Merriam Company of West Haven.
Mr. Redway was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on October 22, 1898, son of Charles B. and Lucy (Sykes) Redway. Both of his parents are now deceased. His father was a life-insurance executive.
Attending Moody Grammar School at Lowell, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1913, Albert S. Redway took his secondary courses at Lowell High School, graduating there in 1918. During World War I, he served in the United States Army, and afterwards resumed his education, attending Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, where he received his degree of Bachelor of Science in 1923.
He began his industrial career with the Old Colony Envelope Company of Westfield, Massachusetts, with which he remained from 1923 to 1925. He then joined the Farrel-Birmingham Company of Ansonia, Connecticut, manufacturers of heavy machinery. Remain- ing with that concern for eighteen years, he was promoted to vice president and manager of manufacturing in 1937. When he resigned from this connection in 1943, he joined the Geometric Tool Company of New Haven, manufacturers of threading tools, as executive vice president. From 1950 to 1955, he was president of the American Pa- per Goods Company of Kensington, and left that position to assume duties as president and director of Rockbestos Products Corporation in New Haven, and as vice president of its parent firm.
Associated with many professional, business, and civic organiza- tions, Mr. Redway has been active as president of the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut, the Manufacturers Association of New Haven County, and the Connecticut Branch of the National Metal Trades Association. He was chairman of the New Haven Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and was a director of the New England Council as well as a trustee of the Connecticut Public Expenditures Council. In 1956-1957, he served as a member of the Governor's State Fiscal Study Commission.
His memberships include the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
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the Newcomen Society of North America, the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, and Kappa Sigma fraternity, which he joined at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His social con- nections include the Graduates Club, Mory's, the M.I.T. Club, and the New Haven Lawn Club, all of New Haven, and the Walton Fish- ing Club of Cornwall Bridge. Mr. Redway is a Republican in politics. He attends Trinity Episcopal Church in New Haven.
At Ansonia, on October 23, 1926, Albert Sessions Redway mar- ried Dorothy Bryant, daughter of George Clark and Florence Adele (Farrel) Bryant. Both of her parents are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Redway have two children: I. Nancy Elizabeth, now Mrs. Edwin Pugsley, Jr., of New Haven. They have three children: i. Lucy. ii. Edwin, 3rd. iii. David. 2. Albert Sessions, Jr., of Middlebury. He is married and has two children: i. Albert Sessions, 3rd. ii. James.
DR. A. WHITNEY GRISWOLD
President of Yale University since 1950, and a member of the Yale faculty since 1929, Dr. Griswold is a noted scholar, teacher and educator, and he is the author of two leading scholarly books: "The Far Eastern Policy of the United States," published in 1938, and "Farming and Democracy," published in 1948. In 1954, the Yale Press published "Essays on Education," a collection of fourteen articles and speeches given by Dr. Griswold between 1950 and 1953. In 1957 the same press published "In the University Tradition," comprising articles and speeches of Dr. Griswold from 1954 to 1957 and in 1959 "Liberal Education and the Democratic Ideal" was pub- lished by Yale University Press in a paperback edition.
Dr. Griswold was born in Morristown, New Jersey, on October 27, 1906, the son of Harold Ely Griswold and of Elsie M. (Whitney) Griswold. His father was a leading figure in the insurance field. Dr. Griswold attended Hotchkiss School and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Yale University in 1929. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale in 1933.
An instructor in English at Yale in 1929 and 1930, and an assistant in English in 1931 and 1932, Dr. Griswold served as in- structor in history from 1933 to 1936, and he was research assistant in international relations from 1935 to 1938. Assistant professor of government and international relations from 1938 to 1942, he was appointed associate professor in international relations in 1942, serv- ing until 1945, and he became associate professor of political science in 1945 and 1946. Associate professor of history in 1946 and 1947,
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he served as professor of history from 1947 until his election as President of Yale University in 1950. Dr. Griswold attends religious worship at the Church of Christ at Yale University.
He was married on June 10, 1930, at Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Mary Morgan Brooks.
Dr. and Mrs. Griswold have four children: I. Sarah, born in 1932. 2. Mary, born in 1935. 3. Susanna, born in 1939. 4. A. Whitney, Jr., born in 1944.
DR. RALPH HENRY GABRIEL
President of the New Haven Colony Historical Society and as- sociated with Yale University as professor of history since 1915, Dr. Gabriel has served frequently as a visiting professor in other universi- ties, and during World War II was a lecturer at the War Department School of Military Government at Charlottesville, Virginia, from 1943 to 1946.
He was born in the Town of Reading, New York, on April 29, 1890, the son of Er Cleveland Gabriel and of Alta (Monroe) Gabriel. His father died in 1926 and his mother in 1954. He attended Starkey Seminary, graduated from Watkins Glen High School in 1908, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1913. He received the degree of Master of Arts from Yale Univer- sity in 1915 and the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1919. In 1942, Bucknell University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature. During World War I, Dr. Gabriel served with the 304th Infantry in the Seventy-sixth Division, and held the rank of first lieutenant.
Dr. Gabriel joined the faculty of Yale as an instructor in history in 1915 and upon receiving his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1919, was advanced to an assistant professorship. He became associate professor in 1925 and a full professor three years later. In 1935 he was named Learned Professor of History and in 1946 was appointed Sterling Professor of History at Yale, a post he held until his retire. ment in June, 1958. Throughout the years Dr. Gabriel has also served as visiting professor at several of the world's leading universities : at New York University in 1933; at Stanford University in 1934 and again in 1949; at the University of Colorado in 1941 and 1942; and at the University of Wyoming in 1954, in this country; in 1946 he was visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia, and in 1951 and 1952 he was Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University in England.
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Dr. Gabriel is one of this country's best-known historians and is the author or co-author of many leading books on American history including: "The Course of American Democratic Thought"; "The Story of American Democracy" (co-author)-which textbook won the competition for use in schools in the United Kingdom in 1957; and "Religion and Learning at Yale: The Church of Christ in the College and University, 1757-1957." Dr. Gabriel has also served in past years as editor of the Library of Congress "Series in American Civilization" and the "Pageant of America" series of illustrated docu- mentary surveys published by the Yale University Press and widely used as texts and references in history courses throughout the country.
From May, 1943, to June, 1944, Dr. Gabriel was a full-time member of the War Department School of Military Government and was a special visiting lecturer there until the school closed in Febru- ary, 1946. He is also the author or co-author of: "Toilers of Land and Sea," "The Lure of the Frontier," "The Winning of Freedom," and "In Defense of Liberty"; also, "The Evolution of Long Island, a Story of Land and Sea," "The Yale Course of Home Study," "Exploring American History," and several other books, mostly per- taining to America and Americans.
He is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, England and a Fellow of Trumbull College and he has been a trustee of the Yale- in-China Association since 1922.
A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Beta Theta Pi fraternities, Dr. Gabriel also holds membership in Aurelian and Ber- zelian fraternities, and he is a member of Mory's and of the Graduates Club. He is president of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. A Republican in politics, he attends religious worship as a member of the Congregational Church.
He was married in Oneonta, New York, on August 18, 1917, to Christine Davis, the daughter of Charles Edson Davis and of Susan (Todd) Davis. Both of her parents died in 1924.
Dr. and Mrs. Gabriel have three children: 1. Robert Todd, born on April 19, 1921. He is a graduate of Yale, Class of 1944, and is secretary of the Yale Alumni Fund. 2. John Cleveland, born in May, 1925, a graduate of Yale, Class of 1946. 3. Susan (Mrs. Keith Cun- liffe), born in June, 1927; of Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England.
WILLIAM HUTCHINSON PUTNAM
Hartford's distinguished investment executive, William Hutchin- son Putnam, played an exceptionally useful role in the life and progress
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of his city. He took a leading part in its redevelopment and bridge- building program, and also made his influence felt in the spheres of education, public safety and public health. On the occasion of his eigh- tieth birthday, a short time before his death, he was honored at a testimonial dinner as Hartford's Number One Citizen. "We know him," remarked a fellow citizen at that time, "as a builder of highways and bridges to bring regional and municipal Hartford closer together . . . for his vision, courage and patience ... and unending effort to open new horizons for our city."
A native of Brooklyn, Connecticut, Mr. Putnam was born on February 1, 1878, son of Albert Day Putnam and Harriet Eliza (Dor- rance) Putnam. He achieved his place in business life and in the affairs of his city without the advantages of advanced education, completing his studies in the local public schools. He then joined the staff of the Windham County National Bank in Danielson as a clerk, and had worked there for seven years when, in 1902, he turned his attention to selling life insurance.
It was in 1904 that he entered the investment field to which he was to devote the remaining years of his life. He started as a bond salesman in Boston, but the following year returned to Connecticut as a representative of the William A. Read Company of New York. In 1912 he became a partner in the firm of Richter and Company. This was the predecessor of Putnam and Company, of which he be- came senior partner in 1921.
He first became active in municipal affairs in Hartford in 1916, when he was appointed to membership on the city's finance committee. He served until 1922. From that time until his death, his was the first name one thought of in connection with city finance. Oliver B. Ells- worth, president of the Riverside Trust Company, has estimated that the public money he diverted into worthwhile projects over the years probably totalled a hundred million dollars. Mr. Ellsworth added: "Bill Putnam has not always run true to the normal conception of financier. In fact, at times, he has shown almost a sacrilegious scorn of the money argument when it has been used to delay or hamper any of his public works." He once listed as his own major interests "Hartford Hospital, Hartford parks and horticulture, education of women at Connecticut College, major improvements in the city of Hartford, and the welfare of its citizens." He was appointed to the Board of Park Commissioners in 1931, and served for seventeen years, twice holding office as president. He was named director and member of the executive committee of Hartford Hospital in 1934, was pres-
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ident of the hospital for several years, and was also chairman of its board of directors. In 1936, Mayor Spellacy named him to the Hart- ford Flood Commission. He became a member of this body in the days when the Connecticut River periodically flooded its banks. The com- mission built dikes and made possible the conduit highway into the center of the city and the North Meadows Highway.
When the Hartford Redevelopment Commission was established to increase the city's accessibility and business opportunities, Mr. Put- nam was chosen its head. The program of development now under way between Market Street and the Connecticut River was planned largely because of his perseverance. He was also a director of St. Francis Hospital. At the time of World War I, he was state chairman of the Liberty Loan Commission, and directed the floating of five liberty loans in Hartford. In 1939, he was asked by former President Hoover to head the Finnish Relief Fund in Connecticut. A founder of the Community Chest in his home city, he had served on its board of directors, and a term as its president.
Mr. Putnam's interest in education led to his service as trustee and chairman of the board of Connecticut College for Women. He was also member of the board, and at one time board chairman, of Suffield Academy. He received an honorary degree of Master of Arts from Trinity College in 1942; and in 1955 Hillyer College conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. He had been accorded other honors as well. In 1956 he was named "Boss of the Year" by the Greater Hartford Junior Chamber of Commerce; and he was also honored by the Sons of Italy in America. The above were in addition to his designation as "Hartford's Number One Citizen," on January 30, 1958. At that time, the William H. Putnam Medical Research Fund was initiated in his name. Another memorial in his honor is the bronze plaque mounted near the Founders Bridge approach. It is inscribed, "In recognition of the lasting contributions to better life in Greater Hartford by William H. Putnam." Serving as chairman of the Greater Hartford Bridge Authority at the time of his death, he had the gratifying experience, on October 15, 1957, of being the first to drive across the newly opened Windsor-South Windsor bridge. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Horace Bushnell Memorial and a director of the Children's Museum. Among his busi- ness interests, he served on the board of the Hartford Special Ma- chinery Company.
Interested in horticulture, particularly as it pertained to the beau- tification of his city, Mr. Putnam was a member of the Royal Horti-
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cultural Society of England. His other memberships included the Society of the Cincinnati of Connecticut, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Mayflower Society, and the Society of Founders and Patriots. Affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, he held the Thirty- second degree and belonged to the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. His memberships also included the Hartford Club, Union League and Century Association in New York, and the Tobique Salmon Club in New Brunswick, Canada.
Despite Mr. Putnam's contention that he "didn't know anything about politics," he has been credited with considerable behind-the- scenes influence in Republican councils, and served for a time as chair- man of the ways and means committee of the Republican State Central Committee. A communicant of Trinity Episcopal Church, he served as vestryman there for twenty-five years. As a widely respected broker, he had served on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.
On March 8, 1899, William H. Putnam married Adabelle C. Lyon, daughter of Rockwell Fuller Lyon and Jennie Elizabeth (Can- ney) Lyon. Mrs. Putnam died on April 17, 1944. The couple were the parents of the following children: I. Lyonel H., who was born on August 27, 1900. 2. Marcella R., born on May 3, 1902. 3. Albert D., born on February 20, 1904. All three children live in Hartford. Miss Putnam is president of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Connecticut, and a member of the Colonel Daniel Putnam Association, the Mayflower Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America. William H. Putnam had three grandchildren at the time of his death.
His death occurred in his home city on March 10, 1958; and was noted with profound regret by Hartford citizens in all walks of life. Governor Ribicoff spoke for innumerable residents of his state when he commented :
Connecticut has lost one of its leading citizens. Bill Putnam was a giant among men. His genius and devotion to the public good were always at the service of his community and his fellow men.
Senator William A. Purtell remarked:
Connecticut has lost a great American . . . Bill Putnam's vision and his dynamic leadership will continue to inspire us who remain after him.
It was typical of his great and unselfish career, that his final months were spent in creating new links to the Greater Hartford area which he loved and served for many years. His contributions to the spiritual, civic and public welfare of his fellow citizens will be felt for many years to come.
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"His personal contributions to the development of the Hartford area are of monumental nature, and have no parallel in modern Con- necticut history," remarked a former councilman and member of the Redevelopment Agency. "His direct manner, great wisdom, vast ca- pacity and unusual foresight have brought community betterment to be enjoyed by generations of Hartford citizens to come."
JUDGE SPENCER GROSS
A lawyer practicing in Hartford since the beginning of his career, Spencer Gross is a partner in the firm of Gross, Hyde and Williams. He has a creditable record of service on the bench of the City Court, and holds office in welfare and cultural institutions.
Born at Hartford on December 22, 1906, Judge Gross is a son of Charles Welles and Hilda Frances (Welch) Gross, and grandson of Charles E. and Ellen Clarissa (Spencer ) Gross and of Pierce N. and Emma Cornelia (Galpin) Welch. In the paternal line, his ancestry goes back to the early settlers in Massachusetts and Connecticut. His father graduated from Yale University in 1898 and took his degree of Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1901. Admitted to the Connecticut bar in January, 1902, he commenced his career with a firm in which his father, Charles E. Gross, was practicing. This was Gross, Hyde and Shipman, which had been organized in 1866 as Waldo, Hubbard and Hyde. It was known successively as Hubbard, Hyde and Gross; Hyde, Gross and Hyde; Gross, Hyde and Shipman; Gross, Gross and Hyde; and finally Gross, Hyde and Williams, the name which it adopted in 1925 and has retained to the present time. Charles Welles Gross was also a director of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, the Phoenix Mutual Life In- surance Company, Aetna Insurance Company, World Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the Society for Savings, and Arrow-Hart and Hegeman Electric Company, and the Case, Lockwood and Brainard Company. He served for four years as a member of the State Board of Finance and Control, and became chairman of the State Invest- ment Committee appointed by the Governor to act with the State Treasurer in the supervision of investment of state funds. He was president of the board of trustees of Hartford Seminary Foundation, and a trustee of Hartford College of Law, Wadsworth Atheneum, and Horace Bushnell Memorial Hall Corporation. Charles W. Gross served the city of Hartford as a member of the board of street com- missioners from 1907 to 1909, a member of the board of park com- missioners from 1913 to 1923, and a member of the district commit-
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tee of the West Middle School District of Hartford. He and his wife, the former Hilda Frances Welch, became the parents of three children: 1. Spencer, of whom further. 2. Mason Welch, Ph.D., who is provost of Rutgers University. 3. Cornelia, a graduate of Vassar College.
After completing his secondary studies in local schools, Spencer Gross entered Yale College, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1928. He continued his professional studies at the university, and received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1931. He then became associated with Gross, Hyde and Williams, and has been a partner since 1936. This old and respected firm, which with its predecessors has been in existence over ninety years, has its offices at 49 Pearl Street. It represents the interests of a number of banks and industrial firms.
From 1945 to 1947, Spencer Gross served as associate judge of the City Court of Hartford. He is a member of Hartford County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and of Phi Delta Phi (Corbey Court). His business connections include the Mechanics Sav- ings Bank, which he serves as trustee, and the National Fire Insur- ance Company, of which he is a director.
Mr. Gross has held other public offices besides sitting on the City Court bench. He was a member of the City Plan Commission from 1936 to 1945; a member of Hartford's Board of Park Commissioners from 1939 to 1948; and a member of the Metropolitan District Com- mission from 1940 to 1955. In 1940, he became a corporator of the American School for the Deaf, and also of the Children's Museum of Hartford, and he has retained his official connection with both institutions since. Since 1943, he has been secretary of the Wadsworth Atheneum.
Mr. Gross' local memberships include the University Club, Wam- panoag Country Club, and the Twentieth Century Club, all of Hart- ford, and his fraternities are Phi Delta Phi and Zeta Psi. He is a Democrat, and attends the Congregational Church.
Spencer Gross is unmarried. He makes his home at 229 Kenyon Street, Hartford.
ALFRED CARLTON GILBERT, JR.
As president of The A. C. Gilbert Company of Erector Square, New Haven, Alfred Carlton Gilbert heads one of the world's largest manufacturing organizations specializing in the production of scienti- fic toys. The "Erector" sets which it has produced for many years are known throughout the world, the familiar playtime resource of boys
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of several successive generations; and American Flyer trains have a comparable reputation.
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