Harry Rilling

Last updated
Cheryl A. Cocco
(m. 1969;div. 1993)

Wanda J. Crespo
(m. 2001)

Lucia C. Medower
(m. 2013)
Harry Rilling
Richard Blumenthal with Harry Rilling (cropped).jpg
Rilling in 2021
40th Mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut
Assumed office
2013
Children3
Residence(s) Norwalk, Connecticut
Education Norwalk High School
Alma mater Iona College (B.S., Criminal Justice, 1989),
University of New Haven (Masters in Public Administration, 1991) [1]

Harry W. Rilling [2] (born August 6, 1947) is an American politician who currently serves as mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. He had previously served as Norwalk's police chief for 17 years before retiring. He is a Democrat, and was elected in 2013. Rilling defeated incumbent mayor Richard A. Moccia. [3]

Contents

Early life and education

Rilling was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on August 6, 1947, to Harry S. and Mary L. Rilling. He spent his early childhood partially in New Canaan, but was primarily raised in Norwalk. His father was a greenhouse worker while his mother was a homemaker. [4] He has an elder brother and sister. Rilling graduated from Norwalk High School in 1965.

He has a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice, summa cum laude, from Iona College, and a Master in Public Administration from the University of New Haven. He is a graduate of the FBI Executive Development Course.

Career

He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1967, and was honorably discharged in 1971 with the rank of E-5. He joined the Norwalk Police Department in 1971 and rose to the rank of chief in 1995, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. He served on the Norwalk Zoning Commission from 2012 until his election as mayor in 2013. From 1996 to 2004, Rilling was an adjunct professor of vriminal justice at Norwalk Community College.

Rilling was an on-site assessor and team leader with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA); he is a past chairman of the Mid-Fairfield Substance Abuse Coalition (MFSAC); past president of both the Fairfield County Chiefs of Police Association (FCCP) and the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association (CPCA); he is a Life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); and he is a board member of the National Committee on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (a committee of the Drug Enforcement Administration). Rilling served as Norwalk's Police Union president in 1976. [5]

Personal life

Rilling was married three times. He first married Cheryl A. Cocco on January 4, 1969 [6] with whom he had three children, and divorced in 1993. [7] On October 30, 2001, he married Wanda J. Crespo. [8] Rilling married his third wife Lucia C. Medower (b. 1963) in November 2013. [9] He has three children his first marriage.

His daughter, Christine Limone (née Rilling), a former day care operator, has been charged in the death of a toddler in her care in 2020. She has been offered a plea deal by state prosecutors. [10] [11] [12] His son, Stephen Rilling, a former Fairfield Police detective has been arrested and charged in a narcotics arrest. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairfield County, Connecticut</span> County in Connecticut, United States

Fairfield County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 957,419, representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of the New York metropolitan area, the county contains four of the state's top 7 largest cities—Bridgeport (1st), Stamford (2nd), Norwalk (6th), and Danbury (7th)—whose combined population of 433,368 is nearly half the county's total population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darien, Connecticut</span> Town in Connecticut, United States

Darien is a coastal town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. With a population of 21,499 and a land area of just under 13 square miles (34 km2), it is the smallest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region. It has a high rate of marriage, and high average number of children per household.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norwalk, Connecticut</span> City in Connecticut, United States

Norwalk is a city located in Western Connecticut, United States, in southern Fairfield County, on the northern shore of the Long Island Sound. Norwalk lies within both the New York metropolitan area and the Bridgeport metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacred Heart University</span> Catholic university in Fairfield, Connecticut, US

Sacred Heart University (SHU) is a private, Roman Catholic university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded in 1963 by Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sacred Heart was the first Catholic university in the United States to be staffed by the laity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Norwalk, Connecticut</span> Taxing District in Connecticut, United States

South Norwalk is a neighborhood in Norwalk, Connecticut which corresponds to the city's Second Taxing District. Often referred to as SoNo, the neighborhood was originally settled as Old Well, then chartered as the city of South Norwalk on August 18, 1870. The cities of Norwalk and South Norwalk were incorporated on June 6, 1913. South Norwalk underwent major redevelopment during the early 21st century, with many new apartments being constructed, often in close proximity to South Norwalk station, and generally more expensive than existing housing.

<i>Connecticut Post</i> Newspaper in Bridgeport, Connecticut

The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, New Canaan, Orange, Oxford, Redding, Ridgefield, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton. The newspaper is owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. The Connecticut Post also gains revenue by offering classified advertising for job hunters with minimal regulations and separate listings for products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard A. Moccia</span> American politician (born 1943)

Richard A. "Dick" Moccia is an American politician who is the former mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. He is a Republican, and was elected in 2005 and served four terms prior to his 2013 Mayoral Election loss to Harry Rilling. Moccia defeated incumbent mayor Alex Knopp by fewer than 200 votes in 2005. In 2019, Moccia ran for First Selectman of Ridgefield, but was not elected. He currently serves on the Ridgefield Board of Finance.

The Badge of Honor novel series is a series of novels written by W.E.B. Griffin about the Philadelphia Police Department. Although the books were originally set in the 1970s and early 1980s, and the characters have only aged a few years, Book VIII, Final Justice, moves the story to the post-9/11 era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greater Bridgeport</span> Metropolitan statistical area in Connecticut, United States

Stamford-Bridgeport-Norwalk is a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The area is located in Southwestern Connecticut. In its most conservative form the area consists of the city of Bridgeport and five surrounding towns—Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull. This definition of the Stamford area has a population of more than 305,000 and is within the Stamford -Bridgeport-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which consists of all of Fairfield County, Connecticut. The estimated 2015 county population was 948,053. The area is numbered as part of the New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area NY-NJ-CT-PA by the United States Census Bureau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairfield County Sheriff's Department (Connecticut)</span> Law enforcement agency in Connecticut

The Fairfield County Sheriff's Department was a law enforcement agency in Fairfield County, Connecticut, established under the original Constitution of the State of Connecticut. Initially, the Department of Administrative Services was responsible for administering the testing process for special deputy sheriffs However, in December 2000, legislators replaced the sheriffs with the State Marshal Commission under the Department of Administrative Services. The State Marshal Commission was created by Public Act 00-99, in 2000. On November 29, 2000, a constitutional amendment repealed the portion regarding sheriffs. Presently, the 2009 version of the State of Connecticut Constitution does not make a reference to Marshals, and continues to list sheriffs as this role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgeport Police Department</span> Law enforcement agency in Connecticut, US

The Bridgeport Police Department is the primary law enforcement agency in Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is responsible for most law enforcement within the geographical boundaries of City of Bridgeport, with the exception of:

Dan Debicella is a former State Senator and businessman, who represented the 21st district in the Connecticut State Senate. He was also the 2010 and 2014 Republican candidate for Connecticut's Fourth Congressional District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridgeport, Connecticut</span> City in the United States

Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, it is a port city 60 miles (97 km) from Manhattan and 40 miles (64 km) from The Bronx. It borders the towns of Trumbull to the north, Fairfield to the west, and Stratford to the east. Bridgeport and other towns in Fairfield County make up the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, as well as the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolitan statistical area, the second largest metropolitan area in Connecticut. The Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolis forms part of the New York metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fitzhugh Green Sr.</span>

Fitzhugh Green Sr. was an arctic explorer on the Crocker Land Expedition and a writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rana Sanaullah</span> Pakistani politician (born 1955)

Rana Sanaullah Khan is a Pakistani lawyer and politician who is currently serving as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs since April 2024. Previously, he was served as the 39th Interior Minister of Pakistan in first Shehbaz Sharif's Government. He is second most popular official in Shehbaz Sharif Government. He been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from August 2018 till August 2023. He is a senior member of PML-N and the President of PML-N in Punjab province since 4 May 2019. Before getting elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, Sanaullah had been elected to the Provincial Assembly of Punjab five times and had served in high-ranking ministries of the province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Ganim</span> American politician (born 1959)

Joseph Peter Ganim is an American Democratic politician and former attorney who is the mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was elected mayor of the city six times, serving from 1991 to 2003, when he resigned after being convicted on federal felony corruption charges. In 2015, Ganim mounted a successful political comeback and was again elected Bridgeport mayor. Ganim was sworn in as mayor on December 1, 2015. Ganim has twice unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor of Connecticut, running in 1994 and 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dudley Ely</span> American politician

Dudley Pettibone Ely was the first mayor of South Norwalk, Connecticut, beginning in 1870, when the city was first incorporated. He served from 1870 to 1872, was succeeded in office by Walter C. Quintard, and then returned to office from 1876 to 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Duff</span> American politician (born 1971)

Robert Bruce Duff is an American politician, currently serving as a member of the Connecticut State Senate, where he represents Norwalk and part of Darien in Connecticut's 25th District. He previously served as a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives, representing the 137th District. He is currently Majority Leader of the Connecticut Senate, and serves as chair of the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee and vice chair of the Legislative Management Committee.

Edwin Adams was a one-term mayor of South Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1881. He was one of the largest hat manufacturers in Connecticut.

Anne Meiman Hughes is an American politician who is the member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from the 135th district, serving Weston, Easton and parts of Redding in Fairfield County. She is a member of the Democratic Party and serves as Co-Chair of the Progressive Democratic Caucus.

References

  1. rillingformayor.com
  2. United States Public Records, 1970-2009
  3. Norwalk Citizen Online
  4. United States Census, 1950
  5. Norwalk, CT Official Website
  6. Connecticut Marriage Index, 1959-2001
  7. Connecticut Divorce Index, 1968-1997
  8. Connecticut Marriage Index
  9. Koch, Robert (2014-12-10). "Mayor Rilling married in November, official ceremony expected in January". The Hour. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  10. "Daughter of Norwalk mayor arrested on 5 counts of injury to a child". News 12 - Connecticut. May 21, 2020. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  11. Tomlinson, Pat (2021-08-10). "Former Norwalk day care owner offered plea deal in infant death case". StamfordAdvocate. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  12. "Norwalk Day Care Owner Was Emailing When Child Died: Report". Norwalk, CT Patch. 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  13. Tepfer, Daniel (2020-03-13). "Fairfield agrees to pay settlement to Rilling". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  14. Tepfer, Daniel (2018-03-26). "Former police detective pleads guilty to drug counts". Connecticut Post. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut
2013-present
Succeeded by
incumbent