
Thousands of miles and millions of dollars may separate Joan Payden from the average Derby resident, but the two share a bond that transcends mileage and money.
“Her father, just like the rest of us and probably all of our children, had the same knocks and bumps out there on this football field, (and) on the baseball field,” said Derby Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Andy Cota.
“Where ever they played, they remembered Derby. There is a certain blood that just flows through this community,” Cota said said.
Cota made his remarks Monday, March 19 during the official groundbreaking of the J.R. Payden Field House & Payden Park.
He was one of several people who spoke at the ceremony. Their remarks are embedded in the videos throughout this story.
Cota’s complete remarks are below.
Payden has donated $3 million — at least — to pay for a new, two-story field house and baseball field.
Separately, Derby is using about $3 million from the state for a new, artificial multi-purpose field and track. The city will also be reconfiguring the nearby little league and softball playing fields.
All this is happening in and around the Derby High School and middle school campus off Chatfield Street and Nutmeg Avenue in west Derby.
Payden joined the groundbreaking ceremony through a video stream from California.
She is the founder, president, and CEO of Payden & Rygel, an investment firm based in Los Angeles that manages more than $106 billion in assets.
She did not grow up in Derby, or even New England, but Connecticut’s smallest city was always in her heart.
During brief remarks, she told about 60 people in attendance how important Derby was to her father, Joseph Raymond Payden, or J.R.
J.R. Payden graduated at the top of his class from Derby High School in 1915.

“You can take the kid out of Derby, but you can’t take Derby out of the kid,” said student Anthony Slowik.
He went to Yale and served his country as a fighter pilot in World War I. He eventually became the CEO of Union Carbide Java Ltd in Indonesia.
But it was Derby — particularly the school’s athletic programs — that formed him, his daughter said.
J.R. Payden was an only child, Joan Payden told the crowd, and his father died young.
“The high school meant a lot to him,” she said.
Derby Superintendent Matthew Conway said the initial money from the state was not enough to replace the field house, a crumbling structure long past its prime. A random conversation between Payden and Derby High School Principal Martin Pascale saved the day, for which Derby is ​“forever grateful.”
Conway’s remarks are embedded below.
State Rep. Themis Klarides thanked Payden, as did state Rep. Linda Gentile.
“This is what the state of Connecticut’s future is,” Klarides said. ​“It’s about public-private partnerships. It’s about people who want to give back out of the goodness of their hearts.”
Klarides’ remarks are embedded below, followed by Gentile.
The name ​“field house” doesn’t really do the structure justice. It’s being designed to double as a sort of community center, with meeting space available for the public.
The building itself will have roughly 10,000 square feet of interior space.
The building will have a ​“Great Room,” to host banquets and assemblies. A memorabilia room will house J.R. Payden archives and sports memorabilia.
This is in addition to locker rooms, offices, and workout rooms.
The building will stretch from the current entrance to the complex off Chatfield Street all the way to the hill leading up to the middle school.
It’s design is meant to connect the school to the city, according to architect Peter de Bretteville.
The architect said he’s never been involved in a project where the community is so heavily involved.
“I think I’m being infected by a virus which is going to cause me to turn up at Friday night high school football games,” he joked.
The project is scheduled to be finished by spring 2019.
The architect’s remarks are embedded below, followed by remarks from Andrew Baklik, of the Derby Mayor’s Office.