O’Sullivan’s Island, the quaint meadow where the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers meet in Derby, has been renamed the “Edward J. Cotter, Jr. Memorial Park at O’Sullivan’s Island.”
The Derby Board of Aldermen unanimously endorsed the name change at a meeting April 26.
Cotter, a founding father of the Derby Storm Ambulance and a long-time photojournalist for the Evening Sentinel, died Jan. 21. He was 91.
Click here to read more about his life.
He was called “Pa” by not just his family, but by fellow volunteer emergency responders.
Naming O’Sullivan’s Island in Cotter’s memory is fitting. The land once housed a firefighter training school, where Cotter taught several generations of Valley volunteers.
Cotter cast a huge shadow over Derby in terms of community service, said Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri.
The mayor at first knew Cotter only by reputation. Staffieri, new to the U.S. from Italy, worked a long paper route in Derby when he was about 13.
He read all the Cotter bylines in the old Evening Sentinel.
“Whether it was a picture or articles, it was always ‘by Ed Cotter.’ I was amazed,” Staffieri said. “How could this guy be everywhere? That was my first introduction to Ed Cotter.”
The park named for him wasn’t the only honor bestowed upon Cotter in recent weeks.
A permanent endowment fund created in Cotter’s memory at the Valley Community Foundation in Derby had grown to some $7,000 by mid-April.
Cotter’s obituary had asked people to donate to the fund, which will benefit St. Mary’s Church and the Derby Storm Ambulance and Rescue Corp. for years to come.
“Over a period of years this fund will grow,” said James Cohen, president of the Valley Community Foundation. “A portion will be distributed and the rest of the income grows the fund.”
Cohen said 75 percent of the income will go toward the Storms, while 25 percent will go to the church.
Cotter was one-of-a-kind, Cohen said.
Cohen’s father was born in a house across the street from the Derby Storm buildings on Olivia Street. Cohen’s father was Cotter’s close friend.
“Growing up in Derby they knew each other, always, and my father had the greatest respect for Ed,” Cohen said.
David Lenart, chief of the Derby Storm Ambulance, is Cotter’s grandson.
He said his grandfather had wanted to figure out how to leave a legacy.
“My grandfather started planning his funeral right after my grandmother died in 1987,” Lenart said.
The trick was finding a way to make any donations last. That’s where the Valley Community Foundation came in.
“To me, they are just incredible,” Staffieri said of the Valley Community Foundation. “What they do shows what type of people live in the Valley, in Derby. People care. The organization is doing everything right — and their roots are here. And it shows.”
Click here to donate to the Cotter fund at the Valley Community Foundation.
