Winsted's newest hall-of-famer

HARTFORD — One of Winsted’s own has been inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame.

The Rev. William D. McGee  is one of 11 veterans who were formally inducted into the 2009 class of the state’s Veterans Hall of Fame Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Gov. M. Jodi Rell presented a numbered commemorative medallion to each inductee.

“It is most appropriate that we pause each year to recognize and honor the heroes of the past and present who have so vitally shaped our nation and way of life,†Rell said.

McGee served as a corporal in the Marine Corps in the First Marine Air Wing in Vietnam. He was awarded the Purple Heart twice and received the Meritorious Unit Citation Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. Today, he is co-pastor at Thomaston-based Eagle Rock Church with his wife, Lin. McGee is a former prison chaplain and currently serves as the chaplain of VFW Post 296 and as a volunteer chaplain for the Connecticut Chapter for the Missing in America Project.

Ordained with the Southern Baptist Convention and Fellowship of Connecticut Congregational Christian Churches, McGee has a 30-year career in the ministry, founding and serving many churches, organizations and missions throughout the United States.

McGee was awarded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for more than 5,000 hours of volunteer service. He has also received recognition from the National Association of Congregational Christian Chuches for his work with youth. McGee founded and is pastoral leader of Men Walking With God International Ministries. He serves as a member of the boards of directors of Asian Faith Mission and for Agape Children’s Home,
both located in Kerala, India.

Rell honored McGee and the rest of this year’s inductees for their service, both in the military and back home as civilians.

“These individuals not only answered the call of their nation, they have answered the call of their communities,†she said. “It is what they have done beyond their military service that truly sets them apart as individuals worthy of this special honor. The example they have set, the courage they have shown and the public service they have given is most worthy of the respect and admiration of all Connecticut citizens.â€

Rell created the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame in 2005 through Executive Order No. 5 to pay permanent tribute to those citizens who have served the nation with distinction in the U.S. Armed Forces and then returned home to enrich their communities and state through distinguished careers and selfless public service.

Forty Connecticut veterans have previously been inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame. Among them are former President George H.W. Bush, former Governor William A. O’Neill, five Medal of Honor recipients and the first woman inductee, Navy Veteran Barbara Miller.

Three of this year’s inductees will be inducted posthumously. This year’s class includes the late state Rep. Richard Belden, an Air Force veteran and the longest continually serving member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1974 until his death in office in 2007.

In addition to McGee, the 2009 inductees to the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame are Richard O. Belden (posthumous award; formerly of Shelton); John “Jack†Joseph Dougherty of Branford; Robert L. Genovese of Naugatuck; Dr. Harvey J. Grinsell Jr., M.D., of Putnam/Woodstock; Brig. Gen. John J. King (posthumous award, formerly of Hartford); Brig. Gen. Daniel J. McHale of Avon; Theodore J. Plamondon Jr. of Enfield; Alphonse N. Sabetta of Shelton; Daniel A. Vece Jr. of Clinton; and Homer L. Wise (posthumous award, formerly of Stamford).

This year’s inductees were selected from a field of 47 nominations and recommended to the governor by an appointed executive nomination committee.

Veterans who served in all military conflicts are eligible to be considered, including World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nomination packets for the 2010 Hall of Fame class must be received by June 30, 2010. Nomination packets and additional information can be found at ct.gov/ctva.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less