The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/peoplebusiness/page/35/)
Craig Cooke, a Suffield resident, has been named the 2019 Outstanding School Superintendent by the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education Alumni Board. Cooke was recognized on March 16 at the Neag School’s 21st Annual Alumni Awards Celebration in Storrs, Conn.
Encountering each other at Highland Park on a sunny Saturday afternoon, these two disparate canines look each other over warily.
The New England Premiere of the movie A Promise to Astrid will take place on June 2, at 6 p.m. at the Assembly of God Church, 580 Main Street in Agawam. Admission is free and tickets are not required.
May 4 is quickly approaching. It will be 13 years since CPL Stephen R. Bixler gave his life for our country. Even after 13 years, it is still so very hard to realize Steve will not be coming home. The community of Suffield is coming together once again to honor and remember Stephen, at his Annual Memorial Picnic.
Jamie Deenihan was a teacher and has always loved children and writing. She babysat for my grandchildren, and they loved her. A few years ago she decided to put those loves to work. She did not just start to write though, but did her homework. First she took a free course taught by Dawn Mitchell who gave her some good advice.
Suffield’s Kate Butler taught in Manchester briefly after her studies at Eastern Connecticut State University (Class of 2017) focused on education and history, but she decided to follow in the family footsteps and is now a “fourth generation crime fighter.” That’s the inscription in the nice shadow box her father, Matt Butler, presented to her shortly after her graduation from the Hartford Police Academy as a new hire of the Hartford Police Department. The centerpiece of her father’s shadow box was his own badge as a Special Agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, from which he had retired as Agent in Charge of the NCIS Training Academy in Georgia after a long career in responsible NCIS positions all over the world. Kate’s paternal uncle, Dan Butler, spent seven years as deputy assistant director of the NCIS, then became executive director of the USAF Office of Special Investigation. And their father was also in law enforcement, as was Kate’s great-grandfather. Her maternal grandfather, Dr. James Pattillo, served five years as the Suffield health officer.
The Doyon family and Kyle Englander are hosting a 5K and 10K Memorial Road Race in memory of ET2 Dustin L. Doyon of the United States Navy, who lost his life while serving on the USS John S. McCain on August 21, 2017.
When I hear the term “a life well lived,” I often wonder what the speaker means by those words. When I think of Mary Anne Zak, who turned 90 a few days ago, I don’t have to wonder; all who know her can attest to her life, well lived—and it’s not over yet! This is no eulogy. Mary Anne may be best known today for her column in the Observer, but long-time residents of Suffield will remember that she was for many years, a teacher of English at Suffield High School. A long and happy teaching career such as Mary Anne’s often defines a life—and although she had other equally important careers, such as mother and wife and community leader, she remains an educator at heart.
Hits & Kicks, a Suffield physical fitness studio that specializes in boxing and kick-boxing, has moved to a new, more visible, location in the old CVS plaza between Zantos and Hair Unlimited. The vigorous training is provided by skilled instructors in scheduled, unisex classes. In two early morning visits, this reporter observed widely different activities: One session, called Pound, had the students following a leader in rhythmic full-body motions paced by music, including pairs of short batons tapped on the floor or clacked together along with the beat. On another morning the training was boxing – whacking vigorously on long, heavy punching bags dangling from a steel framework, – and sometimes kickboxing the bag as well, all to the shouted instructions and encouragement of the trainer. The boxing sessions were alternated with periods of high intensity interval training, like fast pushups and sit-ups but more complicated, again all to the demanding commands of the trainer.
