USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 52
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Mr. Deeds began his business career with the firm of Hooven, Owens and Rentschler at Hamilton, Ohio, and after a year with that organization, came to Hartford in 1926 to join Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company as director and secretary-treasurer. He was vice president of Pratt and Whitney from 1930 to 1935, and its general manager from 1935 to 1938. Meantime, in 1928, Mr. Deeds had as- sumed duties as secretary of United Aircraft and Transport Cor- poration. He continued in that post until 1931, and was treasurer from 1928 to 1934. From 1929 until 1934, he served on its board of directors.
When he left Pratt and Whitney in 1938, Mr. Deeds became president of the Chandler-Evans Corporation, which he continued to head until 1947. His executive connection with Niles-Bement-Pond Company began in 1943, when he was named president, director and general manager of the firm. He resigned from the presidency and the general managership in 1947, but remained a director and a mem- ber of the executive committee until 1955. He was chairman of the board at the time he withdrew from all connections with the company in 1955.
He has been chairman of the board of Specialty Converters, Inc., an East Braintree organization, since 1952. In addition he serves on the boards of directors of the Hartford Electric Light Company, Hartford Courant Company, Connecticut Bank and Trust Company, AEtna Life Insurance Company, Whiton Machine Company, and AEtna Casualty and Surety Company. He was formerly a director of Arrow-Hart and Hegeman Electric Company, Mead Corporation, Potter and Johnson Company, Waterbury Battery Company and Auto- mobile Insurance Company.
As an industrialist, Mr. Deeds is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and the American Ordnance Association. In 1957, Trinity College in Hart- ford conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He has been active in public and political affairs, and served as a member of the Electoral College in 1948. In his home city, he is an incorpor- ator of the Hartford Hospital, and serves as president and director of the Hartford Young Men's Christian Association. His memberships
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include Beta Theta Pi, the lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, the University Club and Cloud Club of New York, The Hartford Club, Country Club of Farmington, and the Moraine Country Club and Engineers Club of Dayton, Ohio. He attends the Congregational Church, and is a Republican in politics. Aeronautics and shooting are his hobbies.
On November 3, 1928, Charles W. Deeds married Ruth Belden, daughter of Frederick Seth and Sydney (Hansen) Belden. Mrs. Deeds graduated from Miss Wright's School at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Like her husband, she is active in local affairs, and is a director of the Hartford Women's Aid Society. The couple are the parents of three children: 1. Suzanne Belden, born March 8, 1931 in Hartford. She is a graduate of Bennett College in Millbrook, New York. Now the wife of John L. McShane, she has two children: i. Kathleen. ii. John L., Jr. 2. Edward Andrew, 2nd, who was born in Hartford on August 19, 1933. In 1955 he completed his courses at Denison Uni- versity, served as a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, and is now at Cornell University, studying business administration. He is married to the former Miss Elizabeth Porter. 3. Barbara Burling, born February 23, 1938. In 1958, she graduated from Bennett Junior College. The family's residence is on Mountain Spring Road in Farm- ington.
JOHN HENRY NORTON
One of the younger members of the bar at Fairfield, John Henry Norton is partner in the firm of Norton and Bisacca. He has already compiled an exceptional record of public service. In recent years he has served on the Town Planning and Zoning Commission and as senior judge of the town court, and at the time of writing is a candi- date for first selectman of Fairfield.
Born on State Street Extension in that town on October 28, 1924, he is a son of John Joseph and Catherine Alice (Quinn) Norton. His father had come to this country from Ireland, where he was born in 1886. He arrived in New York City about 1913, then moved to Bridge- port, Connecticut, where he worked as a shipping clerk for the Crane Company. About 1923 he moved to Fairfield, which has been his home since. Most of his life he has worked as a laborer, being in the employ of Aluminum Company of America for a time, and later with the Fairfield Highway Department, with which he is still work- ing. His wife, the former Catherine Alice Quinn, was born in Ireland in 1892, and died in December, 1955.
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Reared in Fairfield and attending its public schools, John Henry Norton graduated from Roger Ludlowe High School in 1941, then attended Cheshire Academy, 1941-1942, receiving a scholarship as a student there. He next enrolled at Columbia University, where he was a student for one year. During that time he was elected captain of the football team, and won a varsity position on the baseball team.
In 1941 he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve, and re- ceived a commission as a naval officer at the age of twenty. In active service from the time he completed his courses at Columbia, he was assigned to the Navy's college program at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. In 1944 he went to Midshipmen's School at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, which he attended until January, 1945, receiving a commission in the United States Navy on his graduation. He served as an executive officer aboard a mortar ship in the Pacific until his honorable discharge in August, 1946.
Mr. Norton then resumed his courses at Columbia. From 1947 to 1950, he was a student at Cornell University Law School. There he took his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1950.
Admitted to the bar of his state, Mr. Norton started practice in Fairfield in October, 1950, and that city has been the center of his professional activity since. In 1956 he formed his partnership with George R. Bisacca. The firm of Norton and Bisacca engages in a general practice; and Mr. Norton himself has tried all kinds of cases, from negligence to murder. His firm has its offices at 1559 Post Road.
As a lawyer he is a member of the Fairfield-Bridgeport Bar As- sociation, the Connecticut Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. A Democrat in politics, he was named to his first public post, as a member of the Town Planning and Zoning Commission, in 195I, and served until 1955. In that year he became senior judge of the town court.
In that capacity, John H. Norton served his community with exceptional effectiveness. His efforts were effective in removing ob- scene literature from the newsstands; and he also instituted a pro- gram to further control speeding and reckless driving. He put through a program to require high bonds from heavy vehicles whose drivers had been accused of speeding; encouraged private citizens to report speeders and reckless drivers; and encouraged the use of unmarked cars. He also founded the Fairfield Safe Driving Clinic. This is a program under which motor vehicle offenders attend eight hours of instruction dealing with the dangers incident to careless driving. The program has been so successful that safe-driving clinics are being
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considered or established throughout the state, with enthusiastic sup- port from Governor Ribicoff, the Connecticut Safety Commission, Station WNHC-TV, and the Connecticut State Bar Association.
To further implement the highway safety program, Mr. Norton had five bills introduced into the Connecticut State Legislature pertain- ing to five areas of highway safety. He also persuaded the Fairfield representatives to introduce three bills in the legislature concerning juveniles. He has spoken before the legislative committees on all of these bills. He has always been a strong advocate of court reorganiza- tion. He was requested to serve on a distinguished panel of highway safety experts by the Yale Law School and the American Bar Associa- tion in a forum at Yale Law School.
Mr. Norton also inaugurated the Lions Liberty Bells program, in which effort he was personally commended by President Eisen- hower, John C. Cornelius, president of The American Heritage Foun- dation, Governor Ribicoff, Senators Bush and Purtell, all of our former United States Congressmen, John Bailey and Clarence Bald- win. His programs have received widespread news coverage, and have been the subject of innumerable editorials in the press. Mr. Norton has himself been the author of a newspaper column known as "The Lawyers' Den," which appears in journals in four communities. He has traveled throughout the state of Connecticut, appearing before different civic groups outlining his programs. In this way he has come to be in great demand as a public speaker, and has addressed such local groups as the Parent-Teacher Associations and faculty groups of Grasmere, Oldfield, Mill Hill, Andrew Warde, Mckinley, Roger Ludlowe, Holland Hill, and Nathan Hale schools.
Mr. Norton finds time in his busy schedule for executive duties as a business man, and is now the president of Daywell Laboratories, Inc., a rapidly growing manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. He serves on the board of Fairfield Memorial Hospital.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in his home city, the Fairfield Lions Club and Lions International, and the American Legion. His fraternities are Phi Alpha Delta (legal) and Sigma Chi (social). A Roman Catholic, he is a member of the St. Thomas Men's League, and he holds the Third degree in the Knights of Columbus.
At St. Thomas' Church in Fairfield, John Henry Norton married Marjorie Ellen Costello. Born in Bridgeport in 1919, she is the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Sullivan) Costello. Her father, who was a chauffeur, is deceased. Her mother is living in Fairfield. Mrs. Norton graduated from Roger Ludlowe High School in 1936.
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Mr. and Mrs. Norton are the parents of eight children: Sheila, born in 1944. She is attending Notre Dame High School in Bridge- port. 2. Colleen, born in 1946; attending St. Thomas School in Fair- field. 3. Maura, born in 1952. She attends St. Thomas School. 4. Brian, born in 1953. 5. Timothy, born in 1954. 6. Catherine, born in 1955. 7. Elizabeth, born in 1957. 8. Joseph, born in 1959.
JOHN PETER PREVIDI
President and a director of the Frank H. Lee Hat Company of Danbury, since 1956, and president and a director of the Berkshire Broadcasting Company, Mr. Previdi served as mayor of Danbury from 1951 to 1955 as a Republican, and he is a member of the Dan- bury Board of Education.
He was born in Bethel, on April II, 1907, the son of Dominic Previdi. His father and mother were born in Italy, his father in 1870, and his mother in 1876. His father, who had been a seaman, is now deceased. Mr. Previdi attended the Danbury public schools and grad- uated from Danbury High School in 1925. He was then employed as a printer by the Danbury News for ten years, and subsequently founded his own printing firm, the Danbury Printing Company, which he operated for more than twenty years. He is also the proprietor of the Stationery and Office Equipment Store of Danbury, was one of the organizers of the Berkshire Broadcasting Company, of which he is now president, and became president of the Frank H. Lee Hat Company of Danbury in 1956.
A member of the Chamber of Commerce and a director of the Danbury Club, Mr. Previdi is also a member of the Knights of Co- lumbus and of the Elks, and enjoys social connections as a member of the Ridgewood Country Club. He attends religious worship at Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic Church in Danbury.
Mr. Previdi was married in Bethel, on July II, 1936, to Louise Ratchford, the daughter of James Ratchford and of Mary (Kennedy) Ratchford. Both of her parents are deceased. Mrs. Previdi attended the Danbury public schools and graduated from Danbury High School in 1925.
Mr. and Mrs. Previdi have two children: I. Mary Louise, born in Danbury on November 5, 1937, graduated from Danbury High School in 1955. 2. Margaret Eugenia, born on April 8, 1941, grad- uated from Danbury High School in 1959; now attending Berrie College, Miami, Florida.
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