Longtime public servant dies at 78

Mary Konopka ‘loved town deeply’

CROMWELL » The death of Mary Konopka has brought an abrupt end to a virtually unmatched record of public service to Cromwell.

Konopka died Monday at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown. She was 78.

Beginning in 1985, Konopka served at one time or another on the Board of Finance, the Board of Education, the Board of Selectmen and, mostly recently, the Senior Services Commission.

In all, in one form or another, she served on nine boards and commissions in town, according to a list compiled by Assistant Town Clerk Lori Caracoglia. In addition to her service on

the many town boards, Konopka further showed her commitment to Cromwell through her membership in the Cromwell Historical Society, the St. John’s Women’s Guild, the Home School Association and the Cromwell Junior Women’s Club.

“Mary was a sweet and caring person who loved this town so deeply,” Mayor Enzo Faienza said. “Her years of service and dedication to the town will never be forgotten. I’m very shocked and saddened by Mary’s passing.”

A native of New Haven, Konopka grew up in Niantic. She moved to Cromwell when she was 25.

Prior to that, Konopka graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a bachelor’s degree in education. She later earned a master’s degree in English from the University of Connecticut.

Konopka taught school in Middletown and in Portland and then switched careers and became a litigation legal assistant at the law firm of Pepe and Hazard (now McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney Carpenter) and Shipman & Goodman, and then was a paralegal specialist in the office of the State Attorney General.

She and William Konopka were married for 54 years.

The Konopkas have two daughters, Margaret (known as “Meg”) O’Connor, who lives in Schaumburg, Illinois, with her husband Patrick, and Maura Wilk of Cromwell, the widow of William W. Dilk.

The Konopkas have four grandchildren: Kaitlyn Dilk and Ashley, Claire and Patrick O’Connor.

Mary Konopka served as a representative of the town on the Mattabassett Sewer District Board of Directors, where, in 1996, she met Douglas A. Sienna.

“We didn’t socialize,” said Sienna, who is now the town’s collector of revenue. “But I found Mary to be a very energetic and devoted person who worked for the good of the town on the district board,” Sienna said Wednesday.

Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore first met Konopka when he was a young patrolman on the police force and she was secretary for then first selectman Paul R. Harrington in the late 1970s.

Their connection continued throughout her subsequent service to the town on the Board of Selectmen and the other agencies on which she served, Salvatore said.

“That kind of commitment to the town — to any town — is very rare,” Salvatore said. “She was very knowledgable and very dedicated to the town of Cromwell,” Salvatore continued. “I feel she will be greatly missed.”

“Mary was an asset to the town who will be sorely missed,” former first selectman Mertie L. Terry said. “One thing about Mary: she never played politics on an issue. With her, it is was never about Rs or Ds. It was always ‘What’s best for the town?’”

Shirley Banic worked alongside Konopka on many issues throughout the years.

“She gave so many years to this town in one role or another,” Banic said. “She has done so much in so many different ways, and that has to be respected. She really represented what service to the community is about. She just gave and gave and gave. How could you not respect that lady?”

William Konopka is very much in her mind, Banic said. “Bill is just one-of-akind.”

Konopka’s death has been particularly difficult to come to grips with, Banic said, because, “She was always talking futuristically. She was just looking at so many things that she wanted to do — and then it just stopped.”

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