Jeremy M. Dodd

1938 - 2020

In Loving Memory of a Man Who Took the Road Less Traveled: Old Saybrook - Jeremy (Jerry) Murphy Dodd, 82, died peacefully on November 27, 2020, due to complications from Alzheimer's disease. Jerry leaves his loving and only son, Owen M. Dodd, his former spouse Barbara M. Dodd and his four siblings Thomas J. Dodd his spouse Mary O'Neil Dodd, Mary Carolyn Dodd, Senator Christopher J. Dodd and his spouse Jackie Clegg-Dodd, Nicholas Owen Dodd, and his loving friend, Joanne Hoye. He also leaves behind eleven nieces and nephews and an extensive loving family. In addition, Jerry joins his late sister, Martha Dodd-Buonanno. Jerry is the third child of the six children born of Mary Grace and Senator Thomas J. Dodd. He was born in New Haven, CT, on September 23, 1938, amid the New England Hurricane - one of the most destructive and deadliest hurricanes to make landfall in Connecticut. Raised in the Nutmeg State, he called home in North Stonington, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and West Hartford. He graduated from the Cheshire Academy and then served in both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Coastguard where he was honorably discharged from both services. He then went on to study at Mexico City College, Mexico City, Mexico earning his bachelor's in history. After graduating in 1962, as a fluent Spanish speaker, he hitchhiked through Central and South America during a time of political upheaval and great transition in the region. This momentous time was influential in shaping Jerry's worldview especially as it pertained to helping those who need it the most. Upon returning to the United States, he found his passion in life, photography. Jerry would study photography under the famous photographer John W. Doscher at the Doscher Country School of Photography in Vermont and would go on to take the portraits of Depression Era photographer Walker Evans and the renowned ornithologist and painter, Roger Tory Peterson. Jerry's innate photographic talent focused on families, portraiture, and legal photography, where he excelled and was in high demand across the state. Later in his life, he devoted his time to social work. He worked with community service programs that were committed to the rehabilitation of formerly incarcerated persons as he believed firmly in providing a second chance for people. He believed deeply in his work and it came from a belief of a higher-good where one should work towards something larger than oneself. Jerry was a lover of life who cherished animals, hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and sailing on the Connecticut River in his wooden boat, Mrs. Jones. He was a voracious reader and lover of history who understood that we all have a story to tell, and he was eager to hear the histories of those he met throughout his life. His indelible humor was contagious to others, and his magnetic personality was a complete joy to be around. He has truly left the world and its inhabitants better than where he found them. There will be a private ceremony at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Pawcatuck, Rhode Island on December 7, 2020, where he will be laid to rest next to his mother and father in the Dodd Family plot.