Interim East Hampton Town Manager John Weichsel Has Passed Away

John Weichsel, who was hired in 2011 as interim town manager in East Hampton before falling ill, passed away at his home Friday night.

Weichsel served only a short time as interim town manager in East Hampton and was previously Southington’s town manager for more than 44 years. He had turned 80 in December and died after battling illness for several years.

His wife Dolores "Dee" Stanton-Weichsel declined immediate comment Saturday morning as members of the family had not yet had the opportunity to gather and mourn the loss of a man who had longtime roots in Southington and played an integral role in shaping the town’s history.

“My first memory of him was at the dedication for the new Lutheran Church in 1966 and from there, he’s only made himself more respected (since then),” said Ralph Mann, a friend and member of the Board of Finance when Weichsel first took on the job. “John never took sides, he never argued with anything but facts and he was always able to refrain from being on either side of the aisle.

“No matter who you asked, everyone always had a great deal of respect for John,” he added.

The International City and County Management Association confirmed that Weichsel was one of the 10 longest-serving managers in United States history and has spent the most time of any manager in a single municipality.

Weichsel first came to Southington when the town was home to just 27,000 people – almost half of what it is today. The town would grow rapidly after that, especially with the addition of a Pratt and Whitney plant in the 1970s.

The hardest part of these changing demographics and the hardest part of his time as town manager, Weichsel said in 2011, was being able to remain steadfast in providing effective management while constantly keeping up with the times.

“I loved this town. It was also a pleasure to go to work and it seemed like there was always a new challenge for me to take on,” Weichsel said in a retirement party in 2011 at the Aqua Turf. “Things today are a lot different than when I first came to town. I found I had to adjust quite often in order to be effective and to do what this town needed.”

Andrew Meade, who served as a member of the Southington Town Council for several decades, said it’s not hard to see the impact Weichsel had when you look at the new facilities across the community compared to when he started, when everything operated out of the one town hall facility and the Gura building, which once doubled as the police station.

Mann said the success could be attributed to his ability to clearly express his opinion, his knack for toeing the line and his ability to communicate in a non-partisan manner.

Although he has always been the town’s captain in the public eye, Meade said Weichsel also had other interests, including tennis, and was once a fine athlete and big sports fan as well.

Meade told a story of when Weichsel first came to town and residents had a chance to take on a semi-professional basketball team.

While others were trying simply to figure out how to look over the players who were all two feet taller than he was, Meade said Weichsel was busy drawing up plays and calling the shots. In most cases the talent wasn’t there, but some of his schemes helped make the game interesting.

“Man, was he one heck of a competitor,” Meade said.

At work Weichsel always acted in a professional manner according to several town officials, but his wife said he never brought work home and was always dedicated to having a strong family life when off the clock.

Stanton-Weichsel said in 2011 that Weichsel was the type of man who would always be on the go, however, from the time he woke up with just five to six hours of sleep until the time his head would finally hit the pillow.