Dora Cassavechia, 80, longtime town clerk

Dora J. Cassavechia, a retired town clerk who had spent more than 40 years in Ridgefield government service, died on Wednesday, May 14, at her home in the village. She was 80 years old and the widow of Quinto Cassavechia.
A Ridgefield native, Mrs. Cassavechia was born on Sept. 2, 1922 a daughter of the late Joseph and Iride Feduzi Conti. As a child growing up on West Lane, she enjoyed the outdoors and thought nothing of walking into town and out to the Outpost Pond, at today’s Fox Hill condominiums, to go ice skating in winter. She attended Ridgefield schools and graduated from Ridgefield High School in 1941.
Mrs. Cassavechia’s first job was as a clerk for the Keeler and Durant Insurance Agency on Main Street. But when the war broke out, she joined the defense effort, working at the General Electric plant in Bridgeport, producing the searchlights used as beacons and to detect enemy aircraft at night. She began by doing assembly work and by war’s end had become a group leader in her department.
In 1945, when the war ended, she went to work in town hall as an assistant to First Selectman Winthrop Rockwell. She worked under Mr. Rockwell, a Republican, and later under First Selectman Harry E. Hull, a Democrat. She herself was an active Republican.
In 1947, she married Quinto Cassavechia, a local contractor, and she eventually took a break from government service to raise a family.
In 1963, Town Clerk Ruth M. Hurzeler asked her if she’d like to come to work in her office. Mrs. Cassavechia became an assistant town clerk under Miss Hurzeler and then under Terry Leary, the first Democrat elected to that job. When Mrs. Leary retired in 1979, Mrs. Cassavechia ran for the job and won the election.
The town clerk’s office records and indexes dozens of kinds of documents, from deeds and liens to birth, marriage and death certificates, and even dog licenses. Over the years, Mrs. Cassavechia oversaw improvements in the systems of keeping information, including the first use of computers in the office. She was noted for maintaining a well-run operation.
“She was a real stickler for accuracy,” said Barbara Serfilippi, the current town clerk, who worked under Mrs. Cassavechia for many years. She wasn’t afraid to criticize a lawyer who turned in sloppy or incomplete documents for recording. “If she didn’t like the way their work looked, she’d tell them,” the current town clerk said.
“She was a good teacher,” Mrs. Serfilippi added. “She taught me everything. She was tough — you worked — but she was very fair.”
One day in the mid-1980s when her office was short-handed and the Board of Selectmen would not provide more help, Mrs. Cassavechia confronted First Selectman Elizabeth Leonard in the hallway outside her office. Shaking her finger at Mrs. Leonard, the town clerk rattled off a litany of reasons why her office needed help. “She said things that you always wanted to say,” recalled Town Treasurer Mary Hart Foyt, one of the witnesses to the confrontation. “She was not about to let the first selectman push her over. We were in awe.”
Mrs. Leonard, also known for her strong will, argued back with equal volume and force. “But you know what?” said Mrs. Serfilippi. “We got the help.”
Mrs. Cassavechia undertook modern preservation techniques for many of the town’s oldest records, which date to 1708 and were beginning to deteriorate. Many volumes of hand-written records were rebound, and specially treated.
One day in 1989, inspecting a pile of old papers that some predecessor had stored in a cellar vault, she uncovered several ancient documents. Among them was the 1715 deed in which Tackora, a local American Indian, sold the first settlers much of the land that is now Ridgebury. “At the bottom of a pile of what you’d call junk, I came across these,” she told a reporter. “I couldn’t believe it.”
The deed was subsequently preserved.
Mrs. Cassavechia retired in 1996, but continued to help out in town government. She worked at the polls during elections and referendums, and each June would assist Mrs. Serfilippi with processing dog license renewals. In fact, just two days before she died, Mrs. Cassavechia had agreed to come in this June to help with licenses.
Mrs. Cassavechia’s husband died in 1969 when he was struck by a tree limb while clearing a lot on Thunder Hill Lane. “She never complained, never ever,” said Mrs. Serfilippi. “She just went ahead. She never felt sorry for herself.”
Mrs. Cassavechia was a member of the Board of Incorporators of the Ridgefield Bank, a board member of the Ridgefield Chapter of AARP, the OWLS, and belonged to the Connecticut and Fairfield County Town Clerk’s Association and of St. Mary’s Church.
For relaxation, “she loved cooking for family and friends,” said Jean Siomkos, her daughter, adding that Mrs. Cassavechia also enjoyed playing cards with friends.
She also loved to travel, especially with the local AARP chapter, and her most recent long trip was to Iceland last year, Mrs. Siomkos said. She had also regularly visited family in Florida.
“She has touched so many lives with her unquestioned loyalty and generosity to her family and friends,” said David Diehl, her son-in-law.
She is survived by two daughters, Jean Siomkos and her husband Paul of Danbury, and Judy Diehl and her husband David of Bradenton, Fla.; two grandchildren, Kelly Diehl and Dana Siomkos, and several nieces and nephews.
A sister, Mary Marcheggiani, died before her.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Saturday in St. Mary’s Church. Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery.
Contributions in her memory may be made to the Visiting Nurse Association, 90 East Ridge, or to the Ridgefield Fire Department Ambulance Fund, 6 Catoonah Street, both of Ridgefield 06877.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.