Memorial Service for Andrew Warde High School Coaching Legend Ted Merrill This Saturday, June 13, in Meriden

The following obituary is courtesy of the Wallingford Funeral Home:

Theodore J. Merrill, 76, of Meriden, died on Saturday, May 9, 2026, at Hartford Hospital. He was the loving husband of Twanetta “Toni” (Witsman) Merrill of 47 years. Ted was born in Portland, Maine, October 15, 1949, the son of the late Marvin M. and Natalie (Thurston) Merrill. 

Raised in Wallingford, Ted attended Lyman Hall High School where he played baseball and was a part of the very first soccer team. Ted went on to study Education with a focus in Industrial Arts at Central Connecticut State University. At CCSU, he was also on the baseball team and the first ever soccer team. 

After graduating CCSU, he began a long career as an educator, having taught Drafting, Architecture, Modeling, and various other courses in Fairfield at Andrew Warde High School. A lifelong learner, he received his sixth-year master’s degree from CCSU to be the first to implement technical advances in his classrooms, pioneering new methods of instruction earning him state and national recognition. 

For the span of his career, he also coached countless students in the sports of soccer, baseball, swimming, wrestling, and basketball in Fairfield. As a coach, he brought his experience as an athlete to his students which resulted in winning multiple conference and state championships in both soccer and baseball. 

Ted was an avid sports fan for his entire life and for those who knew him well, know that the Boston Red Sox always held a special spot in his heart. Ted was an avid traveler his entire life. Perhaps one of his favorite trips early in life was a trip to Europe where he represented the USA with a group of collegiate soccer all-stars playing in several countries. Later In life, trips across the United States with friends Paul and Peggy in search of the next antique or train store took up his time. 

In addition to his wife Toni, he will be missed by his children and their spouses, Alicia (Merrill) and Anthony Matias, Kevin and Tabatha Merrill, and Katherine (Merrill) and Edward Hayes, his grandchildren, Aidan, Amalie, Ember, Adaline, Anthony, Edward, Lyla, Analise, Liam and Willa. His first married grandchild, Kendyl (Rossi) and Sebastian Vargas Vizcarra and their son, his first great grandchild, Kohen. He was predeceased by his son, Todd Joseph Merrill. 

A memorial service will be held on June 13, 2026, at 1:00 PM at First United Methodist Church, 15 Pleasant St., Meriden, CT. Interment will be private at a later date. In lieu of gifts or flowers, donations in Coach Merrill’s name can be sent to the Fairfield Warde High School Athletic Department, 155 Melville Ave., Fairfield, CT 06825. Arrangements are under the direction of The Wallingford Funeral Home. www.wallingfordfh.com

Warde Nine Upset Milford in CIAC Baseball Tourney 65 Years Ago This Month

Andrew Warde High School's well-balanced baseball team finished runnerup to Norwalk for the Fairfield County Interscholastic Conference baseball championship in 1961. However, the Crimson Eagles were victorious while Norwalk was eliminated in the opening round of the CIAC Class A championship tournament, Monday, June 12, 1961.

Coach Bob Jackson's Warde squad advanced to the tourney semi-finals with an impressive 2-0 victory over Milford's higher-rated Metropolitan Bridgeport Conference champions as Dick Bernard, who remained unbeaten since the baseball season opened, hurled a two-hit shutout to earn his ninth straight victory in a pitching duel with the Indians' Ricky Grich at Quigley Stadium in West Haven.

The Crimson Eagles, ranked seventh among the eight teams which qualified for the Class A title competition, backed Bernard with a nine-hit attack and tallied single runs in the fourth and sixth innings to defeat the third-ranked Milford team. It was the 17th victory in 21 games for the Fairfield squad, and just the fourth setback in 19 contests for Coach Ray Stoviak's Indians.

Outfielders Mike Siavrakas and Larry Gill connected for two hits each to lead Warde's attack against the veteran Grich, but it was rightfielder Tom Dardina and third baseman Frank Chimelewski who drove in the two runs for the Eagles with extra base hits in the June 12, 1961 contest.

It was a scoreless game until the fourth inning. Grich walked Gill with one out and when Chimelewski hit a grounder down the third base line, both runners were safe when the throw to second base for the attempted force out was too late. One out later, Dardina smacked a double down the left field line to score Gill with Warde's first run.

Tom Cody, Milford's rightfielder, made a fine catch of a long drive by Joe Magdon to open Warde's sxith inning, but Gill singled and Chimelewski bounced a triple off the fence in left-centerfield to bring home the Eagles' second run.

Both of Milford's hits off Bernard were bloop singles by third baseman Art Bungerford in the first and sixth innings. Although both hits were preceded by walks to Vic Nelson, the Indians were unable to capitalize. Warde's second baseman Hank Bahe made a poor throw following Hungarford's first single, but catcher Joe Vige threw out Nelson trying to advance to third base. In the sixth inning, both Nelson and Hungarford were picked off first base on throws by Vige and Bernard.

Paul

Vintage "Film" from Half-Century Ago Features AWHS Class of 1976 as 50-Year Reunion Looms

Please credit this website if you share or publish this video to other sites. Thank you.

Paul

AWHS Class of 1976 50-Year Reunion Planned for August at Vazzy's 19th Hole in Fairfield

Andrew Warde High School's Class of 1976 will hold its 50-year reunion Saturday, August 29, 2026, from 6:00 until 10:00 p.m. at Vazzy's 19th Hole at Fairchild Wheeler in Fairfield. The event includes a dinner buffet and dancing.

Click the photo below to visit the class Facebook page for more information.

Paul

Ratner & Lashar Led Eagles to Diamond Victory Over Wreckers on This Date in 1958

Led by the heavy hitting of Howie Ratner and co-captain John Lashar, the Andrew Warde High School baseball team gave Staples a 14-4 trouncing Monday afternoon, May 26, 1958, at the Wreckers' diamond. Warde, which defeated Staples, 7-1, earlier in the season, completed the two-game sweep against its non-conference rivals.

Ed Moffitt, the winning pitcher, turned in a brilliant performance, yielding only five hits and one earned run. Coach Bob Jackson's Eagles backed Moffitt with a 13-hit attack against three Staples moundsmen. The offensive explosion included a three-run home run by Lashar and three triples off the bats of Lashar, Ratner, and Glenn Englander.

Ratner had four hits and two walks for a perfect day at the plate, while Lashar drove in four runs with his round-tripper and three-bagger. Ratner and Lashar each crossed the plate four times as Warde romped to its eighth victory against only two losses.

The Eagles picked up single runs in each of the first two innings against Staples pitcher Bill Needham, who picked up the loss. The winners upped their lead to 4-0 in the third inning when Lashar crushed his triple to left-centerfield, following singles by Jack Flanagan and Ratner.

Southpaw Frank Bedell replaced Needham on the hill for Staples with none out in the fifth inning as Warde added four more runs on singles by co-captains Johnny Pekar, Flanagan, and Rudy Takacs, combined with four walks issued by Bedell.

Lashar hit his home run with Ratner on base after his single in the sixth inning as a Staples outfielder unsuccessfully tried to make a shoestring catch of a drive to left-centerfield. The Eagles finished their spree with four more runs in the seventh inning off Bill Whit, with three-base clouts by Ratner and Englander driving home three markers.

Paul

Warde Nine Clinched First Place in FCIAC East by Defeating McMahon 63 Years Ago Today

Andrew Warde High School's baseball team virtually locked up first place and the FCIAC Eastern Division championship for the second straight year by defeating Brien McMahon High School, 11-9, in eight innings, Thursday, May 23, 1963.

First baseman Gary DuBoys assured the Warde triumph when he smashed a two-run home run with none out in the first extra inning, following a leadoff single by hard-hitting Al Englander, to break open a high-scoring battle which was played under protest by the Senators after a second-inning rhubarb at the Eagles' diamond. The Senators charged that the umpire changed his ruling from a foul to fair ball on a pop up which was turned into an inning-ending double play by Warde catcher Doug Goodfellow.

Coach Bob Jackson used four pitchers for the Eagles. The hosts blew an early 6-0 lead, but they staged a three-run comeback rally in the sixth inning to deadlock the game at 9-9 after McMahon surged ahead by scoring nine runs in the fifth and sixth frames at the expense of Bill Binkiwitz and Pat McDonough. Barry Turlish ended a four-run splurge by the Senators in the sixth, and southpaw Larry Mischik pitched two scoreless innings to gain credit for the hard-fought win.

It was the ninth conference victory in 13 contests for the Eagles, moving them two-and-a-half games ahead of Stamford Catholic (6-6) in the Eastern division standings, with only three games remaining on the regular-season schedule. The defeat dropped Brien McMahon to third place in the division with a 6-7 record.

A walk to Mischik, John Nemeth's single, a two-run triple by Englander, and Pete Jankovsky's sacrifice fly produced the three sixth-inning runs which pulled Warde into a 9-9 tie and sent the twilight game into extra innings.

Paul