Longtime West Haven Lawmaker, Community Staple Mourned

WEST HAVEN, CT — The West Haven community and beyond is mourning the loss of former State Rep. Stephen D. Dargan, who died April 22 after a battle with cancer. He was 71.

Dargan was a community staple who also served on the City Council and was named West Haven’s Irishman of the Year in 2025, and was inducted into the West Haven High School Athletic Hall of Fame among his many local accolades.

“A lifelong Westie, Steve Dargan was the epitome of giving back to the community,” his obituary reads. “Along with being an assistant coach on West Haven High’s boys’ basketball state championship team in 1987, Dargan was well-known as the voice of West Haven High football, serving as the Blue Devils’ public address announcer for four decades.”

Dargan, who began his political career as a West Haven Fire Commissioner and Councilman of the 2nd District, was a 13-term State Representative who served as a co-chair of the General Assembly’s Public Safety and Security Committee, and on the Gaming Policy Task Force and the Private Security Personnel Task Force, according to his obituary.

In one of the highlights of his career, Dargan was the state’s “first elected official to serve in a CIA counterterrorism unit after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the country,” the obituary states. “He went on to serve the wider state as a member of the Board of Parole and Pardons.”

“Numerous accolades from those who were close friends and colleagues remember Steve for his energy and bipartisanship, describing him as larger than life, smart as a whip with a heart of gold, and hard working with a great sense of humor,” the obituary reads. “Everyone has got a Dargan story.”

State Sen. James Maroney called Dargan a “local lion” who was an “advisor, and a trusted friend who taught me many hard learned lessons about working up here in Hartford,” according to a post on Facebook.

“He taught me to always communicate and to care about your community, something he lived everyday as he served,” Maroney wrote. “He will truly be missed.”

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Dargan was a “close colleague in the legislature where we worked together on important legislation to improve the criminal justice system and protect public safety, including Connecticut’s landmark reforms passed in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook.”

“When I started in the legislature, Chairman Dargan was a giant – Chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, highly respected and well loved by his colleagues,” Tong said in a statement. “He never took himself too seriously, and I could count on him to give me a good ribbing when I deserved it. We loved him, all of us, and our state was made better, and much safer, because of Steve Dargan. My heart goes out to his family, friends and his beloved community of West Haven at this sad time.”

Calling hours for Dargan will take place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 1 at the West Haven Funeral Home at 662 Savin Avenue.

Read the full obituary at West Haven Funeral Home here.

State Sen. President Martin Looney also shared the following video tribute to Dargan in a post on Facebook:

See also: Stephen D. Dargan Named West Haven’s 2025 Irishman of the Year