Arthur James McKenna, a soft-spoken old-fashioned gentleman
who was an untiring voice for fiscal restraint, open government
and limited growth, died Thursday, April 6, at his home on Silver
Spring Road. He was 86 and the husband of Marjorie Colville
McKenna.
For nearly 40 years he was a factor in Ridgefield politics,
holding a variety of elected and appointed offices, writing
letters, taking stands, making phone calls to get the vote out
for elections and referendums. "He was very intent on
getting his message across, and he always did his homework,"
his wife Marjorie said.
"He was some great guy. He lived a wonderful life, and he
was rare in being a man of absolute integrity -- just a good
solid guy with great values of family and responsibility and
civic participation."
Mr. McKenna's political service to the town included stints on
the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Republican Town Committee
-- which he chaired -- the Sewer Advisory Committee and, most
recently, the Elderly Tax Credit Benefit Committee.
But his most consistent contribution, year in and year out, was
as a budget watchdog.
"One does not have to be a genius to conclude that
governments locally and in Hartford have been on a profligate
spending spree," he wrote in a 1991 letter to the editor.
"Locally, since 1986, town spending has increased 85% while
the schools with an enrollment decline have spent 50% more. The
result is that the local spenders are demanding an 11% tax
increase. On top of this we can probably expect to pay a state
income tax in order to cover Hartford's past extravagances."
Mr. McKenna was born in New York City July 16, 1913, a son of the
late Arthur J. and Eileen MacGuire McKenna -- "both from
families of recently emigrated Irish" his daughters
Constance, Barbara and Katherine wrote in a retrospective on his
life.
He grew up in Garden City, L.I., attended The Choate School in
Wallingford and was a 1936 graduate of Yale University, where he
received his bachelor's degree.
"Throughout the really dark years of the Depression, the
family conspired to pay his tuition at Yale University, where he
joined the Socialist League," his daughters wrote.
"Summers he worked on ships with the merchant marine, and
sailed to France at least once. At college, he majored in
engineering, but minored in sociology and worked in the sociology
department as a teaching assistant. This launched an interest in
history and politics that grew ever more passionate as he applied
it ever more practically.
"Weeks before his death he would muse hopefully on the power
of the Internet. He speculated that its potential for instant
communication would spell the end for dictatorships that fester
in dark corners of the world."
Mr. McKenna volunteered for the U.S. Navy in World War II.
Although only a lieutenant, he was in charge of compressed gases
for all the branches of the service in the South Pacific theater
of war.
"He certainly never forgot the Depression and World War
II," his wife recalled.
After the war, Mr. McKenna joined the Dorr-Oliver Corporation
where he was a sales engineer and international consultant.
"A company man, just loved selling equipment and then going
into plants for Ôstart-up,' " his daughters wrote.
"Uninterested in promotions or management positions, he had
the same disdain for people who sat behind desks that he had for
lawyers. He talked about the days when a man's handshake was his
word, and lawyers weren't needed.
"He was supposed to retire at 65, but at his retirement
party, his boss approached him and asked if he'd like to continue
working. They sent him out on the really challenging start-ups
then, in Chile, Brazil, the Philippines and more. He retired
again at 70, but not for long."
After his second retirement in 1983, Mr. McKenna became a sales
consultant for Carbtrol in Westport for 10 years.
"He stopped working on his 81st birthday." Mrs. McKenna
said.
A Ridgefielder for the past 38 years, Mr. McKenna lived all that
time in the same house on Silver Spring Road -- a place readers
of The Press history page may know as the home of 19th Century
diarist Jared Nash. The McKennas moved to Ridgefield from Park
Forest, Ill., where he had served on the local planning board.
He was a member of St. Mary's Church in Ridgefield and was an
early board member of the Keeler Tavern Preservation Society. He
was active in the Ridgefield Community Center and its annual June
flea market, which he chaired for many years. Mr. McKenna was a
long and active member of the Ridgefield Men's Club, and
particularly enjoyed a group that had meetings and guest speakers
on foreign and political affairs -- they mockingly called
themselves "the pundits."
"Oh, how he loved that," Mrs. McKenna recalled.
"He loved the men's club."
As a local political activist, Mr. McKenna's principal themes --
after fiscal restraint -- were controlling development through
planning and zoning, open and honest government, and
sewer-related issues to which he brought his engineering
background.
A 1996 letter to the editor touched on all three. "Once
again in Ridgefield, we are seeing the time-honored democratic
tradition of conducting the public's business in public treated
with contempt," Mr. McKenna wrote. "In the negotiations
for an inter-local agreement with Danbury to bring sewers to the
proposed Ridgebury condo development, the veil of secrecy imposed
by town hall has been well-nigh impenetrable...
"Clearly, the town's proposal advocates the developers'
interests ... the overwhelming reaction of those residents of
Ridgebury who have learned of what's afoot has been one of alarm,
and with good reason. The impact would be enormous, and has
scarcely been evaluated: the semi-rural ambiance of the area will
be destroyed; traffic congestion will increase incrementally, and
that's only for starters. The resulting necessity to provide
additional classroom space and the cost of educating students has
not even been addressed. And what of property values? Shouldn't
all these factors be considered before the whole deal is
presented to Ridgefield as an accomplished fact?"
But for all the power of his skillfully wielded pen, Mr. McKenna
was notable among those active in Ridgefield's seemingly endless
political and budget wars for his lack of vitriol. Polite and
friendly even in vehement disagreement, he never held people's
positions against them, or took criticism of his stands as
personal attacks.
"Sometimes he didn't even perceive the arrows coming his
way," Mrs. McKenna said.
Barbara Wardenburg, a former Republican Town Committee member,
bitterly divided the town in the 1970s with her lawsuit
challenging the Boys Club's policy of accepting only males. She
wrote recently to Mr. McKenna's family. "He looked out for
me," she said. "When I was fighting the Boys Club
fight, he was chairman of the Republican Town Committee, and I
would come to the meetings and all those men were against me, but
Arthur was always fair. Everyone was allowed to have his or her
opinion, he would say. Did you know how kind he was to me? I will
never forget it."
John Tobin, a neighbor, shared with Mr. McKenna's daughters his
perception of their father's civic activism. He recalled a story
about some young men seeking advice from George Washington near
the end of the great man's long life. "He had just one thing
to say to them: ÔPractice good citizenship.' I thought of your
father when I read that," Mr. Tobin wrote. "He and your
mother, the hours, the years they dedicated to this town, never
expecting or getting anything back. They practice good
citizenship."
Mr. McKenna's life was not all politics and issues, of course. A
neighbor from South Olmstead Lane recalls that in the late 1970s
he would come by weekly to drive her mother to OWLS meetings.
His daughters wrote of his lifelong pleasure in gardening.
"While at Choate, Arthur started and tended a community
garden that fed the poor in that town. He kept a vegetable garden
ever after, and took pleasure not only in the harvest but in
canning and jelly-making.
"There was a period where he concocted his own kind of New
England poteen, dandelion wine. This was when his three daughters
were in college and graduate school. The daughters would come
home to hilarious, long candlelit dinners during which Arthur
would quietly excuse himself, disappear into the cellar with a
small ceramic pitcher, and return with his magic yellow
concoction to fill up everybody's glass."
"He was extremely proud of his three daughters and five
grandchildren," Mrs. McKenna said. "Really, he was very
old-fashioned in so many ways. Duty, honor, church, family --
that's old-fashioned stuff, but I tell you, when you get down to
the end it's what matters."
Besides his wife and three daughters -- Katherine L. McKenna of
Nyack, N.Y., Constance E. McKenna of Rockville, Md., and Barbara
McKenna of Washington, D.C. -- he is survived by a brother,
Robert L. McKenna M.D. of Denver, Colo.; a sister, Constance
McKenna of Sun City West, Ariz.; and five grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Monday at St. Mary's
Church. A bagpiper played before and after the service, which
family members said he would have loved. Burial will be in St.
Mary's Cemetery at the convenience of the family.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Ridgefield Visiting
Nurse Association, 90 East Ridge, or to the Keeler Tavern
Preservation Society, 132 Main Street. --M.K.R.