Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Roger-Partrick-fire-friends

Full Text:

Fire Forges Friendships For A Man With His Own Ideas On Living And Giving

(with cut)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

When a suspected arson fire destroyed the home of Roger Partrick last week,

leaving him with only the clothes on his back, his friends were quick to rally

around.

"Roger is a wonderful person," Dolores Miller said. "He is the first one to

help when someone is in need. He's never had much but what he has is yours if

you need it."

Roger Partrick, 68, lived on Garder Road, just over the Newtown line in

Monroe, but he's a familiar face in Newtown, especially around the Grand

Union. As a young man, Mr Partrick worked at the Plastic Moulding Company in

Sandy Hook and later as a carpenter for area builders and as a surveyor's

assistant. He also began collecting things -- old tractors, bicycles, scrap

metal, glass -- anything that had parts that might be useful again.

"He started recycling before the term was invented," Dolores Miller said. "He

repaired tractors and sold them but mostly he gave things away. If you needed

a part and he had one, he was glad to give it to you."

When a theater group needed old telephones for a theatrical production, they

found them at Mr Partrick's house. But like Al Penovi's plumbing shop in Sandy

Hook, the beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Some people considered Mr

Partrick's property, which is located on a dirt road in a rural area of town,

to be a junkyard.

"Many people today wouldn't understand," Dolores Miller said. "Roger lived --

not like a hermit -- but like part of an American era that is long gone. A

time when people did whatever was needed to get by and did for themselves,

without public assistance."

Longtime Residents

Roger Partrick's family moved to Monroe 111 years ago when his

great-grandfather, who was a farmer, purchased a large tract of land; over the

years since then all but about three acres has been sold. Mr Partrick's father

worked at the Watkins Machine Shop which was located on Church Hill Road in

Sandy Hook until it burned down more than 50 years ago. He played the violin

and made violins as a hobby. His mother was a part-time school teacher.

Eleven years ago the original farmhouse burned down.

"It was under repair and there wasn't any insurance," Dolores Miller

explained. "So Roger moved into the tool shed on the property."

There wasn't any electricity, plumbing, or heat in the shed but somehow Mr

Partrick got by without complaints. When an occasional food basket was

delivered by social service groups, Mr Partrick usually found a family who

"needed it more" rather than keep it.

"He has never accepted public assistance," Ms Miller said. "But a few years

ago the social worker in Monroe got his property taxes reduced. He pays for

them by collecting cans and bottles. He earns enough to keep his car running

and to pay for automobile insurance."

"He's a gentle man with a keen love of nature who goes out of his way to

rescue animals," she said. "He's a philosopher. Many people would come to his

house and sit on a bench in the clearing and talk with him. He can talk to all

kinds of people, from paperboys to neurosurgeons."

When Ellen Porubanik graduated from Newtown High School in 1980, she got a job

at the Grand Union and met Mr Partrick. They became friends and in the years

since then he has often helped her family.

"After my father died, Roger helped my mother a lot," she said. "He mowed the

lawn and did repairs around the house. When AmeriCares came last year to put a

new roof on her house, he was right there, helping. Over the years he has

helped me, too, with the Special Olympics."

Last week's fire occurred when Mr Partrick wasn't home and destroyed

everything he had including his guitar and such family memorabilia as a

newspaper published when the Titanic sank. The same night the fire destroyed

his dwelling, the transmission fell out of his car, leaving him without

transportation.

"The irony of it is that his biggest concern was the fact that I was also

having car trouble at the same time," Ellen Porubanik said. "He said I was

driving an unsafe car and he wanted to fix it before worrying about his own

problems."

Receives No Benefits

Despite his age, Mr Partrick doesn't collect Social Security. His friends say

the agency has lost his work records. Government personnel are prohibited,

because of confidentiality regulations, from discussing that aspect of Mr

Partrick's life. Bonnie Snyder, the Monroe Senior Center's outreach worker who

has handled Mr Partrick's case, is on vacation. But Irena Kandybowicz, the

town's social services director, said it is not rare for someone not to have

paid enough into the Social Security system to qualify for benefits.

There are several federal programs to help elderly persons like Mr Partrick,

she said, but each has qualifying criteria which currently exclude him for a

variety of reasons, not the least because of his own mindset.

"Roger just chooses to live his life the way he wants -- and that's okay,"

said Joan Tomlinson, director of the Monroe Senior Center. "The problem is

that people today have labels for everything including people like him. I

think we need to be a little more patient and tolerant."

Ms Tomlinson said Bonnie Snyder will continue to work with Mr Partrick when

she returns from vacation to make sure all town issues are handled. Those

issues include zoning and building code regulations.

"The town sort of looked the other way and let Roger live the way he wanted

until the fire," Dolores Miller said. "The fire focused attention on him. He

had what was a non-conforming use. Now, if he rebuilds, the house has to meet

all the codes. And the property has to be cleared of everything that he's

stored on it. His entire life savings is about $9,000 and a lot of that is

going to be needed for the cleanup even with all the volunteer help."

Mr Partrick's friends are trying to raise money to help pay for the cleanup so

the town doesn't step in, hire a contractor to do it, and put a lien against

the property. They also are looking for donations of building supplies, money,

and labor to build a small, one-bedroom house and a septic system on the site.

If anyone has a mobile home that Roger could use rent-free that would be

welcome, too. Meanwhile, he is staying at the homes of friends.

"We want to have something like an old-fashioned barn raising," Ms Miller

said. "An account -- The Roger Partrick Fund -- has been set up at the

People's Bank branch (at 6 Queen Street) in Newtown but donations can be made

at any branch."

Joan Tomlinson said that could happen. When a February 25 fire destroyed the

home of Arthur Lulejian, 73, on Hattertown Road, the people of Monroe and

Newtown donated supplies and labor for the house to be rebuilt.

Roger Partrick is philosophical about his loss. "When you smile, the whole

world smiles with you," he says. "When you cry, you cry alone."

Running his fingers over the cast iron key inscribed "Key to the City of

Bridgeport, October 1913, Third Ward Guards," that survived both fires, he

smiles and quips: "The key to better living."