Richard M Woodworth

Richard Mack Woodworth, 89, of Bloomfield, Conn., passed away peacefully on May 21 after a bout with cancer.

He was born on Feb. 7, 1936 in Schenectady, N.Y., son of John Lieuallen and Francis Mack Woodworth. Raised in the Syracuse suburb of Fayetteville, he earned his B.A., cum laude, from Middlebury College, where he was salutatorian of his class and editor-in-chief of the Campus newspaper.

He spent 10 years as a reporter for daily newspapers in Jamestown, Geneva and Rochester, N.Y., before becoming managing editor of the weekly Brighton-Pittsford Post for three years.

In 1971 he moved to Connecticut to become the editor of the West Hartford News and executive editor of Imprint Newspapers, positions he held until 1986. During his tenures, the Brighton-Pittsford Post won the national first-place award for general excellence as a "model suburban newspaper" from Suburban Newspapers of America and the West Hartford News was awarded national first prize for general excellence in its circulation class by the National Newspaper Association.

He founded Wood Pond Press as the successor to Imprint Publications in 1984. With his wife, Nancy, he was co-author and publisher of numerous editions of seven regional guidebooks, spanning the East Coast from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to Key West, Fla.

In West Hartford, he served as president of the Connecticut Editorial Association of weekly newspapers and director of the New England Press Association. He also was on the board of the Auto Club of Hartford (AAA), the Bank of Hartford, the 1892 Club, the Greater Hartford Tourism District, the Children's Museum of Hartford, the West Hartford YMCA, and the Noah Webster House and Historical Society of West Hartford. He was a member of Asylum Hill Congregational Church, where he sang with its Sanctuary Choir.

With co-authors Ellsworth S. Grant and Miriam Butterworth, he wrote and edited Celebrate! West Hartford: An Illustrated Story in honor of the town's 2004 sesquicentennial celebration, of which he was co-chairman. He was twice honored with the West Hartford Chamber of Commerce's Noah Webster Award for service to the community.

He was married to Nancy Dale Webster of Montreal, Quebec, who died a week before their 57th wedding anniversary in 2017. He is survived by his two sons, Jay (partner Marcio Pinto) of West Hartford, and Cameron (Monica Smith) of Girona, Spain. He was predeceased by his brother, Daniel K. Woodworth of Towson, Md.