A favorite son of Stamford turns 100
Arty Gladstone, at age 95, drove 1,300 miles from Florida to be there. Tony Pavia, the former principal of three high schools in Stamford and New Canaan, made it quicker, flying from his winter home in the Sunshine State to Stamford, while for younger brother Sandy and his wife Jesse it was a four-hour flight from their Arizona home.
About 50 others, about half of them family members from Stamford and elsewhere, including two of his three sons (Tom, from South Carolina, and Stephen, from Florida) and their wives, wouldn’t have missed Charlie Guinta’s 100th birthday party at the Italian Center last Sunday for the world. It was as much a love fest as a birthday celebration for one of Stamford’s most beloved citizens, who became Stamford’s latest centenarian on Dec. 15.
Seated in a wheelchair, a temporary encumbrance resulting from a recent medical issue, Guinta reveled in the plaudits he received during the party at a Stamford landmark where he played tennis into his 90s (he also learned to swim at the Tully Center at 90). One of the highlights of the afternoon was a tribute from Pavia, a leader in Stamford veterans affairs, who lauded Guinta’s U.S. Army service as a staff sergeant in Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II which cost six Stamford men their lives, and his long service in community and state affairs.
The long trips by Pavia, Gladstone, Sandy Guinta and his sons reflected the friendships and family ties Guinta developed during a life that began five years after the end of World War I while Calvin Coolidge was president and Stamford was a city of 35,000 (it now has an estimated 130,000). After serving in the army following his graduation from Stamford High School, Guinta married his childhood sweetheart Jane Larson, graduated from Pace University in Rye, N.Y., and began a 40- year relationship with Waldenbooks. During that period, Guinta rose from accountant to vice president and chief financial officer of a company which by 1984 had become the largest retail book chain in the country. At his childhood Glenbrook home, Guinta served as a translator to his three younger brothers for his father, who was deaf and mute (his mother could speak but not hear). In addition, during the 1940s and 1950s Guinta pursued a passion for sportswriting by covering Stamford High School football and basketball games and other sports events for the Stamford Advocate.
“I never got a dime but loved doing it even when the high school teams played out of town,” he recalled.
By writing for the Advocate, he joined his father, Sandy, who was a linotype operator for the Advocate for 40 years, and his brother, also named Sandy, who was a compositor in the Advocate press room for 55 years.
Guinta later threw himself into a variety of organizations in Stamford. Among others, he’s been chairman of the board of trustees at the Ferguson Library, director of the Stamford Partnership and New Neighborhoods, presidents of United Way, Junior Achievement of Southwest Connecticut, the Gateway Chapter of the National Association of Accountants, the Newfield Club and the Stamford Catholic Home and School Association. In recognition of his civic accomplishments, Guinta earned about a dozen other humanitarian and volunteer awards, including Citizen of the Year and Man of the Year by the State Street Debating Society. He also coached his sons’ teams in Stamford’s Little League. Into his 90s, Guinta was an avid tennis player at the Italian Center, the Newfield Club and on other Stamford courts until an injury forced him off the courts. At 90, looking for another aerobic sport, Guinta found one at the Tully Center where he took swimming lessons. He does about eight breaststroke laps during each session, a notable achievement for a centenarian.
To satisfy his curiosity and to honor the Americans killed during the Allies’ DDay Invasion of Normandy in France in June 1944, Guinta visited the site two years ago with two of his three sons and their wives. When organizers of an organization learned Guinta was a World War II veteran, he was asked to lay a wreath at the D-Day monument in Normandy. “They treated my dad like he was a rock star” his son, Stephen, recalled. In 2020, Charlie Guinta published a remarkably researched book about six generations of the Guinta family starting in 1864 with the birth of his grandfather in Italy. Filled with family photos, the book is a richly detailed and well-written account of every member of the Guinta family
Back in Stamford last week, Charlie Guinta was treated like a special son of Stamford. “I’ve known Charlie for 30 years and he’s been a very good friend,” Gladstone said Wednesday while driving back to Florida with his daughter. Debby, who accompanied her father on the long drive.
Pavia, a former principal at Stamford, New Canaan and Trinity Catholic high schools, also wasn’t going to miss the party. “Charlie epitomized the members of the Greatest Generation who came home and became pillars of their communities,” Pavia said. “He became a premier citizen who has done so much for Stamford.”
Nothing was going to keep Pavia and Gladstone and the rest of the roughly 60 people who were at the Italian Center last Sunday from honoring a member of the Greatest Generation who survived the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II and became one of Stamford’s favorite sons.
Letters should be limited to 300 words. The Stamford Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for space and clarity. E-mail: editorials@scni.com