Junior Achievement

Honors Newtown Man

Newtown resident Ralph McIntosh, Jr, is among five Fairfield County businesspeople who have been named to the 2008 Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut Free Enterprise Hall of Fame, being sponsored by Pitney Bowes.

Mr McIntosh and the other honorees will receive their awards at the Hall of Fame dinner, to be held Wednesday, May 14, at 6 pm, at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn. Governor M. Jodi Rell is the honorary chair.

Mr McIntosh is president of Del-Tron Precision Inc, a family-owned business based in Bethel that manufactures linear bearing slides for sale throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East.

An active community leader, Mr McIntosh holds directorships and committee appointments at numerous philanthropic and business organizations, including the Savings Bank of Danbury, Immaculate High School, the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, tThe Danbury War Memorial Association, and Danbury Hospital Development Fund. From 1997 to 2002, he co-chaired the Danbury Hospital Cancer Golf Tournament Committee, raising $1.5 million to help fight cancer.

Mr McIntosh is also a member of the Housatonic Valley Sports Organizing Committee and serves on its Greater Danbury Half Marathon Road Race Committee to benefit the American Red Cross. He serves as the resource development chairman for the Northern Fairfield County Community Council of the United Way of Western Connecticut. He is past president of the Ridgewood Country Club, former chairman of the Del-Tron Richter Park Pro-Am, and former race director of the 98Q City Center 10K. Mr McIntosh has been a major supporter of the Hanahoe Memorial Children’s Clinic and the Boy Scouts of America. In 2003 he received the Greater Danbury Good Scout Award.

In addition to Mr McIntosh, this year’s honorees are: Susan L. Davis, RN, EdD, president and chief executive officer, St Vincent’s Medical Center and St Vincent’s Health Services, Bridgeport; Charles V. Firlotte, president and chief executive officer, Aquarion Water Company, Bridgeport; Larry Janesky, founder and president, Basement Systems Inc, Seymour; and Kaye A. Williams, founder and president, Captain’s Cove Seaport, Bridgeport.

The JA Hall of Fame Awards, inaugurated in 1977, are presented biennially to four to six outstanding business professionals from the greater Bridgeport, greater Danbury, or lower Naugatuck Valley areas who have made notable and enduring contributions to private enterprise, and who are exceptionally dedicated and committed to their communities. Junior Achievement of Western Connecticut, founded in 1946, is an affiliate of the largest, fastest-growing nonprofit economic education organization in the world. JA in-school and after-school programs are offered in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Volunteers from the local business community teach programs designed to promote work readiness, financial literacy, and entrepreneurialship and teach the basic principles of economics and finance.

Last year 17,700 students and 1,000 volunteers from Newtown, Bethel, Brookfield, Monroe, Redding, and 15 other communities in western Connecticut participated, a 40 percent growth in five years.