CHARLES H. FLYNN HUMANITARIAN AWARD |
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The 1974 Charles H. Flynn Humanitarian Award
Edward J. Cotter, Jr.
Ed Cotter passed away on January 21, 2012
In recognition of "outstanding volunteer
leadership" in the Lower Naugatuck Valley
The following is a reprint of the
original story printed in the Evening Sentinel in 1974.
Cotter to receive Valley UF award
Edward J. Cotter Jr. long a leader in firefighting and ambulance work in me Valley will receive the United Fund's fourth annual Charles H Flynn Memorial Award for Humanitarian Service
The award will be presented Thursday at the annual United Fund meeting and awards dinner at Rapp's Paradise Inn. Ansonia. The public is invited A social hour at 7 p.m. will precede dinner at 7:30PM.
Cotter is chief photographer and Derby reporter for The Evening Sentinel, having served on the news staff since 1939.
The award is given for unselfish efforts in behalf of the people of the Valley - efforts that have made Ansonia, Derby, Shelton, Seymour and Oxford better places in which to live.
In a quarter-century, Cotter has never missed a night call of the Storm Engine Company Ambulance Corps in Derby The first such unit in the Valley. which he organized in 1948 and of which he is co-chairman. He has also answered hundreds of daytime calls. The corps recently presented him an engraved wrist watch for, his services.
Now fire commissioner in Derby. Cotter has been a volunteer fireman there since 1939 and served as chief from 1946 to 1954.
He-was-an organizer of the Valley Fire Chiefs' Training School on O'Sullivan's Island eight years ago and is still its coordinator, he also helped organize the Valley Fire Chiefs' Emergency plan and served as its president. For the past 27 years he has-been an instructor at the Connecticut Slate Fire College. During the Korean War, he represented New Haven County on the Governor's Advisory Committee on Firefighting, and he was a member of the committee that set up and secured funds for the New Haven County Fire Chiefs' Emergency Plan, which serves most of the Valley.
When floods swept the Valley in 1955, Cotter was named volunteer fire coordinator for Derby, with the
responsibility of securing federal funds He has also been chairman of the Storms building committee.
The award to Cotter will be presented by Simeon lsaacson of Seymour, chairman of the United Fund's search committee. Other members of the committee are the Rev Lawrence A Larson of Ansonia, Miss Helena Cullen of Shelton, Mrs. Walter H Dahn of Oxford and H. Lindsley Reuwet of Derby.
Cotter's activities have by no means been confined to firefighting and ambulance work. For a dozen years he was a volunteer umpire in the Derby Little League. Before the organization of the Red Cross blood program in the Valley, he was chairman of the Valley Firemen s Blood Bank for five years. He also served as disaster chairman for the Valley Chapter, American Red Cross, for four years.
Cotter has long been interested in civil defense, serving as CD director for Derby from 1956 to 1960 and as CD fire coordinator in 1955 and 1956. He was the organizer and is former chairman of the Valley Civil Defense Council.
He is a member of the board of directors of the Valley Health Department, representing Derby, and has been chairman of the board of directors of the Veterans Memorial Center in Derby since it opened eight years ago.
Previous Winners
For a quarter-century he served as unpaid photographer and special police officer for the Derby Police Department.
Cotter was born in Derby on Nov. 11, 1920, the son of a retired motor-vehicles inspector and the late Mrs. Edward J. Cotter. He served in the United Stales Navy for four years during World War II. With the exception of the war years, he has been a member of the news staff of The Evening Sentinel since l939.
He is married lo the former Eleanor Wilhelmy of Ansonia Mr. and Mrs. Cotter have two children, Ellen Jane and James Edward.
Previous winners _ of the Charles Flynn Memorial Award were the late Mrs. Alice Russ Cochran of Huntington, L Raymond Darling Derby and Donald W Mark of Ansonia.
The award is dedicated to the memory of Charles H. Fynn Jr. for many years the editor of the Evening Sentinel
Learn more about the Charles H.
Flynn Humanitarian Award:
Past Winners of the Award
