Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

OCTOBER 2, 2017 • HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | 71 After serving in the Pacific during World War II, Murtha returned to the United States in 1946 and served as assistant states attorney for Hartford County until 1951. An "Extraordinary Life" profile of Murtha in the Hartford Courant recalled that, "Murtha practiced corporate and labor law, representing management. Some of Hartford's most important businessmen were friends and clients, including Charles Kaman, Malcolm Baldrige and Clayton Gengras. Murtha served on the boards of several area companies, among them United Bank and Trust, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Connecticut, Security Insurance Co. and Kaman Corp." Murtha's career encompassed many community and civic activities including the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation and Boys and Girls Clubs of Hartford. He was a director of Kaman Corp. and corporator at Hartford Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital, and the Institute of Living. Murtha was president of the Hartford Golf Club, the Yale Club of Hartford, and president and general campaign chairman for United Way of Greater Hartford. Michael Peters Peters, known simply as Mayor Mike, was a successful Hartford firefighter, politician, restaurateur and, most prominently, Hartford's top cheerleader who passed away on Jan. 4, 2009, from complications from cirrhosis of the liver and kidney failure. Governing Magazine selected Peters as one of its 1996 Public Officials of the Year. It said at the time, "Part fixer, part showman and part civic conscience, Peters was elected in 1993 at a time when it appeared Hartford was destined to lose itself in the civic chaos and community indifference that are the hallmarks of cities going down the tubes. He is a genuinely funny man, with a homespun, up-from-the-streets charm and dynamism that have given him the ear of everyone from the city's black leadership and neighborhood groups to insurance conglomerate CEOs and suburban bluebloods." It was Peters' ability to talk to everybody from shoeshiner to CEO that helped see the city through some dark recessionary times. "Mayor Mike governed with a big heart and an engaging personality,'' U.S. Rep. John Larson said when Peters passed away. "He was able to disarm his critics with humor and his positively pro-Hartford, can-do attitude." Fran Reale As recounted in her 2011 Hartford Courant obituary, Reale was a partner of City Fare Inc., a catering company in Hartford and Kidzzz, a Cooking Culinary Program. That was Reale at her most basic. But she was also an active community supporter as a strong advocate for the South Hartford Business Association, which worked to improve the Franklin and Wethersfield avenues business area. A story about her life in the Hartford Courant remembered her as one of the leaders of "Les Chefs Femmes," a group of women chefs who would prepare a meal to raise money for Interval House, a women's shelter, or children's charities. As executive chef, Reale would cook and help organize the event, a sit-down dinner that was held for several years at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. As the Hartford News' Andy Hart observed at her memorial service, "Speakers at [her] memorial service described Fran as a modern-day renaissance woman who passionately pursued a variety of interests, most prominently cooking, art and gardening. She was also a staunch supporter of Hartford and her own South Green neighborhood. A conversation with Fran, usually accompanied by a sampling of her latest culinary creation, would usually veer from topic to topic, from city politics to the latest exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum, with a discussion of ricotta cheese thrown in." William "Bill" Savitt Even 17 years after his death, Savitt's motto for his downtown jewelry story still resonates, "Peace of Mind Guaranteed" or P-O-M-G, as it was sometimes shortened. Savitt made his jewelry store known around the state through constant advertising on television and in print. (Some could say he was the inspiration for Bob's Discount Furniture's marketing philosophy.) He died in 1995. According to his obituary, Savitt's store was the largest retail jewelry business operating in any American city the size of Hartford. He had been named ``Connecticut's Small Businessman of the Year'' by the U.S. Small Business Administration because of his imagination, independence, initiative and integrity in business. A master of innovative advertising techniques, Savitt had developed his jewelry business from a one-man operation to a large-scale enterprise employing some 75 persons, including 15 jewelers. In addition to being a strong proponent of downtown Hartford from his Asylum Street store (between Main and Trumbull), Savitt was also a philanthropist. He was honored by numerous groups, including the American Red Cross, the Hartford Jaycees, the University of Hartford and many Jewish organizations for his volunteer efforts. Betty Tianti Tianti was a woman of accomplishments on the other side of the table in business: the labor movement. Chief among her accomplishments was being elected the first woman in the nation to head a labor federation when she was elected president of the AFL-CIO in Connecticut and being appointed the first female commissioner of the state Department of Labor. She died in 1994. From her first job as a machine operator at the American Thread Company in Willimantic, where she immediately joined the Textile Workers Union of America, she recorded a number of firsts. According to information at the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame, "Within a few months, not only was she promoted to machine fixer, becoming the first woman to hold that position, but was chosen union steward. After two years, she was secretary-treasurer of Local 460, and soon thereafter, was elected president of the same union." In 1970, she became the first woman agent of the State Board of Labor Relations. In 1974, she was elected the first woman secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO federation and then president of the state AFL- CIO in 1985. In 1988, Gov. William O'Neill appointed Tianti to be the state's Commissioner of Labor, a position she held until her retirement in 1991. Richard Weaver-Bey Weaver-Bey was an affordable housing developer, radio station owner and civic leader when he died in 2008 at age 63 while out for a morning bike ride. According to his obituary in the Hartford Courant, Weaver-Bey got his big break in business in 1970, when Harold Rothstein, then-owner of Greater Hartford Realty Management Corp., promoted him to run a division of the company. Weaver-Bey eventually took over that business, building affordable housing. Weaver-Bey was also well known as the co-owner for almost 20 years of WKND 1480 AM in Hartford's North End. Weaver-Bey had started there as an on-air talent, moved into sales, and then joined in with others to buy the station in the mid-60s. He eventually became president and CEO of the station. In conjunction with his work at WKND, Weaver-Bey also founded the Greater Hartford Initiative, which awarded numerous scholarships to a range of students throughout the region. People In Memoriam

• Cover