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11/22/2016 03:00 PM“As long as it was warm enough in the Assembly Hall,” is how Gilbert Stannard remembers days beginning at the old Morgan School in Clinton.
Stannard, who turns 102 next week, recently attended the opening of the new Morgan School, a big change from the days when the head student had their own special seat in the classroom and the school day began with a scripture reading. A 1932 graduate of the original Morgan School, Stannard is the school’s oldest living graduate. Back then, the University of Connecticut was called Connecticut State College—Stannard attended for a year and a half, studying dairy farming until he needed to return home to take care of his cows.
Harbor News recently spoke with Stannard’s son Charles Stannard, who provided the following background on his father.
Each town on the shoreline had its own baseball team that competed with the others. Gilbert Stannard played on Clinton’s team, and later in the 1940s on the county team. He also played soccer and shuffleboard, plus sailed and fished, from his youth to later in life.
Born on Dec. 1, 1914 in Saybrook to Earle and Gladys Lane Stannard, he moved to Clinton around age six to the home at 68 Liberty Street that his great-grandparents purchased around 1860. In 1935, Stannard married Ann Edmunds in the Church of the Holy Advent. The couple was married for 75 years at the time of her death; they raised six children at their Liberty Street home. Until 1943, the family supported itself through Stannard’s dairy farm.
When the family grew to four children, more income than the dairy farm could generate was needed. Stannard accepted a temporary position as custodian of the Clinton Grammar School, now Pierson School. When the second Morgan School opened on Route 81, he became head custodian of it due to the death of Lindsay Fletcher, custodian of the original school. He retired from the system at the end of 1979 as the district head of maintenance.
In 1981, the family moved to 11 Liberty Street, a home that had belonged to Stannard’s in-laws—and where they celebrated their 50th anniversary, in the same home that had hosted the original wedding reception. The family moved once more to 20 Morgan Park.
After retirement, Stannard and his family began staying in Florida during the winter, though they return to Morgan Park in Clinton every summer. Until 2016, he was still competing at shuffleboard—an activity that he took seriously enough to build his own court at his Clinton home.
The old Morgan School wasn’t all scripture and studies. Stannard recalls Halloween pranks such as ringing the tower bell and sliding down the bannister all the way from the third floor. Home life, however, was tough.
“There was little time for play,” said Charles Stannard. “Life was not easy, especially when the Depression hit.”
However, Gilbert Stannard filled his life with activities he enjoyed, from sports to sailing. He took up the latter around 1950, and picked up several trophies while competing in the Duck Island Yacht Club. For most of his adult life until retirement, Stannard was a member of the Clinton Volunteer Fire Department—at one point he served as treasurer. He also served on the Zoning Board of Appeals and is a past Master of the Masonic Lodge (Jeptha) in Clinton.