2018 Honoree
Governor Dannel Malloy
Even when he went to Hartford, Dan Malloy never left Stamford and maybe he never will.
After all, over the past four decades his vision has helped define the best part of us. To see it, just look at our faithfully restored yet reimagined Old Town Hall. To hear it, listen to the fresh gurgle of the Mill River spilling along its Riverwalk. Dan’s inspiration inhabits a bustling downtown sustained with safe and affordable urban housing and an expanded UCONN campus. It hikes through green spaces like Mianus River Park, the Soundwaters Coastal Education Center and the Bird Sanctuary at Cove Island. It runs through recreational places in our schools, at Lione and Scalzi Park, and the West Beach athletic fields, now connected by the Urban Transitway to a newly sparkling Waterside at Harbor Point. It honors the sacrifice of many at a new Veterans Park. And perhaps most important is the impression he has left on our public schools. He helped us add a new Rogers International School, AITE, Wright Tech, Stamford Academy, Scofield and Rippowam Middle Schools and the first universal Pre-K program in Connecticut. And he added all that to a public school system that was already pretty good. Why, it had even helped turn a kid with learning disabilities into an attorney, a mayor and our State’s 88th governor; and of course, our 2018 Stamford Citizen of the Year.