Families of 2 men killed want to help others

The families of two Fairfield men who were killed in a boating accident Saturday evening in New Haven are asking mourners to donate to others in need.

Mike Murphy, 53, and Scott Trautman, 46, died after a boat they were in crashed into a breakwater in New Haven Harbor.

At the time of the accident, Murphy was working on a charity event to benefit the family his childhood friend Chris Hughes, who died in a canoeing accident in Maine in June.

“We were a tight rat pack of friends,” said Rick Kral, of Greenwich, Murphy’s lifelong friend and brother-inlaw.

Murphy was vice president of a Milford-based manufacturing conglomerate.

Hughes was an expert roofer and Kral said he was canoeing in Maine near a job site when he died.

The Murphy family said of the memorial fund, “Chris Hughes left behind a world of people who loved him. He was a great friend, a son, a brother, an uncle, a husband, but most of all, an incredible father. He has 4 children: Alix, 19, just started college; Jett, 16, is a sophomore in high school; Ethan is 14 and starting his freshman year of high school; and Jayne is 12 and in sixth grade, and Chris’ little girl. His wife Lisa is an amazing mother, the most willing volunteer, easy to ask a favor or offer anything she has to help someone else.

“How do you put a price on losing a father and husband? How much does it cost to raise a family, send kids to college, pay bills? Michael was dedicated to helping them answer these questions, and being able to give some relief during the hardest of times.”

Murphy had also organized a golf tournaments to benefit various organizations in the past, Kral said. He was working on a tournament scheduled for October to benefit Hughes when his yacht crashed.

After Murphy’s sudden death his family is crowdsourcing the fundraiser that he couldn’t live to complete.

Donations to support the Hughes family are being accepted online at PlumFund.com (http://bit.ly/2vE7UE5). The page raised $15,000 of a $75,000 goal in the first 24 hours. Donations can also be sent by check to the Hughes memorial Fund, 16 Sunset Ave., Trumbull, 06611.

Kral said that the family found PlumFund more costeffective that a previous site, which has already raised $48,164 of a $100,000 goal in the past few months.

Trautman’s family has asked mourners to donate in his memory to Tee of Connecticut, a project of the CT Golf Foundation.

According to the organization’s website it was “created to expose golf to underprivileged youth who might not normally have access to the game.” Checks can be sent to The First Tee of Connecticut, 55 Golf Club Road, Cromwell, 06416.

Friends can attend Trautman’s funeral at 10:30 a.m. Thursday in Trinity Episcopal Church of Southport, 651 Pequot Ave. .

Murphy’s service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Saint Pius X Church at 834 Brookside Drive, in Fairfield.