If you ever met Edward Tevolitz, you were a better person for it.
Tevolitz, known as “ET,” a lifelong Shelton resident and volunteer firefighter for more than two decades, died last week after a long battle with cancer. He was 47.
Yet even when fighting the disease, his friends and family said Monday, Tevolitz embodied a selflessness that exemplified what it meant to be not only a volunteer firefighter, but just a good person.
“He never said ‘Poor me,’ he never said ‘Why me?’” Tevolitz’s wife, Christine, said. “He never said ‘I can’t do this.’ He was just always worried about everybody else.”
“This is a man who was the biggest humanitarian I’ve ever known in my life,” Christine went on. “He put everyone’s needs before his own, always.”
Several of Tevolitz’s many friends in the fire department echoed those sentiments.
Justin Sabatino, a fire commissioner who knew Tevolitz since grammar school and also worked with him for the Town of Stratford, said Tevolitz was a constant presence at fundraisers and other events, even during his illness.
“If you needed somebody to do something or be involved, that was Eddie,” Sabatino said. “There’s a big void now in the city of Shelton without him in the fire department.”
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How dedicated was Tevolitz to helping others?
Sabatino pointed out that Tevolitz, who was Jewish, played Santa Claus year in and year out during fire department events.
“He would take that part to the hilt for the White Hills fire department,” Sabatino said. “It’s tough to lose a friend like that … it’s like I lost a brother.”
An electrician by trade, Tevolitz was a member of the city’s White Hills Voluntary Fire Company since 1990, and served as its captain in 2001 and 2007.
He was the assistant chief of the Shelton Fire Department until 2010, Chief Fran Jones said Monday.
He was honored as the department’s Firefighter of the Year in 2013, said Jones, who got involved with the fire department around the same time as Tevolitz.
“He’s been a tremendous asset for the community,” the chief said. “He just embodied what it meant to be a volunteer firefighter. He’s going to be greatly missed.”
“He’s just that type of person that always had a smile, and would always make someone else smile, and was always there to lend a helping hand,” Jones said.
“You didn’t even have to ask him for help, he just did it,” said Chris Jones, another Shelton volunteer firefighter. “He was just one of those guys that cared for everybody else, put everybody else above and beyond himself.”
“He had friends everywhere,” Jones said. “He would stop in places out of the blue and talk to people, he just had that personality about him.”
An avid motorcyclist, Sabatino said Tevolitz loved a Harley-Davidson he owned, but loved participating in charity rides and other events even more.
“Anything that involved his motorcycle and a good cause, he would be there,” Sabatino said.
Alan Ovesny, a lieutenant and past captain at the White Hills fire company who knew Tevolitz since high school, said he was a model officer at the department.
“He always kept an eye out for the guys and took care of them, and help the young guys that were just starting out,” Ovesny said. “There was a lot of love, a lot of respect for him.”
Tevolitz also enjoyed going to NASCAR races and was a member of the department’s softball team until his illness, he said.
Tevolitz could dish out jokes with the best of them, and take them himself, too, Ovesny said, but would always be there for others when it counted.
If someone had an electrical problem at their house, for instance, Tevolitz would never hesitate to help figure it out with them, Ovesny said.
“That’s the kind of stuff Eddie would do,” he said. “He’s definitely going to be missed here.”
Nick Verdicchio, assistant fire chief, knew Tevolitz for decades and said simply, “The world needs more Ed Teovlitzes.”
“Ed went out of his way to help people and never expected anything in return, it’s just the kind of person he was,” Verdicchio said. “He was special.”
As Tevolitz battled cancer, Chief Jones said the city’s four volunteer fire companies banded together to raise money to help make his life a little easier.
“Whatever was needed, guys were there to help him, because Eddie was always there for them,” the chief said. “And even when he wasn’t feeling well he was there to support other causes. Ed was always there. He’s been there all along throughout the years.”
And his spirit still is, Christine said.
“He’s still with me, he’s present with me right now, he’s all over,” she said. “He was the most wonderful man in the world. He never wanted to be the center of attention, it was always about everybody else. He gave us an amazing life and forever left an impression.”