Carleton R. Tufts

TUFTS, Carleton R. Carleton Robert Tufts, of Clintonville Rd., Wallingford, died Wednesday, (May 5, 2004) at MidState Medical Center in Meriden after a brief illness. He was 85 and was one of the oldest amateur league baseball players in the United States. Carl was born March 30, 1919, son of the late Edward Ernest and Hazel Mansfield Tufts. He was raised in North Haven, where he lived for most of his life, and graduated from Center School. A veteran of World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy Seabees on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, and remained active all his life in veterans organizations. He attended many reunions of the First Marine Raiders, who seized Tulagi from Japanese forces in 1942, and chronicled their stories for a book he was writing. He played a leading role in having the World War II memorial placed on the North Haven Green. He worked for the Brockway Smith millwork company in North Haven for more than 40 years before retiring. He was a volunteer firefighter in North Haven from the 1930's until the career fire department was established in 1967. Carl was an avid lifelong baseball player with a total devotion to the game and those who played it. He continued playing well into his 80's with the Wallingford Twilight League, which he joined in 1934 and served as commissioner until his death. He also played for many years with the West Haven Twilight League and with the Down East Twilight League in Farmington, Maine, where he was instrumental in building a ballfield. A 1985 article in The New York Times speculated that Carl, at age 66, may have been the oldest amateur baseball player in the country. He was a legendary pitcher, known for a surprising knuckleball, a crossfire fastball, a slow curve and pinpoint control. He was also widely revered for his coaching, and for building skill, character and teamwork in several generations of players, whom he loved as much as the game itself. He was a member of the Wallingford Senior Center, the North Haven Volunteer Firefighters Association and the American Legion, Murray Reynolds Post # 76, and was a charter member of the National World War II Memorial that just opened in Washington, D.C. He leaves two brothers, Howard Tufts of North Haven and Donald Tufts and his wife, Shirley, of Savannah, TN; three nieces; a nephew; a great-niece and many devoted friends. Funeral Services will be conducted in the North Haven Funeral Home,36 Washington Ave., Monday 11 a.m. Interment with full military honors will follow in the North Haven Center Cemetery. The visiting hours will be on Sunday from 2-5 p.m.