John F. Fossi, 62, business leader

John F. Fossi of Danbury, a Ridgefield native and longtime business leader in town, died on Saturday, Dec. 13, at Bethel Health Care Center. He was 62 years old and the husband of Patricia Gorman Fossi.
A founder of Century 21 Landmark Properties, Mr. Fossi had long been active in the community, both as a businessman and an athlete. “He had a knack for making anyone he came in contact with feel special,” said State Rep. John Frey, his business partner. “He had a tremendously huge heart.”
Mr. Fossi was born April 5, 1941, the sixth of seven children of the late Dominic and Ida Montanari Fossi. He grew up in Ridgefield, and lettered in football, basketball and baseball at Ridgefield High School. When he began football in 1956, Ridgefield still fielded six-man teams. He was on the school’s first 11-man squad in 1957, and a year later was quarterback and co-captain of the team. He was a member of the 1957 baseball team that won the conference championship.
He graduated from Ridgefield High School in 1959 after having been voted “most popular” and “most athletic.” He went on to attend Miami University in Ohio.
Mr. Fossi served in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 until 1967, and had worked for a short time at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories in the Mohave Desert. He and Patricia Gorman were married in 1967.
Early in his career, Mr. Fossi had worked at Craig’s Jewelry Store on Main Street. During the 1970s and 1980s, he owned and operated the Ridgefield Deli at 590 Danbury Road. In 1992, he co-founded Century 21 Landmark Properties with his brother, Louis J. Fossi, and Mr. Frey, and he later became the principal partner with Mr. Frey.
“He was a truly all-around great guy, a salt-of-the-earth man,” Mr. Frey said. “He had a very loud infectious laugh and a cheek-to-cheek smile.”
In 1998, when Mr. Frey was considering running for the office of Ridgefield’s representative in Hartford, he approached his partner about the idea. “John would have had veto power over my running for state representative,” Mr. Frey said. “Instead, he encouraged me to run, even though it would mean a sacrifice for him. He was very supportive, right from the start.”
“There is going to be a huge void in my life without John around,” Mr. Frey added. “He was a great partner and an even greater friend.”
Active in the real estate profession, Mr. Fossi was past president and treasurer of the Century 21 Connecticut Broker’s Council, an organization representing the 90 Century 21 offices in Connecticut, and was a past director of the Ridgefield Board of Realtors.
He belonged to the Ridgefield Downtown Committee, and was a past director of the Ridgefield Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member of the Fairfield County Easter Seal Committee.
His longstanding interest in youth sports led him to serve as a member of Finance Committee of Tiger Hollow, which recently built the athletic stadium at the high school. He was a founding member of the Danbury Athletic Youth Organization’s Pop Warner Football program, and had coached the Bissell’s Pharmacy team in Ridgefield Little League.
At their annual banquet in 2001, the Ridgefield Old Timers honored him for his athletic and civic accomplishments.
Mr. Frey said that although Mr. Fossi was active in his business and community work, “his family was number one.” In recent years, “when one of his grandchildren visited the office, he just dropped everything. To see him with his grandchildren was just really touching.”
An avid golfer, Mr. Fossi was a member of the Ridgefield and Richter Park Men’s League and the current golf champion of the “Fossi Family Annual Pennsylvania Golf Tournament,” a yearly gathering of his siblings. He had earlier been active in local softball leagues.
Former First Selectman Louis Fossi said his brother “was the most light-hearted of all the children, well known for his many pranks. He laughed often, in a wonderful horse laugh, and no one laughed more loudly at his own jokes — or at himself — than did John.”
“He was a genuinely happy human being, who found the good in others very easily.”
Besides his wife of 36 years, Mr. Fossi is survived by three sons, Darrell D. Fossi and his wife Lois of Hershey, Pa., Devin Fossi and his wife Kathy of Kenley, N.C., and Donald D. Fossi and his wife Julie Anne of New Milford; three sisters, Dorothy Marconi of Wallingford, Elsie Craig and her husband Norman of Ridgefield, and Norma Contessa of Danbury; three brothers, Robert L. Fossi and his wife Jean of Shillington, Pa., Louis J. Fossi and his wife Ann of Pawleys Island, S.C.; and Thomas D. Fossi and his wife Jeanette of Harrisburg, Pa.; 11 grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.
The Rev. Jude Fay celebrated a Mass of Christian Burial Wednesday in St. Peter’s Church, Danbury.
Burial was in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ridgefield.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Southbury Training School, Farm-I, Southbury, CT 06488, or to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 6931 Arlington Road, Bethesda, MD 20814.
The Kane Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.