Edwin M. LAVITT

LAVITT, Edwin M.


Edwin M. Lavitt of Ellington, CT, died in Hartford on June 24, 2013, 10 days before his 93rd birthday. He was born July 3, 1920, in Rockville, the son of Joseph Lavitt and Fannie Rosenberg Lavitt. He was predeceased by his wife, Sandra Harris Lavitt, his sister, F. Ruth Kummer, and his brother, Seymour Lavitt. He is survived by a son, Jed Lavitt and his wife, Paula White-Lavitt, of New York, NY; a daughter, Mara Lavitt and her husband, Hayne Bayless, of Ivoryton, CT; his beloved twin grandchildren, Mariah and Tate Lavitt, of New York, NY; Max Arriola and his wife, Maria Eleonora, of Guatemala City; his brother-in-law, Dr. Seymour I. Kummer, and his wife, Joan, of Ellington, CT; his nieces and nephews, Dr. Bart Kummer, of New York, NY; Merle Kummer, of Belmont, MA; Corby Kummer and his spouse John Auerbach, of Jamaica Plain, MA; Darryl Lavitt and her husband, Wayne, of Winooski, VT; Joseph Lavitt, of San Rafael, CA; his brother-in-law Richard DeCombray and Miles Morgan of New York, NY. After enlisting, he proudly served in World War II in the Army Air Corps, first as an instructor and then as a B-24 bomber pilot in the 44th Bomb Group 67th Squadron, and was promoted to captain in January 1945. In his 29 missions over Germany, he was lead pilot on 12 and in one, Bitterfeld, he led the entire 14th Combat Wing. His crew was known as Lavitt's Rabbits, and had the honor of flying both Mi Akin Ass and Myrtle the Fertile Turtle. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters. Two of the oak leaf clusters were awarded at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. 50 years after the end of the war; the French Legion of Honor was awarded at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. that same year. He earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Massachusetts in 1941, majoring in animal husbandry and entomology in order to be more useful after graduation as a principal in the Lavitt Potato Company, which had been founded by his father. From 1945-53 he worked as a farming and commodities broker. Though he had assumed he would continue the business of both his father and grandfather, who had been successful farmers and grain and potato brokers, he decided to try another profession. He earned a law degree from the University of Connecticut in 1953, and later a master's degree in tax law from Boston University. He found himself much better suited to the law. He practiced, primarily as a trial lawyer, with Arnold Aronson, Jonathan Kaplan, Lawrence Klaczak, and Katherine Hutchinson. His law firm of Lavitt, Aronson & Hutchinson merged with the Hartford law firm of Ribicoff & Kotkin; he managed the Rockville office. He served as town counsel for Ellington-Rockville-Andover, and was a respected member of the bar associations and participated in many bar functions. He was a member of the real estate development firm Delta Co. with accountants Robert Pue and Paul Semel of Rockville, CT, Arnold Aronson, and the builder James Milkie of South Windsor. He was a longtime member of B'nai Israel Synagogue in Rockville as well as its past president. He finished his career as a state magistrate for 20 years, and as an attorney trial referee and a fact-finder/arbitrator up until a few weeks before his death. He was the rare man who recognized the distinction between being successful and being content. And he knew how to take real, fulfilling, and lasting pleasure from the people and activities he loved. His marriage of 56 years was the example his family and friends always pointed to as the happiest and most successful they knew. As a young man he had been a championship golfer, and he took up his other interests with the same concentration and gusto. He was an avid horseman, chef, master gardener, fly fisherman, orchid grower, and a life-long philatelist. Building the stamp collection his father had begun occupied even more of his time than it had his father's. He was a longtime member of the Belgian Congo Study Circle and the editor of its newsletter. He loved museums and took up the interests of his children and grandchildren with his usual hearty and opinionated creativity and flair for the dramatic. He watched his grandchildren play polo, kept up with his son-in-law's award-winning pottery, and always championed his own children's main interests and careers. He was a ready and loyal friend to many, and an irreplaceable one.
His remains will be buried next to his wife's in a private ceremony. A memorial will be held at a future date. Donations in lieu of flowers, may be made to the Heifer Foundation, PO Box 727, Little Rock, AR, 72203, or to an environmental conservation organization of the donor's choice.