Karl Paecht obituary: Clancy-Palumbo Funeral Home, East Haven

Karl Paecht, age 69, of East Haven and Mystic CT, passed away unexpectedly on August 25, 2026. He was born August 4, 1957 in New Haven to Karl and Rose Marie (Romano) Paecht. Karl is survived by his wife of 40 years, Mary (Mandybur) Paecht of Mystic, and their daughter, Kate Paecht, his mother, Rose Marie Paecht, along with an aunt, Betty Jane Graveline and a cousin, Gary Graveline.

Karl was a long time employee of General Dynamics Electric Boat Division. He began his career immediately after college in Construction Engineering in 1981 and was a Supervisor of Electrical Engineering for many years until he passed away. He graduated from Eli Whitney Technical High School, then the University of New Haven with an Electrical Engineering degree and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/Hartford Graduate Center with a MBA. Besides enjoying the construction and design aspects of his multiple jobs within Electric Boat, he was proud to be involved in the important missions of the company. He was a great promoter of his staff and especially valued for his managerial and technical skills that spanned many different classes of submarines. He earned the Distinguished Shipbuilder award for 40 years of service. His free time was mostly spent in his pursuit of guitar playing excellence, resulting in composing his own music with various effects thrown in, striving for the perfect sound. He enjoyed traveling with his family, especially to Disney, and gaming, anime, comic and Sci-Fi conventions with his daughter. Besides his love of family, he loved their cat, Lilly, who misses him, especially when he isn't home to greet her after work (and then chase her away with loud guitar music). When getting together with old friends, their conversation would highlight their questionable exploits growing up in their old East Haven neighborhood. He and his late father shared audiophile traits with divergent tastes: Hendrix, Van Halen and Pink Floyd vs Goodman and Shaw, but met on Jazz Greats Davis and Coltrane. His father's carpentry abilities were elusive for Karl but he enjoyed collecting power tools to help his many (semi-successful) household repairs.

He was loved and is greatly missed.

Family will receive friends on Wednesday September 9, 2026 from 4 to 7 PM in the Clancy-Palumbo Funeral Home, 43 Kirkham Ave., East Haven CT. All are welcome to meet and attend a graveside service on Thursday September 10, 2026 at 11:30am in St. Agnes Cemetery, Boston Post Rd. (Route 1) in Branford. Please go directly to the cemetery on Thursday.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Compassion for Cats, New London County, Lisbon CT, 06351 in memory of Karl Paecht.