William H. Flanagan

He was born on June 28, 1927, in Putnam, Connecticut and died on July 2, 2018, in Stamford, Connecticut and was the only child of William H. Flanagan and Helena Gibney of Newtown, Massachusetts. Bill grew up in Newton and at his grandparents’ home in Putnam Connecticut. He married Winifred Grace Marston on June 16, 1951, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Pelham Manor, New York. They remained married until Winnie’s death in 2010.

Bill left Newton High School at the age of 16 to work at Ucinite Corporation in Newtonville, Massachusetts. He served in the Army from 1945 to 1946. Bill also had a love of flying, obtaining his pilot’s license as a teenager and continued flying into his mid-eighties.

Bill graduated from the Wentworth Institute of Technology in 1951 and returned to Ucinite. In 1961, he and two business partners founded Nexus Incorporated, a Stamford-based company that designed and manufactured plugs, jacks, and switches for the military. Bill is credited with seventeen US patents. In 2008, at the age of 81, he retired, selling Nexus to the Amphenol Corporation.

He was active in Stamford politics, serving on the Board of Representatives from 1971 through 1977. His significant accomplishment while on the Board was the completion of Stamford’s urban renewal project. He also served on the board of directors of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association from 1975 to 1978.

Bill’s philanthropic activity focused on Wentworth, where he served on the board of trustees for many years. He also made the largest gift in the Institute’s history, funding the construction of the William H. Flanagan Campus Center, which opened in 2012. He received an honorary doctorate in 2011 from Wentworth in recognition of his dedication to the school.

Bill is survived by his four children, Nancy, Will, Robert, and Patricia and their families.