Lee Hardy Shay, a Marine who flew helicopters in the Korean War served in Vietnam, and collected toys for children each Christmas, died on Sunday, Feb. 3, at Danbury Hospital. He was 75, the husband of Barbara Boegehold Shay for 53 years, a retired personnel manager, and lived on Bennett’s Farm Road.

Mr. Shay was active in the Ridgefield Detachment of the Marine Corps League. For decades, he was one of the main volunteers in its Toys for Tots program.

“He was a true Marine. That was his calling,” said Anne Shay Klein, one of his three children.

“If the Marine Corps is involved in anything, he was part of it — it didn’t matter what it was,” said Julia Shay Ducharme, another daughter.

Mr. Shay was born in Detroit, Mich., on Oct.1, 1932, son of Raymond and Hazel Chapman Shay. He attended Detroit schools and was attending Michigan State University when he joined the Marine Corps in 1952.

“He went to Pensacola, Fla., for flight training, and graduated as a lieutenant and flew helicopters. He flew air-sea rescue during the Korean War,” said his wife, Barbara Shay.

Following his service in the Marines he started a business career, but after six years he signed up again with the Marines. “They needed bodies for Vietnam and he volunteered to go back in, to go to Vietnam,” his wife said. “He was busting to go.”

He was stationed in Danang, Vietnam, and served a 13-month tour of duty there.

“He was in the corporate world for a while, and Vietnam came along and he felt strongly about it and he re-enlisted,” said Henry Norley, one of Mr. Shay’s good friends from the Marine Corps League.

“He ended up being what the Marines call a grunt, the equivalent of an infantryman in the Army. He became a ground Marine, really. He was probably in his late 30s. It was kind of unusual for a guy to come back after all those years and end up being a ground Marine.”

He retired from the Marines in 1970 with the rank of major.

He had returned to college and graduated with a degree in airport management. He worked as a corporate personnel manager, eventually retiring from the former Burndy Corporation of Bethel.

He had lived in Ridgefield since 1972.

With his fellow retired Marines, he helped build playgrounds, put flags on veterans’ graves before Memorial Day each year, and organized the annual Fourth of July picnic.

“He was a key guy for Toys for Tots and everything else the League does,” Mr. Norley said.“He was a gung-ho guy and he loved the Marine Corps, and of course he was very devoted to his fellow Marines and the League and his family. His family was everything, and everything else was the Marine Corps.”

“He was always very family oriented,” said Ms. Klein, his daughter. “A big part of all his kids’ and grandchildren’s lives.”

Besides his wife Barbara, Mr. Shay is survived by a son, Kevin Hardy Shay of Venice, Fla., and his companion Susan Channer; two daughters, Anne Shay Klein and her husband, Robert, of Charlestown, R.I. and Julia Shay Ducharme and her husband, Ken, of Rutland, Mass.; and six grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life service will take place on Friday, Feb. 8, at 4 p.m. at the Marine Corps League, on Halpin Lane.

Memorial contributions may be made to the SemperFiFund.Org for injured Marines.

Peeler, William Parker William Parker Peeler, 77, of Ridgefield, died on Monday morning, January 29, 2007, at his home.

He was the husband of the late Evelyn (Steers) Peeler who died June 21, 2006.

Mr. Peeler was born in Bristol, Tenn., July 9, 1929, son of the late Lindsey and Nadine Peeler.

A retired publishing and printing sales representative, Mr. Peeler has worked with the R.R. Donnelley Co. of New York City and Magna Graphics of Lexington, Ky.

A Ridgefield resident since 1964 coming from West Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., he was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran having served during the Korean War era.

Mr. Peeler was a member of the Ridgefield Marine Corps League and was chairman of the annual Toys for Tots program. He was a member of the North Salem Country Club and of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Ridgefield. A son, David W. Peeler and daughter-in-law, Deborah of Greenwich; a daughter, Virginia P. Longley and son-in-law, John of Fairfield and six grandchildren, Mac, Brooke, Ian, Taylor, Cacey and Jackson survive him.

Funeral services will take place Friday at 2 p.m. in St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 351 Main St., Ridgefield with the Rev. Mark Delcuze, rector, officiating. Interment will be private.

The family will receive friends in the Kane Funeral Home, 25 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield, Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. Contributions in Mr. Peeler's memory may be made to the Toys for Tots, in care of the Marine Corps League, 25 Halpin Lane, Ridgefield Woman's Club Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 288 or the Evelyn C. Peeler Holiday Gift Fund, Box 218, 54 Danbury Road, all of Ridgefield, CT 06877.

Edward S. Comer, 68, a retired commercial airlines pilot, died Friday (03/31/06) at his home in Sherman, CT. He was 68. Comer was the chief pilot of the now defunct Trump Shuttle. He also flew for Eastern and US Air.

He was a member of the Sherman Veterans Association and the Marine Corps League of Ridgefield and a volunteer worker in oncology at the New Milford Hospital.

Edward Samuel Comer born in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. He attended the University of South Carolina, where he played football. Before becoming a pilot, he served in the US Marine Corps.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, daughter Tarin of Medford, MA, a daughter and son by a previous marriage, Janet Gleason of Middleton, MA and Edward J. Comer of Newton, NH, and two grandchildren, Madison and MacKenzie Gleason.

A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church in Sherman at 1 PM on Saturday April 22. A donation in lieu of flowers can be made to the Sherman Veterans Association or the Marine Corps League of Ridgefield.

John P. Cooke `59, who won an Olympic rowing gold medal, organized an invasion force, built a school, helped found a political party and always spoke his mind, died Dec. 26 (2005)at his Connecticut home.

He was 68, the husband of Torrey Matheson Cooke, the father of three and grandfather of four.

During a 28-year career with Emery Air Freight, he oversaw the construction of buildings all over the world, including Emery's "hub" in Dayton, Ohio, a project that occupied him for seven years.

Mr. Cooke died "at his home in the presence of his family, after a brief but courageous battle with cancer," his family said. "John's spirit, courage, strength, tenacity, loyalty and humor will be sorely missed by all his family and friends."

John Patrick Cooke was born in Ansonia on April 9, 1937, to the late Thomas J. and Sophie K. Cooke. He attended Ansonia High School and graduated from Yale University in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in industrial administration. While at Yale, Mr. Cooke was a member of the crew and rowed for what has been described as "the most successful U.S. rowing team ever to compete in the Olympics." The team left the 1956 Olympic Games in Australia with two gold medals, three silver medals and a bronze.

Torrey Cooke, his wife of 42 years, recalled meeting him for the first time at a wedding in Philadelphia. Though he'd won at the Olympics -- and, later events would show, was interested in making an impression on her -- he didn't mention it. "Never said a word. Somebody else said `Do you know that guy has an Olympic gold medal?' He never bragged about it," she said.

"He was the number three man (in the eight-man shell), and that's usually the steam engine," Mrs. Cooke said. "He was a powerhouse. He was a terribly strong young man."

He went on to coach at Yale and stayed active in rowing throughout his life, refereeing, judging, and being involved in various rowing associations. He refereed the Head of the Charles race in Boston for 20 years, and officiated at competitions up and down the East Coast.

"His passion, really, was that sport. He just loved every bit of it," his wife said. In 2001 he earned the United States Rowing Association's Jack Kelly Award, named after one of his Yale teammates, and given annually for "superior achievements in rowing, service to amateur athletics, and success in their chosen profession, thereby serving as an inspiration to American rowers."

"I'm not that distinguished. There are more qualified and deserving recipients," he said at the time. "Rowing is a team sport and there is no star. We are all in the boat together."

Mr. Cooke's most recent rowing achievement was to spearhead a national fund-raising campaign for construction of the last U.S. Olympic team's eight-man boat, named the Rusty Wailes in honor of another of his old crewmates.

Mr. Cooke had been planning a trip to Australia later this year for the 50th anniversary of the Melbourne games where his team had won gold. He and Mrs. Cooke had been there for the 25th anniversary.

"We were all going to go to Australia," she said. "There was a natural affinity with the Aussies, and we became friends."

After college Mr. Cooke enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant at Quantico, Va., in 1960. He served in both Okinawa and Japan as a member of the Third Tank Battalion, before ending his active service in San Francisco as a captain.

In 1962 he planned the loading and initial combat array for a secret mission -- the 1962 invasion of Thailand -- that was one of the early involvements of U.S. troops in what became the Vietnam War.

He later helped found Ridgefield's detachment of the Marine Corps League, and enjoyed marching with fellow Marines in Ridgefield's annual Memorial Day Parade.

"He flew the Marine Flag and the American Flag. He was always a great patriot," his wife said.

After his military service, Mr. Cooke accepted a job with Emery Air Freight, headquartered in Wilton. He supervised the building of Emery facilities around the world.

"He picked the right place for the buildings and saw that they were designed and built to the specifications," Mrs. Cooke said. "Materials handling is what air freight is all about."

He received an MBA in 1980 from Manhattan College, and finished his career as Emery's vice president of facilities and material handling systems, retiring in 1993.

Mr. Cooke's construction experience proved useful in the start of what was to become a long involvement in town affairs.

From 1967 to 1974 he chaired the High School Building Committee that brought the new high school building on North Salem Road in on time and under budget. Recently expanded and renovated, the building is still in use by some 1,700 students.

He also served as a co-president of the Branchville School PTO, served on an early Charter Revision Commission and on the Board of Assessment Appeals. With the late Bill Allen he helped found the town's Independent Party. In 1993 he was elected to the Zoning Board of Appeals on the Independent ticket, becoming the first Ridgefield resident elected to a townwide office on a third party slate -- at least in the 20th Century.

Mr. Cooke was also a family man, "He just loved his children and grandchildren," Mrs. Cooke said. "He'd go to the hockey games, the soccer games, the football games."

A football player before he became involved in rowing at Yale, Mr. Cooke coached youth football when his son played.

Besides his wife, Mr. Cooke is survived by two daughters, Emily Nolan of Shepherdsville, Ky., and Rachel Mills of Freeport, Maine; and a son, John Patrick Cooke Jr. of Lantana, Fla. He is also survived by his three brothers, Terrence, Anthony, and Paul, by four grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks friends to consider making a donation to one of the following charities: The American Cancer Society, www.cancer.org; The Marine Corps League, www.mcleague.com, or The National Rowing Foundation, www.natrowing.org.

Alfred E. Pfeifer, 91, of 25 Gilbert Street, Ridgefield, husband of Helen (Colopy) Pfeifer, died on Sunday evening, January 12, 2003 at Heritage Heights, Danbury.

Mr. Pfeifer was born April 17, 1911 in Brooklyn, NY, a son of Charles and Dorthea (Freese) Pfeifer. He attended Brooklyn, New York schools and the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Pfeifer was a retired district supervisor of the Firestone Rubber Company.

A World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, Mr. Pfeifer served from January 29, 1943 to March 19, 1946 and attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

He was a member of the Marine Corps League, the O.W.L.S., a founding member of the Ridgefield Men’s Club and of St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, all of Ridgefield.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Pfeifer is survived by a son, Eugene E. Pfeifer of Danbury; a daughter, Susan Pfeifer Scala and her husband Robert of Stonington, CT; two grandchildren, Robert B. Scala and Victoria Scala Schwartz; a niece, Ann Chalkley; two nephews, Charles Pfeifer and William Pfeifer and a cousin, Ann Bihary.

Funeral services will take place on Thursday at 1 p.m. in St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 6 Ivy Hill Road, Ridgefield with the Rev. Hans Schoenfeld officiating.

Burial will take place in Lutheran Cemetery, Middle Village, Queens, New York. Friends will be received in the Kane Funeral Home, 41 Catoonah Street, Ridgefield on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Memorial contributions in Mr. Pfeifer’s memory may be made to the Dorothy Day Hospitality House, 11 Spring Street, Danbury, CT 06810.