Richard Madden

1932 - 2019

Richard L. Madden
Richard "Dick" L. Madden, 86, longtime Newtown Resident, died peacefully surrounded by his family on August 18, 2019. He was predeceased by his wife of 55 years, Mary Jane "Bunny" (Davidson) Madden, their son George B. Madden, his brother John A. Madden, and parents George S. and Julia A. (Feeler) Madden. He is survived by his daughter Mary F. (Darrin) Ryan, and niece Marcie (Phillip) Heese of Clermont, FL, and was "Step Pa" to Dylan and Mollee Ryan. Richard was born Sept. 3, 1932, in Indianapolis, IN. He graduated from Broad Ripple HS and Indiana University with majors in journalism and government. He met Bunny on a blind date in their freshman year at college and they were married before their senior year. He trained at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, GA and served 16 months in South Korea from 1955-56 as a lieutenant with the 19th Infantry Regiment and the 24th Infantry Division. He worked for The Wall Street Journal, New York Herald Tribune and for 34 years at The New York Times as a reporter and later as editor of the Connecticut section. He covered a wide range of stories including Wall Street, the tobacco industry, New York City Hall, state capitals in Albany, NY and Hartford, CT, the Nixon and Ford White Houses, seven presidential nominating conventions, election campaigns, plane crashes, train wrecks, a bridge and building collapse, a crossword puzzle tournament, and the discovery in Connecticut of a Stradivarius violin that had been stolen in 1935 from Carnegie Hall. At the Herald Tribune he was co-author with Martin J. Steadman on a series of articles "Our Sideline Legislators", which won many 1964 New York City journalism awards including the James Wright Brown, Schaefer Gold Typewriter, and Page One awards, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He also won an award that year from the New York Reporters Association for coverage on an outbreak of brush fires on Staten Island. In 1976 he was elected by members of the Washington press corps to represent them as chairman on the Standing Committee of Correspondents. Richard believed that reporters should pursue and write the stories, not become part of them. He also worked as a volunteer at Lime Rock Park for 28 years helping run the media center, and with his neighbors at Castle Hill Farm where he greeted customers and sold pumpkins each fall. He was a member of the Society of the Silurians and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Friends may call at the Honan Funeral Home, 58 Main St., Newtown on Monday August 26 from 5-8 p.m. In lieu of flowers, contributions to the C.H. Library, 25 Main St., Newtown, CT 06470 will be appreciated.