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Gil Kelman, a feisty newspaper publisher and mentor to generations of Connecticut journalists and activists, died Thursday night after a long illness. He was 94.
Kelman and his wife Eleanor founded the Wallingford Post in 1947. They ran that weekly and the North Haven Post until their retirement in 1974.
Along the way, they produced a model for independent local journalism devoted to holding public officials accountable and explaining the intricacies of municipal government and business issues to the public.
In 1969 Gil Kelman was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for a series on Wallingford’s tax system. He also penned crusading editorials that “prevented a dog-racing track from being built, uncovered the presence of John Birch Society members in local government, and ensured that the town’s New England look and feel was preserved through wise planning and zoning,” recalled his daughter Sue.
The Kelmans also authored a book about Wallingford entitled From These Roots: A Bicentennial History of a New England Town.
During the protest era of the 1960s, a New Haven underground newspaper called View From the Bottom couldn’t find any local printer — until it found the Kelmans. Other printers were scared away by controversy.
After selling their papers, the Kelmans then launched a second life in Branford’s picturesque Stony Creek, where they renovated a circa-1760 former tavern overlooking their harbor into a lovingly furnished home. From his 24-foot Wellcraft inboard motorboat named The Prowler, Gil became a storied catcher of lobsters and great blues; he had a special list of secret Stony Creek fishing spots shared with his good friends.
Kelman also maintained, up to his death, a keen interest in civic issues and journalism. He was a man who relished a good fight. He was an active member of both the ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League. He mentored the founders of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group, a progressive offshoot of the “Nader’s Raiders.” He served as a founding board member and adviser to the print weekly edition of the New Haven Independent, which published from 1986 – 1990. Twenty-five years later, he lent his enthusiasm to the revived online Independent and sister daily news site, the Branford Eagle. When a hush-hush celebrity wedding was taking place on one of the Thimble Islands in 2010, he revved up the motor of the Prowler to deliver the Eagle’s Mary Johnson to within photo-shooting range. Then he gleefully sped away from pursuers seeking to quash the story.
Gil Kelman was born in Wallingford on Feb. 27, 1921, to Minnie and Hyman Kelman. His father ran Kelman’s Market in Wallingford. He worked as a lifeguard at Hammonasset Beach. He attended the University of Missouri, then dropped out to help his father run his father’s market.
He later told his children how in the early 1940s he purchased thousands of newborn chicks from Hall Brothers Hatchery, the resold them for a profit months later. That became the literal “nest egg” to enable Gil and his wife Ellie, who had a journalism degree, to launch the Wallingford Post. The rest was history.
Kelman is survived by wife Eleanor (Sussman) Kelman; children Sue, Sara and Jonathan; daughter-in-law Pamela Boardman; son-in-law Geoffrey Brandner; and grandchildren Alison Kelman, Elizabeth Kelman, and Emily Kelman.
He was predeceased by a brother, Dr. Norman Kelman; and a sister, Ruth Rosenzweig.
Donations made by made in his memory to the Connecticut ACLU. No funeral is planned; a memorial service is to take place later this summer.