Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Cynthia Gorey

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Baskin-Robbins, Connecticut Sandwich Co., Joe’s Pizza and Mackenzie’s. In this installment of “Faces of New Canaan,” we sat down with Cynthia Gorey, executive director of the New Canaan Community Foundation (which has some “I [Heart] New Canaan” magnets left), to learn a little more about everything from how she got to be where she is today to a trip to Spain with her sons that affirmed her beliefs about soccer’s popularity in Europe. Read all of this and more in our transcribed interview below:

NewCanaanite.com: So, where are you from originally? Cynthia Gorey: Originally I’m from Massachusetts. I’m from a town called Marblehead which is kind of similar to this area.

Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Emad Aziz

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There could not be a better candidate for “Faces of New Canaan” than Emad Aziz. In this feature, we profile residents—typically through a Q&A, though not always—whom we associate automatically with our town, though they’re not people we necessarily know because they are famous or hold prominent local positions. These are people who make up the fabric of New Canaan in a profound, visceral way. This interview with Aziz by far ranked as the most difficult to secure, not just because he’s a naturally private person, but also because despite his truly remarkable journey to New Canaan—you will see, from our interview below, that his story is a triumph of diligence, acumen and instinct—he’s self-effacing, genuinely modest. As with every installment in the series so far, there are some things we knew about our subject that we received confirmation on—in the case of Aziz, for example, that he is one of New Canaan’s hardest-working people.

Faces of New Canaan

New Canaan’s George McEvoy, Potter

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George McEvoy sidles on a recent morning into a well-worn, straight-backed faux leather chair, crisscrossed with duct tape and positioned before the potter’s wheel here in a cramped room just off of his long-ago converted Seminary Street garage. One step away—that is, halfway across the room—a microwave for heating coffee sits on a shelf that’s splattered with clay, as are sheets of burlap and tarp that surround the wheel itself. Shaping and trimming tools hang from a wood plank nailed into the wall that’s also adorned with postcards, photos and Modigliani prints. “When I started, I just said I enjoy doing it and I could sit at the wheel for an hour or two and you’d think 15 minutes go by, you’re concentrating on it,” said McEvoy—strong clear voice, sharp mind, nimble body and thick silver hair defying his 74 years. “You lose your mind into it.”

A New Canaan resident for 45 years who has lived for half that time in the yellow Victorian home with the turret on Seminary—the one just below the crest of the hill there, with the trumpet vine tree weaving into the house itself— McEvoy first “lost his mind” to pottery in 1962.

Faces of New Canaan

New Canaan Legend 2-5-0 Leaves for Another ‘NC,’ Friends Gather to Say Farewell

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The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Baskin-Robbins, Connecticut Sandwich Co., Joe’s Pizza and Mackenzie’s. The beginning of Mark ‘2-5-0’ Rearick’s journey to receiving the nickname that would stick with him for the next 50 years was, of all places, a hospital bed in the Rearick household where the man would spend 10 weeks reviving an injured back from shoveling snow after his freshman football season in 1963. It was during this period of rest when the former 6’ 3’’, 180 pound wide-receiver would become a 240 pound lineman. And it was this surprise transformation that would lead then head coach Joe Sikorski to give Rearick the name ‘2-5-0’ when he returned to football the following season. After teammates Milt Word and Dr. Timothy Empkie eventually started calling him the name, Mr. Rearick would be known from then on to everyone simply as ‘2-5-0.’

Faces of New Canaan

Faces of New Canaan: Andrew Blackwell

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In “Faces of New Canaan,” we seek to document—through photos and a Q&A—the stories of people here whom we identify strongly with our town. These aren’t people who are prominent because they’re famous or hold elected office (though they might)—yet they help form the fabric of New Canaan in a way that, say, if you go away for a while and then return to town, you know you’re home when you see them. Until this installment, we’ve run the Q&A by speaking directly to the subjects of the interview. That really wasn’t possible with 8-year-old Andrew Blackwell of Locust Avenue. Born with Down syndrome, Andrew at a young age—possibly as the result of a respiratory virus and pneumonia at age 18 months—developed a motor speech disorder that hinders his ability to communicate.