USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume IV > Part 40
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JOHN A. NORTH
As president of The Phoenix of Hartford Insurance Companies, John A. North heads one of the oldest fire and casualty insurance groups in the country. He is the seventh president, and in 1951, at
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the age of forty-nine, became one of the youngest chief executives then in the insurance industry.
Mr. North was born in North Haven, on December 2, 1901, son of John Richard and Helen Margaret (Alden) North. His father was president of the North Insurance Agency, an old organization which became a representative of The Phoenix Insurance Company in 1855. Even at that time the agency was twelve years old. On his mother's side, John A. North is descended from John Alden and Priscilla Mullens of the Mayflower.
He attended North Haven public schools, and from 1914 to 1917 was a student at New Haven High School. There he was a member of Alpha Delta Sigma fraternity, played football, and was one of the organizers of the first Hi-Y Club in Connecticut. He was president of this club in 1917. From New Haven High School, he went to Hotchkiss School at Lakeville, where he graduated in 1920. In the spring of that year, his father, J. Richard North died, and John helped in the support of the family by working on a farm which they owned, at North Haven.
In the fall of 1920 he joined The Phoenix Insurance Company as a clerk in its home office in Hartford. Senior officials of the firm, George C. Long, Jr. and Edward Milligan, persuaded him to continue his education. He entered Yale University in 1921 as a New Haven Alum- ni Scholar, and later received the Robert Douglas Meacham Scholar- ship. As an undergraduate he played freshman baseball, was a mem- ber of the Sheff Student Council, the Junior Prom Committee, and was chairman of the Classbook Committee. He was elected class secretary, class orator, and was a member of the Torch Honor Society and Berzelius. He graduated in 1925, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science. After graduation, he served as class secretary, for several years.
In July, 1925, Mr. North rejoined The Phoenix Insurance Com- pany, and was appointed special agent in Texas. He was called back to New England in late 1929, and traveled a field comprising the states of Connecticut, Vermont, and western Massachusetts. In 1936 he was appointed assistant secretary of The Phoenix of Hartford Insurance Companies, and through successive promotions, was made secretary in 1939, vice president in 1941, and in 1943, a director of The Phoenix Insurance Company and The Connecticut Fire Insurance Company. He was promoted to executive vice president of The Phoenix of Hart- ford Insurance Companies in 1948, and became president in 1951.
In addition to his major executive post, he serves on the boards of directors of the Arrow-Hart and Hegeman Electric Company, The
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Connecticut Bank and Trust Company, Mechanics Savings Bank, Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, Hartford Steam Boiler and Inspection Company, all of Hartford, General Adjustment Bureau and Underwriters Salvage Company of New York, Allied Control Company, Sanborn Map Company, Holyoke Water Power Company, and Underwriter's Laboratories of Chicago.
A founder of the American Institute for Property and Liability Underwriters, Mr. North was its first president, holding office from 1942 to 1944, and is now a life trustee. He has served as president of the Eastern Underwriters Association, and president of the South- eastern Underwriters Association. Active in the National Board of Fire Underwriters, he has served as chairman of its public relations committee and as chairman of its executive committee. He was chair- man of the board of governors of The New England Fire Insurance Rating Association, and is a past chairman of The National Fire Waste Council of Washington, D. C. He was formerly a director of the National Automobile Underwriters Association, and in 1957-1958 was chairman of the board of trustees of the American Foreign In- surance Association.
Mr. North has served his state in responsible public offices. He was a member of the Committee on Industry and Labor under the Connecticut Postwar Planning Board, and is now chairman of the board of the Connecticut Public Expenditure Council. He was chair- man of the Hartford Chapter of the American Red Cross during the last half of World War II, and is now a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association, Hillyer Junior College. He has also served as trustee of Kingswood School, and Hartford College of Insurance from 1942 to 1947. Governor Lodge appointed Mr. North chairman of the citizens Committee for the state's adopted aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ta- rawa in which capacity he served for three years.
He is a former director of the New England Council and the Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the tax com- mittee of the United States Chamber of Commerce. His memberships include the Berzelius Society and The Torch Honor Society of Yale, the Yale Club of New York City, Yale Alumni Association of Hart- ford, the Alden Kindred of America, The Hartford Club, Wampanoag Country Club, the Brattleboro Country Club in Vermont, and Cor- inthian Lodge No. 103 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is fond of golf, and plays a creditable game. In the language of his profession he remarks that "he collected on a Lloyd's hole-in-one pol- icy a few years ago."
BT Bishop
Ruth Wilson Biskop.
Conn. IV-32
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On February 6, 1926, John A. North married Lorene Williams Hoyt, a native of Waterbury, and daughter of Evanston B. and Ida E. (Williams) Hoyt. She spent most of her early years in West Haven. Prior to her marriage she was a professional dancing teacher. The couple are the parents of one son, John Alden, Jr., who was born in Hartford on April 30, 1931. He graduated from Hotchkiss School and Trinity College, and is now with Bozell & Jacobs, a national ad- vertising firm, with a branch in Hartford. He is a veteran of service in the United States Navy, and was in the Pacific from 1954 to 1956. John A. North, Jr., married Jean Pressley, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Warren Pressley. They have two sons, John Alden, 3rd, born in June, 1954, and Sterling, born in June, 1958. This family resides in Sims- bury. Mr. and Mrs. North, Sr., make their home at 60 West Hill Drive, West Hartford.
CARLTON THOMAS BISHOP
Following early experience in the engineering profession, Carlton Thomas Bishop began at Yale University the long and distinguished career in teaching for which he will be remembered, with respect and affection, by so many of its graduates. He served loyally on its faculty for forty-three years; and at the end of that time, unwilling to let his professional abilities lie idle, rounded out his long life with working in consulting capacities. He was also an author, and a devoted organizational worker.
Mr. Bishop was born at Avon on November 4, 1882, and was a son of Oliver Thomas and Frances Ellen (Prince) Bishop. In the paternal line he was a direct descendant of John Bishop, who settled at Guilford in 1639. Oliver T. Bishop held virtually every office in the Township of Avon at some time during his life. He was postmaster there, and represented the township in the state legislature. Frances Ellen Prince, whom he married, was a direct descendant of Robert Louet, who accompanied William the Conqueror on the invasion of England. Nathaniel Hawthorne was related to this family. Mrs. Bishop served on the library board at Avon, after having played a considerable part in founding the library.
Completing his preparatory studies at Williston Academy, East- hampton, Massachusetts, in 1900, Carlton T. Bishop entered Yale University, where he completed requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1903. In 1911 he returned to receive the profes- sional degree of Civil Engineer. On his graduation in 1903, he joined
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the American Bridge Company, for which he first worked at Wis- sahickon, Pennsylvania, and later at Ambridge, Pennsylvania. He remained with the organization until 1908; and during the follow- ing year was chief draftsman with the Hay Foundry and Iron Works at Newark, New Jersey.
In June, 1909, Mr. Bishop commenced his teaching career at Yale University, and over the next forty-three years, served suc- cesssively as instructor, assistant professor, and associate professor of engineering. His devoted and capable work as an educator earned him the respect of students and fellow faculty members alike. At various times, he performed consulting work for Yaie, which in- cluded rendering professional help on the planning of the Yale Bowl.
Following his retirement from the faculty of Yale University in 1952, he accepted appointment to a consulting post with the firm of Westcott and Mapes, Engineers. During the World War II years, he had taught courses under the Navy's Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Yale.
Mr. Bishop made a contribution of lasting value to the en- gineering profession, not only through the many well-trained young engineers whom he sent from his classes, but also through a number of technical works of which he was the author. Their titles, pub- lishers, and years of publication follow: "Structural Details of Hip and Valley Rafters," John Wiley and Sons, 1912; "Structural Draft- ing and Design," John Wiley and Sons, 1920, second edition, 1928, "Problems in Structural Design," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1938; "Structural Drafting," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1941. He wrote Section Six of Urquhart's "Civil Engineering Handbook," published by McGraw Hill Publishing Company in 1934.
He was active in engineers' organizations. A member of the largest of such groups, the American Society of Civil Engineers, he had served on committees and as president of its Connecticut Section. He was also a member of the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers and the American Association of University Professors.
In a busy professional career, Mr. Bishop found time for valuable service of a public nature to his home community of New Haven, Connecticut. He had served as alderman; was park commissioner for seventeen years; and after serving eleven years as vice president of that commission, was elected its president. He was a charter mem- ber and at one time president of the New Haven Lions Club, the New Haven Colony Historical Society, and the Connecticut Society of the Order of Founders and Patriots of America. He belonged to Sigma Xi, an engineers' honor society.
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Mr. Bishop was long a devoted worker in the United Church of New Haven. He was clerk of the congregation for thirty-three years; a member of the board of deacons for twenty-six years; and at the time of his death, was president of the board of deacons, the highest lay office. His hobby was photography, and in his earlier days he had been a devotee of tennis.
On July 2, 1910, Carlton Thomas Bishop married Ruth Wilson, daughter of Charles Henry and Ella Augusta (Barnes) Wilson. Mrs. Bishop is a direct descendant of John Stone and William Stone, both of whom settled in Guilford, Connecticut, in 1639. She is also descended from Asa Barnes, an early settler in Southington, Con- necticut, and of the Wilsons of Litchfield County and of John Downs of Milford, Connecticut. Her grandfather, Charles Wilson, estab- lished a large insurance agency of his day at New Haven. Her father, Charles H. Wilson, joined this firm. He died at an early age. The former Ella Augusta Barnes, whom he married, was a vocalist.
Mrs. Bishop is past regent and past chaplain of the Mary Clap Wooster Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at New Haven, has served five years as counselor, several years as a committee chairman, and is still a member of the board of that chapter. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, and earned a reputation as a pianist. She is a past president and has served as an officer in a number of clubs and church organizations. She was chosen class poet of her high school class and had several poems and articles published in the school periodical. She also has done occasional editorials, articles, and poems for a small-town newspaper.
Mr. and Mrs. Bishop became the parents of three sons: I. Melvin Thomas, who was born on December 9, 1913. He served with the United States Army in the Pacific during World War II, and held a captain's commission with the Corps of Engineers. Married to the former Miss Marjorie Mae Norton, of Fairfield, Connecticut, he is the father of three children: i. Thomas Norton, born on March 18, 1948. ii. Robert Wilson, born April 10, 1950. iii. Beckie Prince, born September 15, 1954. 2. Wilson Prince (twin), born March 20, 1916. He was a navy fighter pilot during World War II, with the rank of lieutenant. He married Miss Alice Dugger Bragg, of London Bridge, Virginia, and they have two children: a daughter, i. Page Lane, born on September 29, 1946, and a son, ii. Charles Wilson, born September 29, 1951. 3. Gordon Prince, born March 20, 1916, twin of Wilson. He was a pilot in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, serving in the Pacific and attaining the rank of captain.
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He married Marjorie May Floyd, of Bethany, Connecticut, and they have two children: i. Richard Floyd, who was born on April 23, 1947. ii. James Wilson, born September 3, 1952.
Mr. Bishop's death at New Haven, on June 8, 1957, ended a career of the utmost usefulness to the fields of education and en- gineering, and one in which authorship and service to community had had a proper place. One well acquainted with the man and his achievements has said of him:
Carlton was that rare combination: academic teacher, public servant, and personal friend. Forty-three years as an honored member of the Yale faculty should in itself be enough to revere his memory . . . But in addition he entered as a responsible citizen into a score of activities. And in each, by virtue of his very faithfulness, in the highest meaning of that word, he received the call to places of great responsibility. Lesser men might put forth the sudden inspiration or express the brief enthusiasm while Carlton, with a care that aroused our unceasing admiration, diligently saw to it that the ship held steady and on its course. . .
WILLIAM MILLS MALTBIE
The Hon. William Mills Maltbie, former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut, was born at Granby on March 10, 1880, and still makes his home in that town. He is a son of Theodore Mills and Louise A. (Jewett) Maltbie. After completing his studies in local public schools, he entered Yale University, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts there in 1901. In 1905 he re- ceived his Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School. He holds honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws from Yale (1933) and from Elon College (1941). In 1934 he received honorary degrees of Doc- tor of Civil and Canon Law from Trinity College; and Boston Uni- versity conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1942.
Admitted to the bar of his state on his graduation from Yale Law School in 1905, Judge Maltbie commenced practice at Hartford. The first public office to which he was elected was membership in the Connecticut House of Representatives, in 1913. From 1914 to 1917 he served as assistant state's attorney in Hartford County. He was executive secretary at the governor's office from 1915 to 1917.
In 1917 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Con- necticut, and he served on the Superior Court bench until 1925, when he became associate justice of the Supreme Court of Errors. He be- came chief justice of that court in December, 1930, and served until March, 1950. Since that time he has been a state referee.
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He served as a member of the Judicial Council of Connecticut, the State Board for the Education of the Blind, and on the State Library Committee. He was president of the Greater Hartford Coun- cil of Churches, and served as a member of the executive board of the Connecticut Conference of Congregational-Christian Churches, and of the national commission to prepare a constitution for the newly created United Church of Christ, and as a trustee of the Hart- ford Seminary Foundation. He was president of the Charter Oak Council, Boy Scouts of America, a member of its executive board and of the national executive board, B. S. A. He served as a trustee of the Hartford Y. M. C. A., and chairman of its Hi-Y Youth and Government Committee. He is president of the Connecticut Prison Association, a trustee of the Anna H. Fuller Fund (for cancer re- search), and was chairman of the Joint Conference Committee of the Connecticut Blue Cross and the Connecticut Hospital Association.
He was the author of "Index-Digest," Connecticut Reports, Vols. 64-81" published in 1909 and, in collaboration with Henry H. Townshend, of a similar work covering volumes 64-97, published in 1924. He also wrote a work entitled "Connecticut Appellate Prac- tice," (577 pp.) published in 1957.
Judge Maltbie is affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, and is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He attends the Congregational Church and is a Republican in politics.
On June 28, 1917, Judge William Mills Maltbie married Mary L. Hamlin, and they have one son, Theodore Mills Maltbie.
HENRY WADE BASSETT
An engineer by training, Henry Wade Bassett joined The W. E. Bassett Company in 1943, which was owned and operated by his brother William Edwin Bassett, early in his career. He has advanced to the position of vice president in charge of plant management with this Derby organization, which is a national leader in the manufacture of manicure implements, under the trademark "TRIM."
Born at Ansonia, on December 23, 1909, he is son of Henry Wade and Charlotte (Pittis) Bassett, and is a descendant, in several lines, of families traceable to the days preceding the first colonial settlements. In the direct paternal line, the first ancestor of record was Robert Bassett, who was born in England and died in Stratford, in 1678. He married Mary, surname unrecorded, and their son, Sergeant Robert Bassett, died in Stamford in 1710. In June 1668 he married
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Elizabeth Riggs, who died in 1744. Their son, Captain Samuel Bassett, was born in Stratford on November 28, 1692, and died in 1764. He and his wife, the former Deborah Bennett, were the parents of Samuel Bassett. Jr., born in Derby on November 29, 1719. He was married, on October 26, 1748, to Sarah Botsford, who was born on July 7, 1728. This couple were the parents of David Bassett, born in Derby on November 14, 1749: died May 21, 1819. He was married, on October 2, 1773, to Nabby Tomlinson of Stratford, born on April 21, 1747; died December 20, 1803. Their son, Asa Bassett of Derby, was born on March II, 1784, died April 11, 1861; and they also had a daughter, Lorany, born January 20, 1782, died in August 1868. Asa Bassett married Lucy Bull of Milford on September 17, 1834. Her first line of descent follows. To this couple were born four children: I. Eliza- beth Pond, on November 14, 1836. 2. Henry Wade (I), who was born December 13, 1838; died March 9, 1919. 3. James Bull, born October 14, 1840. 4. Mary Bryan, born December 30, 1842.
Henry Wade (1) Bassett was married on November 23, 1882, to Julia French of Elmira, New York, born April 12, 1864, died November 21, 1916. To them the following children were born : Henry Wade (2) Bassett. 2. Mary, who married Arthur Christensen. 3. Louise. 4. Dalceda. Henry Wade (2) Bassett was born on September 16, 1885, and died January 3, 1919. He was married on October 9, 1907, to Charlotte Pittis, who was born on October 8, 1885. The couple became the parents of the following children: I. Henry Wade (3) Bassett, whose record follows. 2. Charlotte Lucy, who married Harry McLean. 3. Ellen Bryant, who married W. O. Cookson. 4. William, who married Doris Morley. 5. Elizabeth, who married C. Nelson. 6. Julia, who married Erwin Lyon, Jr.
Through Lucy (Bull) Bassett, wife of Asa Bassett, Henry Wade Bassett is descended from Henry Bull, who under royal charter was Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- tions in the years 1685-1686 and 1690. Henry Bull was born in Wales in 1609, and died at Newport, Rhode Island, January 22, 1694. He married Elizabeth, surname unknown, who was also born in England and died in Newport. Their son was Lieutenant Jireh Bull, born at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in September 1638; died 1684. Jireh and Katherine Bull had a son. Jireh (2), born in 1659. died July 16, 1709. He was married in 1680 to Godsgift Arnold, who was born at New- port on August 27, 1658, and died April 23, 1691. Their son, Benedict Bull, was born on May 1, 1687. He was married on December II, 1716 to Sybella Bryan of Milford, and they had a son, Jireh (3),
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born October 10, 1721. He married Sybil Peck of Milford, born June 24, 1728, died May 21, 1787. This couple's son, Jabez Benedict Bull, was born at Milford on January 5, 1748, and died December 25. 1814. He married, on December 6, 1770, Mara Naomi Bristol, of Milford, born April 20, 1754, died in December 1842. This couple's son James was born in Milford on October 19. 1772, died March 18, 1831. He married Margaret Pond, who was born at Milford on May 20, 1773, died October 4, 1845.
She was descended from Sir Charles Hobby, who was knighted by Queen Anne in Windsor Castle on July 9. 1705. He married Eliza- beth, surname unknown, and their daughter, Mary Hobby, became the wife of Zachariah Hubbard. This couple had a daughter, Mary Hubbard, who married Peter Pond. Their son, Samuel Pond, mar- ried Elizabeth Sanford. These were the parents of Margaret Pond, who married James Bull. James and Margaret (Pond) Bull were the parents of Lucy Bull, wife of Asa Bassett.
Henry Wade Bassett attended public schools in Derby, and gradu- ated from Derby High School in 1929. He then entered Pratt Insti- tute in Brooklyn, attending its School of Architecture, where he com- pleted his courses in 1933. After working about ten years in the general construction field, he joined The W. E. Bassett Company in 1943, and advanced to plant superintendent, the position he held at the time he was promoted to vice president in charge of plant management. A record of the W. E. Bassett Company appears in the industrial and institutional section of this history.
Mr. Bassett has acquitted himself well in public office in the Town of Southbury, which he has served in the capacities of justice of the peace and chairman of the board of finance. He is a member and past president of the local club of Lions International. Affiliated with the Free and Accepted Masons, he is a member of King Solomon Lodge No. 7 at Woodbury, and of the higher bodies of the order and Sphinx Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Hartford. Mr. Bassett and his family attend the South Congregational Church.
At the Church of the Transfiguration in New York on Novem- ber 6, 1937. Henry Wade Bassett married Dorothy Louise McCallis- ter, daughter of Robert Edward and Louise Becker (Koehler) Mc- Callister. Mr. and Mrs. Bassett, who make their home in South Bri- tain, are the parents of the following children: I. Susan Jane, who was born on August 23, 1940. 2. Sally Anne, born February 3, 1945. 3. Nancy Mae, born June 15, 1954.
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WILLIAM EDWIN BASSETT
Founder in 1939 of the W. E. Bassett Company of Derby, William Edwin Bassett is president and treasurer and major stock- holder of the company.
He was born October 1, 1914, a son of Henry Wade Bassett and Charlotte (Pittis) Bassett, in Ansonia, Connecticut. The ancestry of his parents is set forth more fully in the preceding biography of William's brother, Henry Wade Bassett.
Mr. Bassett attended Irving Grammar School in Derby and graduated from Derby High School in 1934. He attended Tri State College in Angola, Indiana in 1936 and 1937, where he studied Aeronautical Engineering. From 1937 to 1938 he did various work having to do with metal fabrications, and in 1939 opened a small contract machine shop which became the William E. Bassett Com- pany. A record of the company appears in the industrial and institu- tional section of this history.
William E. Bassett is a director of the Derby Savings Bank. He is a member of the Woodbridge Club and attends Woodbridge Congregational Church.
On February 27, 1943, William Bassett married Doris Hilda Morley in St. James Episcopal Church in Derby. She is a daughter of John Clemson Morley and Harriett Elizabeth (Burns) Morley, and was born October 21, 1913. To this marriage three children were born. I. William Charles Bassett, on March 23, 1944. 2. Richard Edwin Bassett, on July 3, 1947. 3. David John Bassett on July 22, 1951.
DELANCEY PELGRIFT
As a lawyer, most of DeLancey Pelgrift's career in private prac- tice has been with the Hartford firm of Pelgrift, Blumenfeld and Nair. He is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and was born on November 29, 1889, son of Samuel L. and Kate (Brown) Pelgrift. Completing his secondary studies at Brooklyn Polytechnic Preparatory School in 1906, he entered Dickinson College, and in 1909 transferred to Brook- lyn Law School, then the law department of St. Lawrence University, where he received his degree of Master of Laws in 1912.
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