The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘House that John Fidler built’
Life of late principal commemorated in bittersweet ceremony marking new school
EAST HAMPTON » Gone was the dust, the clamor, the detours and the stresses they engendered. It was as if the long hours of labor were finally done and the baby had been delivered, and was now clean and pink and healthy and impossibly handsome.
And so it was that some 300 people attended a ceremony Friday evening celebrating the rebirth of the East Hampton High School.
It was a time for celebration for a job done and done well, a time for a reaffirmation of the central role of education in the community — and a time to recall the man who loved the school and led it through the nearly three years of construction, who died mere weeks before the ceremony.
Principal John H. Fidler’s central role in bringing the renovation of the school to successful completion was summed up by Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith when he described the school as “the house John built.”
The program for the event included six photos of Fidler, most prominently one of him in a safety vest and hard hat bearing a decal of the East Hampton High bell as he toured the building during its reconstruction.
In his opening remarks, Smith said completion of the $51.7 million project was “a remarkable achievement.” Smith praised residents who, like Thom Cordeiro, “answered the call” and in doing so created “one of the greatest achievements
in the history of the town.”
Aided by state Rep. Melissa Ziobron, Sharon Smith, chairwoman of the School Building Committee, Mark Larira, chairman of the Board of Education, when the project was begun, and former interim superintendent Mark Winzler, Smith cut a vivid blue ribbon that stretched across the front steps of the school.
Ziobron was instrumental in ensuring funding for the project when the state appeared ready to renege on its promise to fund half the cost of it, while Winzler twice served as interim superintendent during the life of the project.
The ceremony, which had begun with a musical selection from the school band, then moved into the refurbished Andrew D. V. Ferrigno Auditorium for the dedication ceremony.
Ferrigno was the nononsense principal of the school from 1939 to 1969.
Officials reached back for perspective on what had come before, introducing Richard Burnham, who chaired the 1963 building committee which created the high school and Ted Turner, a member of the first graduating class of the school in 1964.
The time capsule that was placed in the school during its 1963 construction was found and opened, revealing a series of documents from what is a bygone era.
Former state Sen. Dean Markham served as the archaeologist in residence, explaining hall passes, mimeographed discipline reports and “cyphers” — demerits. Eight demerits resulted in a student sitting in a chair in the main hall for a week as punishment, Markham said.
Building committee member Cynthia Abraham discussed the items placed in the 2017 time capsule: memorabilia from former Gov. William P. O’Neill, a student agenda, a Bevin Bell, a cell phone, a penny [“because we don’t expect to have pennies very much longer,” Abraham said] — and Fidler’s photo ID badge.
Abraham suggested the 1963 contents be added to the 2017 time capsule.
Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said the comments he heard most frequently from residents who visited the school on Friday were “remarkable” and “beautiful.” But, Maniscalco said, the path that led to Friday’s ceremony was never straight — nor was it sure.
“This is East Hampton,” he said, noting that it required the combined efforts “of three town councils and three superintendents of school” for the dream to be realized, as well as “the horsepower and expertise” of both the town and Board of Education staffs.
Maniscalco also thanked Colliers International, which oversaw the project, Downes Construction Co., which served as the construction manager, and the SLAM Collaborative, which designed the building. He paid particular note to the involvement of Glenn Gollenberg, the chief architect for the project.
During construction, Gollenberg bought a house in town. Maniscalco said he asked the architect if he did that on every major he worked on.
“‘No,’” Gollenberg replied, “‘I just came to East Hampton and fell in love with it,’” which Maniscalco said “is a very easy thing to do.”
He also said Sharon Smith and Michele Barber served more as cochairs than chairwoman and vice chairwoman.
Maniscalco joked that he tried to limit the number of times the two women were in the same room together because if something happened to them, he was not sure if the project would have been completed.
He saved his greatest thanks for all the residents who rallied to support the project. “A building is just a building. What make this building special are the people: the students, teachers and administrators who occupy it,” Maniscalco said.
Winzler said he never expected he would be involved with the building once, never mind twice, but that was the case during his tenure as interim superintendent in 2013 and then again in 2015.
Winzler was among several speakers who touched upon Fidler’s central role in the school. Winzler had toured the building earlier this summer in the company of both Fidler and Smith, he said.
The way Fidler reacted to the gleaming new building “seemed to me as if he had almost birthed a baby,” Winzler said. The “respect, dignity, care and concern” for the students and teachers who occupy the school will live on in the building, Winzler said.
In a relaxed, often funny, and sometimes moving speech, Ted Turner traced his passage from childhood to the advent of adulthood in the East Hampton school system.
His father died when Turner was 12, and the schools — in addition to scouting and Little League — “guided me through my childhood.”
Turner spoke of the dress code Principal Ferrigno insisted upon: jackets and ties for boys, skirts below the knee and white blouses for girls. The words “dress code” appeared to mystify many of the younger people at the ceremony. He also talked about “The Disaster,” a $600,000 fire in 1962 that indirectly led to construction of the original high school.
Board of Education Vice Chairwoman Joanne Barmasse stood in for Chairman Christopher Goff who, she said, was assisting in disaster relief in Houston. Barmasse, who has been on the board since 2005, was among those who saw the need for renovating the school early on. And now, a dozen years later, “We have a high school building we can be proud of,” she said.
Then, all of a sudden, Barmasse’s voice broke and she was overcome as she praised Fidler for working tirelessly to keep the school running during
The way Fidler reacted to the gleaming new building “seemed to me as if he had almost birthed a baby,” Winzler said. The “respect, dignity, care and concern” for the students and teachers who occupy the school will live on in the building, Winzler said.
the construction. Barmasse was comforted by Fidler’s widow Joan following her remarks.
Assistant Principal Michael Dalton’s words of remembrance for Fidler were particularly moving.
“John’s greatest single quality was his love of community,” Dalton said, both the wider community of the town and the nearer community of the students, staff and teachers.
It was that love that enabled Fidler get the school community “through these challenges,” Dalton said, adding, “He was so proud of you all.”
The building is not Fidler’s legacy, Dalton said, quoting the observation, “Shape clay into a vessel; It is the space within that makes it useful,” which is attributed to the sixth century BC Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. “We are his true legacy,” Dalton said.
“These are the best of times, and he was the best of men,” Dalton said in conclusion.
And then it was Joan Filder’s turn to remember her husband and central role the school played in their lives.
“We were married 27 years, and we created our lives in this town,” she said. Her husband’s “professional career began in 1990 in this building.”
John Fidler made a commitment to the school as well, and so it was “this family man wound up with ‘a girlfriend’ — and she was East Hampton High School,” Joan Fidler said.
Fidler was “an attentive boyfriend,” she said, one who knows “that once trust is broken, it can never be replaced,” but also one “who remembered important dates,” and who brought his girlfriend “little gifts,” whether it be sandwiches or Dunkin Donuts coffee.
Whether it was a production, a sporting event or a concert, Fidler made a commitment to be there to support the students and the school, his widow said.
Most of all, she added, her husband understood “his girlfriend wants to look her best,” and so he gave her “this absolutely beautiful building.”