As Stew Leonard’s prepares for the holiday — and shoppers prepare to brave the crowds there — it’s a good time to look back at warmer weather.
And the original Stew Leonard.
But not as a mega-store owner.
Longtime Westporter Larry Hoy — son-in-law of famed illustrator and Westport resident Ed Vebell — writes:
I’ve had these illustrations set aside for years, because I am a water skier and I thought they were really cool.
Ed had told me they were of Stew Leonard and done a long time ago, but I didn’t see much info on the drawings.
Stew Leonard, by Ed Vebell
I recently ran into Stew Jr. I asked him if he wanted them, and brought them over.
Stew Sr.’s wife Marianne was overjoyed. She is putting them up in her house, along with his trophies.
Turns out Stew was a national champion trick skier in 1957. Ed, who had moved to Westport in 1953, had been commissioned to do illustrations of him for a 1956 Sports Illustrated story, “Water Fun.”
The connection between these 2 guys just came to light when Marianne called to thank us. We started to realize what a great story this is.
Stew was famous for his revolutionary marketing concepts (recognized by Harvard Business School) and a national champion water skier.
Ed was a famous illustrator (his Nuremberg Court drawings are in the Holocaust Museum) and an Olympic fencer (qualifying for the 1952, ‘56 and ‘60 Games).
Their paths crossed in 1957. But both families are just now getting all the details of their story together.
According to a 2018 Norwalk Hour story by George Albano, the 26-year-old “Norwalk milkman” won the North American Water Ski Championship in ’57 — after picking up the sport just a year earlier.
He learned through trial and error on Saugatuck Shores. He and his brothers Leo and Jim dug out what they called “Bermuda Lagoon,” and practiced.
Stew Leonard in action. (Photo courtesy of The Hour)
Leonard told Albano, “Those days you delivered milk to people’s houses. So I started work at 3 a.m., and was done by 11:30. That was the edge I had, that and I had the lagoon. I was able to practice till dark.”
At the national event, he competed against water skiers from Florida and California, who practiced all year. “We had July and August,” he said.
Leonard also invented and patented a “Skee-Trainer.” Attached to a tow rope, it was designed to teach people to water ski. He sold them through Sears & Roebuck.
The future supermarket mogul was a multi-sport athlete. He was a goalie on the Norwalk High School ice hockey team. They played at the old Crystal Rink on Crescent Street. (The ramshackle building — fondly called the “Crystal Ice Palace” — drew notables like Olympians Carol Heiss and Dorothy Hamill. It’s where Paul Newman practiced too, for his 1977 movie “Slap Shot.”)
Stew Sr. also pole vaulted for Norwalk High and the University of Connecticut. But water skiing was his favorite sport. He retired in 1961 after injuring his back while practicing tricks. He became a lifetime member of the American Water Ski Association.
In 1976, Stew Leonard was honored for his water ski achievements by the Sportsmen of Westport.
His other accomplishments — including turning his father’s milk business into what Ripley’s called “the world’s largest dairy store” (albeit one that sells lobsters, flowers, wine and cashmere) — are stories to be told another day.
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