“The ABCs of Newtown” is a series that will tie each letter of the alphabet to something in Newtown. This week we continue with a look at the man whose legacy continues to serve his hometown four decades after his death.

Paul Archibald Cullens, a pastor who spent 36 years leading Newtown Congregational Church, left indelible marks on his hometown that continue to serve its residents four decades after his death.

The flag on the Main Street flagpole was lowered to memorialize him, and the editorial in The Newtown Bee the week of his death was devoted solely to him, so great was his love for and mark upon this town. He resurrected the local Boy Scout troop, had a youth agency created in his name, served as president of Newtown Forest Association, and co-founded an emergency fund that continues to help residents pay a necessary bill when all other avenues have been exhausted.

A musician, Cullens founded a local symphony orchestra and organized at least one trip into Manhattan for Newtown High School students. His love for theater also led to the launch of the town’s community theater.

The late Paul S. Smith, then the publisher and business manager of this newspaper, said the late pastor had been “a strong influence in organizations and among townspeople, whether or not they had any connection with his church” in the editorial of September 17, 1971, which he called “A Great Minister.”

Seated in its still traditional location in a column along the right side of the page, the editorial was placed adjacent to the obituary for Cullens. The front page featured a photo of the late pastor, looking very serious, and a second photo, showing Main Street’s flagpole with the flag lowered. In the background of the second photo was Newtown Congregational Church, now Newtown Meeting House.

Despite the serious look on Cullens’s face in the photograph, Smith described his late friend as someone with a “contagious smile and air of buoyancy which made him a friend to everyone and a tower of strength for good.”

Paul Cullens was born in Steuben, Maine, on May 29, 1899. His parents were the Reverend Archibald and Dora Richardson Cullens; his father had been a Congregational minister. He had one sister.

Cullens graduated from Harvard College in 1922, and then from Harvard Divinity School in 1925. He was ordained that year, and began his first ministry at First Congregational Church in Waterbury.

He was called to Newtown Congregational Church (NCC) during the autumn of 1927. He accepted the call, and he and his wife, Agnes (Robinson) Cullens, moved to town shortly thereafter.

The couple had one child, a daughter named Mary, born January 3, 1933.

Cullens began serving at Newtown Congregational on January 1, 1928.

In her recollections of the town’s new Congregational minister (Newtown Remembered: More stories of the 20th Century, published in 2005), Barbara Parker said Paul Cullens “came into town like a fresh breeze. I was still in high school and he proceeded to offer the young people opportunities we never had before. Not only in the area of the summer conferences that we went to at the church, but he always liked to include anyone. While he was the Congregational minister, he opened up the young people’s group to anyone who wanted to join it, from any church. He used to take young people off to New Hampshire in the winter, on winter sports trips to his old farm up in Francistown, N.H. This type of thing, going away for a few days and staying at an inn, was something we had never done. It was like a house party. It was exciting and delightful, and of course, he just made our young people’s group very interesting.”

When Cullens saw a need for the Congregational Church to be expanded due to the community’s growth, a church house was designed. The core of that building still stands, but has been annexed into the main office of Newtown Savings Bank on Main Street.

Former longtime resident Caroline Stokes, who also spoke with editors collecting stories for Newtown Remembered: more stories of the 20th century, recalled that while there was very little money available for that church house, Cullens nevertheless found all the volunteer help needed for the project.

“I think people from every walk of life were drawn to Paul Cullens in this town in his thirty-five years or so” leading the congregational church, she said. In the same interview, Mrs Stokes said Cullens “had the greatest ability of outreach, and could see a quality in an individual and fine a niche for them in this community.”

Her husband Robert agreed, saying he had “never known a man so well loved.”

Cullens’s ministry, according to his Newtown Bee obituary, “continued with distinction until his retirement in 1964.” He continues to stand as the longest-serving pastor in the church’s 300-plus year history.

His only break from serving NCC came during World War II. Cullens was given a leave of absence to serve as a chaplain for the US Army in its theaters of Africa and Italy.

He also served as the Protestant chaplain at Fairfield Hills Hospital, where “his sympathetic approach and warmth of personality made his work with the patients particularly effective,” The Newtown Bee additionally noted within his obituary.

His retirement from the ministry was marked on November 28, 1964, a Saturday, when Cullens and his family were celebrated at Edmond Town Hall. The day had been designated Paul Cullens Day by way of a proclamation issued by the then-Board of Selectmen, Charles W. Terrell, Jr, Alfred J. Karcheski, and Kenneth M. Casey.

“Nearly all of the town’s organizations, both secular and non-secular, united in the meeting, over which Raymond B. Fosdick presided as chairman and master of ceremonies,” The Bee also noted.

Resurrecting The Town’s Boy Scout Troop

Paul Cullens is also credited with resurrecting the town’s Boy Scout troop the same year he began leading NCC. Cullens was an Eagle Scout with more than 20 years of experience as a Scout leader before he relaunched Newtown’s troop.

Newtown Troop 1 was born in 1910, and had a series of stops and starts for 15-plus years. A reorganization meeting was held on January 10, 1928 — less than a month after the pastor’s arrival in town — and Troop 1 returned to existence.

Within a year, the troops of northern Fairfield County, which had been part of Waterbury Council, were moved to the jurisdiction of Bridgeport Council. Bridgeport already had a Troop 1, which predated Newtown’s troop. Newtown Troop 1 was renamed Troop 70, and has maintained that designation since.

The following year, Newtown’s first Girl Scout troop was formed. Its founder and first leader was Agnes Cullens, Paul’s wife.

Rev Cullens served as Scoutmaster until 1954. Also involved with the Explorers, he served as head of the local chapter until his retirement from the ministry.

He also organized a special patrol within the Boy Scouts, the Pine Tree Patrol, dedicated to “sophisticated expeditions,” such as a 1933 trip to Chicago to visit the Center of Progress Exposition.

The group’s trip in 1935 was the first of many to Canada and included visits to Montreal, Mattwa, Sturgeon Falls, and Lake Nipissing, before reaching the French River.

Cullens was eventually awarded the Silver Beaver Award by Pomperaug Council, honoring his Scouting work.

Cullens Youth Association

The late pastor is the namesake of Cullens Youth Association.

The organization was launched in 1946 when a 9.1 acre parcel of land on Church Hill Road, located between the railroad tracks and St Rose Church, was purchased from the railroad by a group of Boy Scout adult leaders. The mission of the association, originally called Cullens Memorial, has always been to promote youth growth and leadership development through outdoor experiences.

In November 1979, Cullens Memorial was incorporated out of the former Scouts of Newtown, Inc. Three years later, the Church Hill Road property was sold.

The former Camp Wepawaug, a defunct day camp off Taunton Lake Road, was then purchased and Cullens Memorial relocated to that 21-arce property.

Around 1987 the property was renamed Cullens Youth Association, still honoring the late minister and his overall role in the local Boy Scout movement.

“His positive influence on youth was not limited to just those young people involved in scouting, or in his church youth fellowship,” The Newtown Bee wrote of Cullens in a March 2012 feature on the association’s then-new president. “He extended his good example and desire to keep youth connected to nature and others to all young people of the community, in any way he could.”

Life Notes

*Newtown Symphony was begun in 1932 by Rev Cullens. The following year it engaged a professional conductor, Mario DiCecco, who built the group up into Newtown Orchestral Society, with approximately 40 professional and amateur musicians . The group performed at Edmond Town Hall several times a year until it disbanded in July 1950. Cullens played third violin.

*Rev Cullens is also credited with launching the town’s community theater. Town Players of Newtown started in 1935 as a series of Newtown Congregational Church skits and one-act plays, directed by its pastor, to raise funds for a youth conference. The first performances were done in the Alexandria Room of Edmond Town Hall. A barn on Orchard Hill Road served as storage for props, settings, and costumes.

*Rev Cullens was among the first board of governors of Newtown Scholarship Association in 1938, one year after the association was formed.

*In February 1942, he and Mrs Antoinette Daniele, director of music for Newtown schools, accompanied the Hawleyville School Glee Club to a matinee performance of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.

*Cullens enjoyed ice skating, as evidenced by “his enthusiasm”— mentioned in the January 11, 1946, issue of The Bee — to help get the hockey rink of Newtown Athletic Club set up at Taylor Field. Another note from that season, found in the February 15, 1946 issue of The Newtown Bee, noted Cullens was among a group of skaters to take advantage of moonlight and smooth ice in February 1946 to skate on the Housatonic River from Sandy Hook to the Stevenson Dam.

He is also mentioned as one of those responsible for getting the rink ready for January 1942, “despite the recent London fogs, spring rains and melting such which descended just as the ring was put in perfect shape for public use on January 18.”

He enjoyed being outdoors, and being active, according to multiple sources.

*By 1957, while still serving as pastor of NCC, Cullens was also leader of the Newtown Young People’s Club. Members took weekend trips throughout the year at very little cost. Dues were 10 cents weekly, with larger fees expected for the big trips.

The travel section of the May issue of Seventeen magazine devoted a two-page spread to the local club, calling it an outstanding example of a teenage travel club.

*He was a member of Newtown Hook & Ladder Company No 1.

*In 1959, Rev Cullens and Joseph Chase created The Newtown Fund, which continues to serve as an emergency fund for residents who need help and have exhausted all other channels.

*He served as president of Newtown Forest Association, and held that position at the time of his death.

Beginning in 1964 with a bequest from Charles Blakeman, the Paul A. Cullens Wildlife Preserve began taking shape. Thanks to additional bequests, the property, along Key Rock Road, today measures 143 acres.

*Following his retirement, Cullens became an associate broker with The Joseph T. Chase Agency. The real estate activity reportedly offered Cullens the opportunity for many contacts with the public and continuation of his friendships throughout town.

*He was also Borough Warden for a few consecutive terms, including one that brought a significant change to the center of town.

Today we are used to seeing our flags on poles 24/7, lit for overnight hours. Until 1970, however, it was an unusual sight.

Borough Warden Cullens is credited with setting out to make 24-hour flying of flag on flagpole a reality after President Nixon “gave his hearty approval to flying the lighted flag night and day in all weather” in 1971. Cullens arranged approvals from Borough Burgesses, selectmen, and police, and arranged for a light to be rigged on the Chase Building. It was among his final contributions to town.

*The Cullenses lived on King Street, overlooking the NCC church house, for years. Following the minister’s retirement, they built a new home on the top of Castle Hill.

‘A Confirmed Optimist’

Paul Cullens died on September 13, 1971.

He and his wife had been enjoying their usual summer stay at their home on the French River in Ontario, Canada. The summer visit had been highlighted, according to his obituary, by a visit from Newtown’s Explorer Scouts. The couple was also being visited by Mr and Mrs Earl Norwell when they closed their cottage for the season.

The Cullenses and Norwells had taken a boat trip across Lake Nipissing to North Bay, with plans to lunch and then stay overnight at Empire Hotel before driving back to Newtown. Cullens had a heart attack, however, and was taken to a nearby hospital. He died that Monday morning.

Cullens was survived by his wife and daughter, a sister, and four grandchildren.

A graveside service for the family was conducted on September 16, 1971, at Riverside Cemetery in Wakefield, R.I.

A memorial service was conducted in Newtown on September 21, 1971.

In honoring the late pastor and longtime Newtown resident, Newtown Bee Editor Paul S. Smith was among the first to note that Cullens had touched the lives of hundreds of people, regardless of their faith. The town had lost, Smith wrote, “a personal friend, a steadying influence, an industrious worker, an ardent supporter of truth, a confirmed optimist who believed that in the long run, right and justice will prevail.”