Irving C. Freese (February 19, 1903 – September 11, 1964) was the
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of
Norwalk, Connecticut
Norwalk is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The city, part of the New York metropolitan area, New York Metropolitan Area, is the List of municipalities of Connecticut by population, sixth-most populous city in Connecticut ...
.
Life and family
Freese attended a one-room school in
East Brunswick, New Jersey
East Brunswick is a Township (New Jersey), township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The suburban bedroom community is part of the New York metropolitan area and is located on the southern sho ...
, and was graduated from
New Brunswick High School
New Brunswick High School (NBHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school serving students in ninth through twelfth grades in New Brunswick, in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the main secondary school of ...
. He first came to Norwalk in 1928, while visiting his brother Arnold. He found work as the assistant credit manager at the Norwalk Tire and Rubber Company, as a
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technologies corporation headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Its common stock is a c ...
salesman, as a cost accountant at the
American Hat Company, and at the
Standard Safety Razor Corporation as a credit manager. He later started a
photography
Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...
business. In October 1933, he met Elizabeth Hutchinson, the niece of the newly elected mayor of nearby
Bridgeport
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
,
Jasper McLevy
Jasper McLevy (March 27, 1878November 20, 1962) was an American politician who served as mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1933 until 1957. He was a member of the Socialist Party, later leaving in protest to join the Social Democratic Federa ...
at his victory party. They were married in June 1934. They had a son they named Jasper, after her uncle, in August 1936.
Political career
Freese was an unsuccessful candidate for mayor in 1939, 1941, 1943 and 1945. In those unsuccessful elections, he received between 400 and 600 votes apiece. Then he was a candidate for the
Connecticut House of Representatives
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each ...
from Norwalk in 1946.
In 1947, the citizens of Norwalk elected
Socialist
Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
Freese as mayor with a total of 8,561 votes. Freese was elected again as a Socialist in 1949. In 1951, he broke from the Socialist Party and defeated
Republican candidate
Stanley Stroffolino, despite Stroffolino's endorsement by the Republicans, the
Democrats and the Socialists with whom Freese had just parted company.
He was elected three times after forming the Independent Party of Norwalk in 1951, 1953 and 1957.
Legacy
* Irving Freese Park at 1 Main Street in downtown Norwalk is named for him.
* Troop 19, the oldest
Boy Scout Troop
A Scout troop is a term adopted into use with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and the Scout Movement to describe their basic units. The term troop echoes a group of mounted scouts in the military or an expedition and follows the terms cavalry, mounted i ...
in Norwalk, was founded on March 3, 1930 by Freese
Boy Scout Troop 19
* The Irving Freese Apartments, a public housing
Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
residence at 57 Ward Street, as well as the Irving Freese Community Room at the same location are named for him.
See also
* List of elected socialist mayors in the United States
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freese, Irving
1903 births
1964 deaths
Mayors of Norwalk, Connecticut
New Brunswick High School alumni
People from East Brunswick, New Jersey
Socialist Party of America politicians from Connecticut
20th-century mayors of places in Connecticut