Bronze of Sgt. Stubby, one man’s WWI inseparable companion, will soon join CT Trees of Honor
By Cassandra Day
via the Middletown Press web site
MIDDLETOWN — The city’s tranquil park that honors the 65 Connecticut heroes who lost their lives in service to the country while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan will soon include a tribute to a very special service dog.
Some 25 people gathered recently at Veterans Memorial Park to reveal plans for a bronze statue to be erected this spring in the entrance way area of the Connecticut Trees of Honor to memorialize Sgt. Stubby.
Mayor Dan Drew speaks at the Connecticut Trees of Honor at Veterans Memorial Park in Middletown, CT, announcing plans to erect a bronze sculpture this spring to Sgt. Stubby, America’s most famous war dog, at the Park. Inset: Poster for the animated movie “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero” which will premier nationwide on April 13.It took more than 30 years for the Deane family find the perfect resting place for America’s best-known military working dog, said Curt Deane, grandson of Cpl. J. Robert Conroy of New Britain. His grandfather found the stray mixed breed he named Stubby while training near the Yale University campus in New Haven during the spring and summer of 1917.
“They think he’s more Staffordshire Bull Terrier than anything else,” said Deane, a Lyme and New York City resident.
Conroy was there with the 102nd Regiment of the 26th Yankee Division before the unit was shipped off to France at the start of America’s entry into WWI.
The men very quickly became endeared to the canine, designating him Sgt. Stubby.
Very soon, the canine will have another grand tribute — on a national stage — when the animated movie “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero” will premier nationwide April 13.
“It really is a fulfillment of promise I made to my grandfather back in the ‘80s. When I realized it was the centennial (of the U.S. involvement in World War I), it was the right time to do it,” said Deane, who met Trees of Honor founder Sue Martucci through “a friend of a friend.”
His family had been trying to find locations in Connecticut to bring Stubby home to, including New Haven and Hartford, but encountered “political resistance.”
No matter, since once he met Martucci, things moved very quickly, Deane said. She soon convinced him Middletown should be Stubby’s forever home.
“I felt like it was absolutely right. Sue is smart. She gets stuff done — she’s really committed to this park. That’s what really drove me, and then when she started talking about wanting to have a plaque for service members with PTSD, to me, that was ideal,” Deane said.
California sculptress Susan Bahary, who has work on view around the world, is creating the piece. She’s best known for the World War II War Dog Memorial “Always Faithful” in Guam, which was dedicated July 21, 1994.
“She just unveiled in New Zealand a tribute to horses sent to WWI,” Deane said. “She has an extraordinary way of capturing animals.”
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