USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 46
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expansion program was vitally important, as the office and sales force had by now grown from three to ten people. The most recent addition to the building program was started in February, 1956. This building comprising nearly ten thousand square feet of floor space is now com- plete and provides area for the cleaning, painting and shipping depart- ments. Total manufacturing and office space now exceeds twenty-two thousand square feet, adequately housed in fire-resistant modern structures, with additional warehouse space of nearly fifty-five hun- dred square feet. The present payroll of seventy-two includes the names of three employees, Joseph Specyalski, Louise Chadsey and Bertha Crawford, who have been with the company since the early days of 1950.
Mr. Parsons has to his credit a record of valuable service on behalf of his community. He is currently a member of the Industrial and Agricultural Development Committee of the Town of Durham. He has served as chairman of the Durham board of education, and also as chairman of the building committee for the new Brewster elementary school. For nineteen years treasurer of the Durham Vol- unteer Fire Department, he now serves the organization as a trustee. He was formerly director and treasurer of the Durham Cemetery Association; and he is also past director and treasurer of the Durham Fair Association, continuing to serve on its board. He has held other local posts besides those mentioned.
He is a member of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association, and a communicant of the Congregational Church. His favorite out- door sport is yachting.
On June 6, 1930, William A. Parsons married Elizabeth Winter of Middlefield, Connecticut. She is a daughter of Frederick and May (Burke) Winter. Her father died in 1946. Mrs. Parsons is a graduate of Middletown High School, where she completed her courses in 1927. The couple are the parents of two children: I. Marguerite Louise, who was born at Middletown on January 10, 1931. She graduated from Durham High School, and is married to William Morrissey, Jr., of Middletown. They have four children: i. Burton. ii. Michael. iii. Cheryl. iv. Marguerite. Mr. Morrissey served in the United States Navy in World War II, and was in the Pacific. 2. William Bruce, born on March 25, 1932. He graduated from Chauncey Hall School in Boston, attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is now vice president of The W. A. Parsons Company. William B. Parsons married Ann Harding Griswold of Yalesville on August 31, 1951. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Griswold of that
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place. To their marriage three children have been born: i. Mary Jane. ii. Stephen Bruce. iii. Susan Elizabeth.
RAYMOND L. MILLER
As president of the East Hartford Federal Savings and Loan Association, Raymond L. Miller heads a rapidly growing financial institution, which has branch offices in Glastonbury and South Wind- sor. Mr. Miller is well known in the banking circles of his state, and has held several offices in professional organizations.
Born in Danbury on July 29, 1913, he is a son of Cortland Har- vey and Sarah (Tong) Miller. His father, who died in 1933, was associated with the Danbury Creamery. Mrs. Miller survived her husband until 1955. The future banker attended the public schools of Danbury, after which he took courses at the University of Connecticut and at Boston University. For six years he studied at the American Savings and Loan Institute.
In 1940 he went to work in the aircraft industry, joining the Pratt & Whitney Division of United Aircraft Corporation at East Hartford. Remaining at the manufacturing plant until 1946, he held various positions in junior executive capacities. In 1946 he began his con- nection with the East Hartford Federal Savings and Loan Associa- tion as assistant secretary, and was promoted to executive vice pres- ident in 1949. That position he held until 1954, when he succeeded Stanley Bradford as president, becoming the second man to hold the top executive office. Since Mr. Miller has been with the Association, its assets have advanced steadily from three million to over twenty- four million dollars.
In October, 1953. Mr. Miller was elected to the board of directors of the Savings and Loan League of Connecticut for a three-year term; and he served as president of the League from 1955 to 1956. He served as president of the Federal Savings League of New Eng- land from 1957 to 1958, and has been a director of this trade associa- tion for eight years. He is past president of the American Savings and Loan Institute, Connecticut Chapter. He has served as deputy governor of the American Savings and Loan Institute for Connecticut, and is presently serving as a director of the United States Savings and Loan League for Connecticut.
He has to his credit an excellent record in civic service, which includes service as treasurer of the East District. Boy Scouts of America : past president and past chairman of the board of the East
Raymond R. miller
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Hartford Chamber of Commerce; past secretary of the East Hart- ford Retirement Board, past chairman of the joint Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations of East Hartford, and vice president of the American Automobile Association of Hartford, which he has also served as a member of the board of governors. He has been secretary of the East Hartford Development Commission; a member of the board of directors of the East Hartford Visiting Nurse Association ; and director-at-large for the Community Chest. He was chairman of the Community Chest Drive for East Hartford in 1948, and is presently a member of the board of directors of the Hartford Chapter of the American Red Cross. Interested in work with youth, he was East Hartford's director of the Soap-box Derby some years ago. He is a member of the East Hartford Rotary Club, has served as its president, and has been active in Rotary International on the dis- trict level.
A communicant of the First Congregational Church of Glaston- bury, he formerly served as president of the congregation, and is now a deacon. He is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, being a member of Orient Lodge, and all bodies of the Scottish Rite, holding the Thirty-second degree. He is also a member of Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and of the Royal Order of Jesters. Mr. Miller's favorite sport is golf.
At Flushing, Long Island, New York, on October 27, 1940, Ray- mond L. Miller married Alma MacDonald, daughter of Peter and Mary (Robertson) MacDonald. Her father is president of the Flush- ing Federal Savings and Loan Association. Mrs. Miller is a graduate nurse, having received her training at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. The couple make their home at 36 Sunset Ridge Drive in East Hartford, and are the parents of two children: I. Carol Ann, born on December 29, 1942. She is a student at Mary A. Burnham School, Northampton, Massachusetts. 2. Jane Elizabeth, born in Hart- ford on April 7, 1945. She is a student at Stoneleigh-Prospect School, Greenfield, Massachusetts.
NEWMAN EDWARD ARGRAVES
An engineer with over three decades' experience to his credit, Newman Edward Argraves was head of his own consulting firm, Ar- graves and Associates, at New Haven, at the time he assumed duties as Connecticut State Highway Commissioner. In June 1959 he returned to private business. He has to his credit an exceptional record in the
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design of industrial and municipal plants, as well as bridges, roads, and sewerage and water systems.
Mr. Argraves was born at Caribou, Maine, on February 18, 1905, son of James and Annie ( Walton) Argraves. He has studied civil engineering at Lowell Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology and through International Correspondence School courses; and has also taken courses offered by Massachusetts University Ex- tension School, Tufts College Engineering School, and Yale Engineer- ing School. He began his career in 1925 as instrumentman with the nationally known Boston engineering firm of Stone and Webster, and remained with that organization for the next seven years, serv- ing in the capacities of concrete inspector, construction draftsman, field engineer, and residential engineer on the construction of power plants, coal mining facilities, sewers, bridges and waterfront facili- ties, also working for the Boston and Maine Railroad, F. A. Barbour, and the Metropolitan District Commission at various times during those years. From 1932 to 1934 he was computer on the valuation of street railways for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail- road, and engineer in the assessing department of the City of Boston. In 1935, he rejoined Stone and Webster, and until 1939 worked for that firm on the structural designs of power plants, industrial plants, office buildings, wind tunnels, transmission lines, and waterfront fa- cilities. He resigned in 1939 to become chief engineer of design for Haller Engineering Associates, and for F. H. McGraw and Company's aluminum plant. Reynolds Alloys Company at Lister Hills, Alabama, the steel axle works of Carnegie Steel Company, and the Naval Am- munition Depot at Hingham. Massachusetts. During this four-year period he also worked on many sewerage, waterworks and treatment plant projects, on airport facilities and roads, and on seventy highway bridges. In line with his duties he completed many reports.
In 1944 he formed his own organization, Argraves and Associates, a consulting engineering firm with offices at New Haven, and remained a partner in that organization until March 1, 1955 when he was named Connecticut State Highway Commissioner, and in that capacity, had his offices in the State Highway Department Building in Wethers- field. Mr. Argraves was reappointed to this position by Governor Ribi- coff in January 1959, but recently resigned, to enter private business.
His impressive range of total engineering experience has included work as consulting engineer on the design of steam and electric generating plants, refrigeration and cold storage plants, grain elevators, a community market in Paraguay, five municipal sewerage and treat-
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ment plants, seven town sewer systems, many pumping stations, four town water systems, and innumerable roads, highway bridges, indus- trial plants, underground utilities, grandstands and clubhouses. He worked on the design of the Norwich State Hospital, and buildings at the Monmouth Park Race Track in New Jersey, and an auditorium and athletic stadium for the University of Connecticut. Mr. Argraves has given expert testimony in about a dozen lawsuits. He is a registered professional engineer in California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania as well as in Connecticut. His professional memberships include the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Connecticut State Board of Registered Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, and he is an honorary member of Chi Epsilon.
Twice married, Newman Edward Argraves chose as his first wife Clara Durepo. They were married on July 6, 1926, and became the parents of two children: 1. Lawrence, born on July 2, 1927. 2. Janice, who was born on February 22, 1930. On March 6, 1954, Mr. Argraves married, second, Barbara H. Velmure, and they have one daughter, Nancy, born on March 27, 1955. The family's residence is at 90 Colonial Drive, Hamden.
HENRY BARNARD STRONG
Connecticut's Commissioner of Public Utilities, Henry Barnard Strong, has to his credit a considerable record of experience in private industry, and also practical training in public affairs as legislator and as secretary to two governors of the state. He assumed his present duties a decade ago, and has been a most capable and conscientious administrator.
The son of Harry B. and Hattie (Meggat) Strong, he was born in Hartford on October 5, 1899. His father, also a native of that city, died in 1931 ; and his mother survived her husband until 1936. She was a native of Wethersfield. The Public Utilities Commissioner be- gan his education in the public schools of that city, completed his pre- paratory courses at Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, and went on to Yale College, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1922.
He began his business career in New York City with the firm of James McCreery and Company, which operated a now defunct de- partment store. Joining the organization as a clerk, he advanced to assistant merchandising manager. Leaving in 1925, he moved to Massachusetts to accept a position as merchandising manager with
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Denholm and Mckay of Worcester. He was also appointed to its board of directors, and continued in both capacities until 1933. In that year he joined the Brown-Thompson Company of Hartford, a firm in which his father was a partner. He resigned from this con- nection when, in 1935, Brown-Thompson was sold to other interests. For the next eight years he was active in town and church affairs, and made his home in Salisbury.
Elected to the Connecticut State House of Representatives from that town, Mr. Strong took his seat in 1943 and served through 1945. Meantime, late in 1944, he was named secretary to Governor Raymond E. Baldwin. He held that position throughout the remainder of Gover- nor Baldwin's administration, which ended with the year 1946; and from January to August, 1947, continued to serve as secretary to Governor James L. McConaughy.
In August, 1947, Mr. Strong was appointed Commissioner of Public Utilities of Connecticut, and has retained his membership in that body to the present time. His offices are in the State Office Build- ing in Hartford.
Mr. Strong served for a time in the United States Navy during World War I, and held a rating as seaman second class. In his under- graduate days, he managed the Yale crew of 1922, was elected to the Student Council, and was a member of the Whiffenpoofs. He also served on the Yale Athletic Control Committee and the Junior Prom Committee. He is a member of the Moreys, and retains membership in the fraternal organizations, Alpha Delta Phi and Skull and Bones.
His other memberships include the Connecticut Historical So- ciety and the Sons of the American Revolution, the Yale Club of New York, The Hartford Club and Hartford Golf Club; he is a char- ter member of Falls Village Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, and a member of Montgomery Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons at Lakeville, and the Bachelors Club of Hartford and Wor- cester. In religious faith he is an Episcopalian, and formerly served as senior warden of his church, Trinity Episcopal, at Lime Rock.
At Weston, Vermont, on November 27, 1954, Henry Barnard Strong married Irene Ward of that town, and formerly of Shrews- bury, Massachusetts. She is a daughter of Edward Dickerson and Mable (Kibbe) Ward, and a descendant of Artemas Ward, a Revolu- tionary soldier and later a jurist and legislator in Massachusetts. Mrs. Strong attended Smith College. By a previous marriage to the late Arlene Murphy, Mr. Strong has a daughter, Eunice Barnard Strong, born at Sharon in February, 1938. A graduate of Westover School,
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Middlebury, Connecticut, she is now attending Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Eunice B. Strong was presented at the Holly Ball in 1957.
MICHAEL RADIN
A lawyer who has practiced at Hartford for the last three dec- ades, Michael Radin has become prominent in the public affairs of the city as judge of the city court and police court. He has served as clerk of court as well as on the bench, and he began his present term in 1955. Judge Radin is a veteran of naval service in World War II.
A native of Hartford, he was born on October 12, 1904, and is a son of Samuel and Ida Radin. He attended local public schools, graduated from Hartford Public High School, then entered the Uni- versity of Connecticut, where he was a student in 1923. From there he transferred to Boston University, and received his degree of Bach- elor of Laws from its Law School in 1927.
Admitted to practice in the State of Connecticut the following year, he commenced a general practice of law in Hartford. In 1935 he was appointed to his first public office as clerk of the Hartford Police Court, and served until 1937. He again filled this post during 1946-1947. In 1955 he was appointed judge, to serve on the bench of both the city court and the police court.
Judge Radin entered the United States Navy in June, 1942, and was called into active service the following month. He began his war- time naval career as a seaman, and held the rating of storekeeper, first class, at the time of his honorable discharge in October, 1945. He spent considerable time overseas, and was in the North African area from 1943 to 1945.
As a lawyer, Judge Radin is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, the Connecticut State Bar Association and the Hartford Bar Association. He is a past com- mander of Navy Post at Hartford. He is also a member of the lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Tumble Brook Country Club. Golf is his favorite outdoor sport. Of Jewish faith, he is a member of Temple Beth Israel.
His office is at II Asylum Street.
CARL W. TREWHELLA
Vice president of the Hartford National Bank and Trust Com- pany, Carl W. Trewhella joined its staff many years ago, when it was
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known as the East Hartford Trust Company. He has been active in local organizations, holding a number of offices, and has been a con- structive worker in civic causes.
Born in New Britain on September 13, 1908, he is a son of the late Charles E. and Bertha I. (Williams) Trewhella. His father, who died in 1945, was a machinist, toolmaker and diemaker by trade. Mrs. Trewhella survives him and makes her home in East Hartford. The bank executive received his early education in the public schools of that town, where the family moved in 1918. He graduated from East Hartford High School in 1925. and immediately afterwards accepted a position with the old East Hartford Trust Company in the capacity of bookkeeper. He won promotions to teller, assistant treas- urer, and, in 1943, to treasurer of the East Hartford Trust Company. In 1950 the bank underwent merger, resulting in the formation of the present Hartford National Bank and Trust Company. Following this merger, Mr. Trewhella was promoted to vice president. He has held his present office since 1956.
Active in the East Hartford Chamber of Commerce, he served as its president in 1948; and in the same year was president of the East Hartford Rotary Club. As a bank executive, he takes a full part in the program of the American Institute of Banking, and was president of its Hartford Chapter in 1948. He has also served as associate councillor for the state of Connecticut in the Institute. His church is the First Congregational of Hartford. Mr. Trewhella's fa- vorite outdoor sport is golf.
On October 25, 1929, in East Hartford, Carl W. Trewhella mar- ried Miss Harriet Driggs, daughter of Alfred and Alice ( Williams) Driggs. The couple are the parents of the following children: I. Ro- bert H., who was born on August 15. 1932. He graduated from Loomis Institute and from Babson Institute at Wellesley, Massachusetts. He married Gale Coles of East Hartford, and they have one daughter, Ruth, who was born in 1955. 2. Jane E., born on February 4, 1934. She graduated from Mary Burnham School at Northampton. Mas- sachusetts, and Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. She has taken graduate courses at the Sorbonne in Paris. She is now the wife of Jean Wagner, a graduate of the University of Kansas City, and they make their home there. They have one son, Mark Eugene Wagner. Mr. Wagner served in the army in Korea. 3. Martha, born on April 20, 1937. She attended Edgewood Park School at Briarcliff Ma- nor, New York, and graduated from Howard Seminary, West Bridge- water, Massachusetts. She married Mr. Nicholas Triahos and they
Katharine Matthies
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reside in West Hartford. 4. Edward C., born on December 24, 1942. He is a student at Monson Academy. All four children were born in East Hartford.
KATHARINE MATTHIES
A resident of Seymour who has played a most constructive role in her city and state, Miss Katharine Matthies has added her dis- tinguished record to those of notable forebears. She has been particu- larly prominent in the affairs of the Daughters of the American Revolution, as a committeewoman and as a holder of state and na- tional offices. Locally, she has done outstanding work in public health and educational causes, in welfare programs, and as a devoted mem- ber of her church.
Miss Matthies is the daughter of George E. and Annie Thomp- son (Wooster) Matthies, and granddaughter of Martin and Eva (Sumnor ) Matthies and of William Henry Harrison and Anna Louise (Putnam) Wooster. She is the second of the children born to her parents, her elder brother being Bernard Harrison Matthies. Bernard H. Matthies married Ethel May Clark, and they have five children: i. George Clark. ii. William Wooster. iii. Roberta Isabel. iv. Richard Lloyd. v. Bernard Franklyn.
After attending the public schools of her native Seymour, Miss Matthies studied for a short time at Mount Holyoke, and did several years of postgraduate work at the Gateway School, New Haven. In 1922 she became a member of the the Sarah Ludlow Chapter, Daugh- ters of the American Revolution in Seymour and has been active in the organization since that time. Locally she has held the offices of recording secretary, vice regent and regent, and is now serving as treasurer of her chapter. In the Connecticut State Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, Miss Matthies served successively as corresponding secretary, recording secretary, vice regent, and re- gent. In 1950 she was elected to a three-year term as state coun- cilor. From 1953 to 1956 Miss Matthies served as State Chaplain and from 1956 to 1959 as the first State Organizing Secretary. In the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution she served as a member of various committees ; was national chairman of Approved Schools for three years, of Conservation for three years and of the Student Loan Fund for one year ; and also served as na- tional chairman of tellers for the Continental Congress from 1940 to 1942, previously having been a vice chairman or a teller for several years. In 1948 and 1949, Miss Matthies gave the O'Byrne Voting
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Room in the new Administration Building at National Daughters of the American Revolution headquarters in Washington, D. C., the room being named in honor of Mrs. Roscoe C. O'Byrne, President General. She also paid for a corridor in memory of her mother, Annie Wooster Matthies. Miss Matthies was corresponding secretary general from 1945 to 1947, and third vice president general from 1947 to 1950.
She is a member of the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America, and served as national recording secretary of this or- ganization from 1939 to 1941, and from 1943 to 1946; and as state historian from 1935 to 1943 and during 1945-1946. She served as State Councilor 1957-1960. She was recording secretary of the Con- necticut Arboretum Association at Connecticut College, New Lon- don, from 1933 to 1951 and is now vice president of that organization. She has held comparable positions in a number of civic and welfare groups. Among these are the Seymour Public Library, of which she has been a director since 1939, and of which she was elected record- ing secretary in November, 1945, and president in 1957. She became chairman of the Seymour Branch of the American Red Cross in Feb- ruary, 1946, and served until 1951. During the existence of the Sey- mour Philatelic Club, she served as recording secretary, treasurer and president and she is a member of the New Haven Women's Philatelic Society, its president in 1955-1959. From 1939 to 1957, Miss Matthies was a director of the Griffin Hospital of Derby. In 1939 she also became a director of the Seymour Public Health Associa- tion. After serving as its first vice president, 1946-1947, she was elected its president in 1947 and served until 1950.
Miss Matthies has proved in many ways her vital interest in the cause of education. She was a trustee of Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee, 1938-1955 ; is now an honorary trustee; a trus- tee of Kate Duncan Smith of the Daughters of the American Revolu- tion School in Alabama, 1935-1959; and has been a trustee of the Hillside School for Boys at Marlborough, Massachusetts, since 1940. From 1945 to 1951, she was a trustee of the American International College at Springfield, Massachusetts.
During World War II, despite the fact that she was then serv- ing as Connecticut state vice regent, and later as state regent, of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she served over five hun- dred hours as a plane spotter in all kinds of weather, and acted as air-raid warden, becoming chief of her sector. She knitted for the American Red Cross, and for the men at the Marine Hospital on Ellis Island, and did surgical dressing work for the American Red Cross.
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