David Huntoon, dead at 75, known as cautious planner
Longtime official was friend of education

David D. Huntoon of Shadow Lane, a longtime town official who fought second-rate development and supported first-rate schools, died in his sleep Saturday, March 17, at the home of his son, David L. Huntoon, in Ann Arbor, Mich. He was 75 years old and the husband of Ann Richards Huntoon.
Mr. Huntoon, a planning and zoning commissioner for 26 years, was best known for his work in land use and his conservative approach to development. However, he had also had a lifelong interest in education, and had served on the Board of Education and been a benefactor of The Wooster School in Danbury, where a memorial service will take place Friday.
David Demarest Huntoon was born in Providence, R.I., on Sept. 29, 1925, the son of the late Maxwell Carpenter and Caroline Goodrich Huntoon. His father was a Rhode Island state and town official who was also instrumental in forming Save the Bay, which became a powerful environmental group that fought pollution of Narragansett Bay.
“His father was head of the Town Council in Little Compton and was also a state senator, and his mother was very active in the community, so there was a lot of involvement at home,” said Ann Huntoon.
He attended the Moses Brown and Gordon Schools in Providence and graduated from Providence Country Day School in 1943. He entered Dartmouth College that fall, but World War II interrupted his studies. He spent two years in the United States Navy as a radioman on a PBY seaplane in the Pacific Northwest. After the war, he returned to Dartmouth, receiving his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1949.
Mr. Huntoon returned to Providence to join a brokerage firm, and then worked for Packaging Materials Corp. in Bellows Falls, Vt., and New York City for 10 years. In 1950, while at friend’s wedding, he met Ann Jermyn Richards, a bridesmaid. They were married in Scranton, Pa., on Nov. 15, 1952.
The Huntoons lived in New York City, and then moved to an apartment in Westport in 1954. Their first child, David Lloyd Huntoon, was born in September 1954, and by 1957, a second child was on the way. “A colleague of Dave’s saw an ad for an apartment in Ridgefield and we needed space,” Mrs. Huntoon recalled.

Ridgefield apartment
The apartment was at the J.H. Merrick home on Peaceable Street, where they lived until 1963 when they purchased a late 19th-Century house just up the road at 45 Peaceable Street. Meanwhile, Frances Richards Huntoon and Jean Demarest Huntoon were born.
They lived on Peaceable Street for almost 30 years, before building a retirement home at 41 Shadow Lane in 1996.
After leaving Packaging Materials Corp., Mr. Huntoon joined the Enforcement Division of the New York Stock Exchange, where he was responsible for ensuring that members followed Securities and Exchange Commission regulations. He had risen to the position of vice president before he left the Stock Exchange in 1976.
Owning an older house had led Mr. Huntoon to an interest in carpentry. He started out by building a tool shed and eventually erected a three-car garage. When he left the exchange, he joined two other men with diverse backgrounds in founding a home remodeling firm called Old World Craftsmen. Partner Wick Drummond had been a pianist and piano builder while Rich Batesole was an electrical engineer. They bought houses and remodeled them or were contracted by others for projects. He retired around 1987.

School board
Inspired by his parents’ public service, Mr. Huntoon became active in the community in the 1960s. He began attending Board of Education meetings regularly in 1964 and five years later, he was elected to a two-year term on the board. It was a period when the town was dealing with the effects of rapid growth; between 1960 and 1970, the population had increased 123%, and Ridgefield was building almost one school a year.
His two years on the board were full of turmoil, with protracted budget battles, school overcrowding problems and even fights over sex education in the schools. Between his commuting to New York City and helping raise the family, the school board became too much and he declined to run in 1971. “Burnout and job responsibilities took me out of town government,” he recalled in 1997.
A few years ago, when someone wrote a letter bitterly criticizing his vote on expanding a playground in Ballard Park, Mr. Huntoon responded: “I am stung by the charge that I am ‘anti-children.’ Ever since I moved here in 1957, I have worked to make Ridgefield a better place for children, as a pro-school activist, a supporter of school budgets, and an elected member of the Board of Education.”
Education, both public and private, was always dear to his heart. His aunt and uncle were playwrights Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, who co-wrote the film “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Frank Capra, and were authors of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “The Diary of Anne Frank.” When the Huntoons received a sizable bequest from his aunt and uncle’s estate in 1997, they used it to establish the Anne Frank Scholarship at The Wooster School.
“What can you say about something like that?” Mr. Huntoon, a Christian, said of the Holocaust. “We’ve lived to see civilization set back thousands of years.”
In 1975, with retirement from his New York City commute in sight, he returned to town government. “I got my breath back and joined the Planning and Zoning Commission,” he said several years ago. “But I’m still a dyed-in-the-wool pro-schooler.”

Outspoken
As a commissioner, Mr. Huntoon was both outspoken and meticulous. “He was a stickler for details,” said fellow Commissioner James McChesney. “He was always up on Robert’s Rules of Order. He knew the regulations forward and backward.”
He was also controversial. “He probably voted in the minority more times than any other commissioner,” Mr. McChesney said.
On March 13, at the last meeting he would ever attend, Mr. Huntoon chastised his own commission for its approval of a 26-lot subdivision of the former Henry and Clare Boothe Luce estate off Great Hill Road. “This commission has done some things we can be proud of and some things we should not be proud of over the years,” he said. “I’m ashamed of this one.”
Mr. Huntoon once wrote that “every application that comes before Planning and Zoning — whether residential, commercial or corporate — is an opportunity to enhance the quality of our town or to give away a piece of it. The sum of our responses will dictate what kind of a town Ridgefield will be.”
His conservative approach to zoning, especially corporate development, won him disfavor among some members of the Republican Party in 1989. Though he was then chairman of the commission and a 14-year veteran, a caucus declined to endorse him for the November ticket. “Nobody seems to be making it easy for me, but I’ll persevere,” he said at the time. He petitioned for a primary, easily won a place on the November ballot, and was re-elected by a sizable margin.
Mr. Huntoon had served 26 years on a commission that attracts longevity of service. Mr. McChesney has been a member since 1973 and Nelson Gelfman, since 1967. “Dave was a very close personal friend and I considered him one of our most able commissioners,” said Dr. Gelfman this week.
John Katz, who joined in 1979, said Mr. Huntoon was “one of my few seriously good friends. He was well-read, well-educated and enjoyed good humor as much as a good argument. He often won those, but frequently thought he had when he had not. It was one of his many memorable and enjoyable qualities.”
Mr. Katz added that “the eight commissioners with whom he served so long know that one of his most frequently needed phrases was, ‘John, please, I haven’t finished.’ It is the community’s great loss that now he has.”
The current chairman, Di Masters, said Mr. Huntoon “made countless contributions to the shape of Ridgefield. From our treasured open space to the village that we adore, David’s stamp is there.”
Over the past 45 years, Mr. Huntoon also attended and spoke at meetings of many other town agencies and often served as a moderator of the Town Meeting.

Nantucket
His interest in land conservation extended beyond Ridgefield — he was actively involved in land use issues on Nantucket Island, Mass., where the Huntoons have owned a cottage for 20 years. He was chairman of the Smith Point Association on Nantucket, and was active in the Nantucket Land Council. He would often spend weekends off-season on Nantucket because that was when the local government agencies like the selectmen would meet and make important decisions.
“Dad never relaxed,” his daughter, Jean Bressor of Richmond, Vt., said with a smile.
In Ridgefield, Mr. Huntoon had also served on the board of directors of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, was a member and former president of the Great Pond Club, and had worked years to get Weir Farm declared a national park, even traveling to Washington to meet with Senator Joseph Lieberman’s staff to encourage his support. He was a recruiter and interviewer for Dartmouth College.
Mr. Huntoon had many other interests, including classical music, opera, Broadway musicals, and reading history. “Two of his passions were sailing and travel,” Mrs. Huntoon said. “Dave became an accomplished sailor during his childhood in Little Compton on the Rhode Island coast.”
“He was very proud of his grandchildren,” said his daughter, Jean.
“And his children,” her mother added.
A sign of his pride dates back to his first grandchild. When Caroline Huntoon was born in 1984, Mr. Huntoon stopped by The Press office with the news. “This is probably the most important birth announcement you’ll print this decade,” he announced with a big smile. And, after reflecting on his new position as a grandfather, he added: “I’ve never had so much fun for so little effort in my life.”
The Huntoons also traveled extensively during their lives, including trips to most of Europe, India, China, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania and, most recently, South Africa.
Besides his wife, Mr. Huntoon is survived by his son David Huntoon and wife Mari Arno and children Caroline, Peter, Greg, Maggie and John of Ann Arbor; his daughter Frances Huntoon and partner Cathleen Gent of Richmond, Vt.; and his daughter Jean Bressor, husband Gary and children Caitlin, Maxwell, Lincoln and Jackson, also of Richmond, Vt. ; his brother, Maxwell Huntoon of Chappaqua, N.Y.; his sister Frances Hall of Marblehead, Mass.; and his uncle Howard Huntoon of Little Compton.
A memorial service will take place Friday, March 23, at 2 p.m. at the Wooster School Chapel on Ridgebury Road in Danbury. A reception will follow at the Headmaster’s house at Wooster School.
Friends may call at the Kane Funeral Home, 41 Catoonah Street, today, Thursday, from 4 to 7.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any donations be made to one of the following three charities: The Anne Frank Scholarship, Wooster School, Ridgebury Road, Danbury, CT 06810; Town of Ridgefield Open Space Conservation Fund, c/o Conservation Commission, Town Hall, 400 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877; or the Nantucket Land Council, P.O. Box 502, Nantucket, MA 02554. —J.F.S.