Edward J. Stockton, the former mayor of Bloomfield and Connecticut’s ex-economic development commissioner for Gov. Ella Grasso’s administration, died of natural causes Monday at the age of 89.
Stockton was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1930 and later moved to Ohio where his family, reeling from the impact of the stock market crash, established a farm, according to his obituary.
After losing both of his parents before the age of 14, Stockton went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Cincinnati. Stockton also met his wife, Marilyn Derbes, of 67 years during his undergraduate years.
Through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Stockton served in the U.S. Air Force for two years during the Korean War. His military tour was followed by him earning a master’s degree in economics from the Ohio State University.
Stockton then joined North American Aviation before moving to Connecticut for his early professional career as a corporate economist for then United Technologies Corp. He was elected mayor of Bloomfield in 1969, and played a key role in the town being selected as an All America City for its efforts toward racial integration in the town’s public school system.
His political career continued in 1975 after former Gov. Grasso appointed Stockton as Connecticut’s commissioner of economic development. Following his political career, Stockton created a commercial economics consulting firm known as ECONNomics, and then an international real estate business called Stockton Associates.
Stockton was especially concerned about racial and wealth inequality and criminal justice as he focused on job creation and economic prosperity for all people.
Joe Zwiebel, founding publisher and president of the Hartford Business Journal, says he forged a longtime friendship with Stockton after he landed in Connecticut to launch HBJ in 1992.
Zwiebel described Stockton as an energetic leader eager to make Connecticut, and the world, a better place to live.
“… Ed became my best friend and the finest mentor anyone could ask for … and I know that many could say the same,” Zwiebel said in a statement. “In the early days, and always, his friendship was sustaining, it always felt like the very highest compliment. Lunches with him…to talk about politics near and far, world travel (he loved it) old friends, business challenges and how to address them . ..were something I looked forward to and will miss terribly. I’ve never met anyone quite like him.”
Stockton is survived by his wife, Marilyn, and their two children David and Judith Stockton, their partners, and several grandchildren, great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, among other friends and family.
A celebration of Stockton’s life will be held sometime later this year.
