Three Honors for Longtime Town Historian
Dr. Karl Stofko is recognized for decades of volunteer service to the town
The December 7, 2022, museum presentation "Mysteries of East Haddam" by Town Historian Karl Stofko was the 30th time, in a series of popular annual readings by Dr. Stofko of intriguing stories of the town's colorful past, he had uncovered, researched, and wrote for each year's event.
After this year's presentation, Dr. Stofko received three well-deserved honors: a town proclamation, a state citation, and the dedication of a new research room at the museum in his name.
Selectwomen Theresa Govert and Irene Haines presented two of the three honors given to local historian Karl Stofko.
George Comer was born in Quebec in 1858. His father was lost at sea and his mother couldn’t support the children, so George was adopted by an East Haddam family as a young boy. He lived in town for the rest of his life.
When he was 17, Comer walked from East Haddam to New London and joined a whaling expedition. That was the beginning of a 44-year span during which he spent time at sea.
Comer specialized in Arctic whaling and sailed as captain or master of a ship for the first time in 1895. Over his many trips to the Arctic, he became friends with the Inuit and an authority on their culture and environment.
He researched and collected for leading natural history museums and was the last of the many whaling captains who sailed out of New London. After retirement, Comer was elected to the Connecticut Legislature.
Life partners Jim Wynn and Amos Shepard moved to town in 1960 and soon became well-known through their popular Goodspeed Plaza gift and coffee shop as well as their enthusiastic participation in numerous town organizations, including the newly established East Haddam Historical Society.
Despite their many local connections, however, their heroic WWII combat experiences remained hidden, perhaps due to their lifestyle and certainly due to their reticence. To the teenagers who worked for them, they didn't look at all like what they imagined wartime heroes to be, owing to cultural stereotypes and teenage prejudices.
Perhaps more than any other residents, Wynn and Shepard brought East Haddam history to the forefront. Accordingly, we are pleased to set the record straight with the wartime history of these two heroic members of "The Greatest Generation."
Photo of Gillette Castle by Carl Buschmann