Community Corner

Meriden to Induct Four into Hall of Fame Sunday

City will honor a Grammy-nominated musician, the town's Deputy Mayor, founder of an important civil rights-themed scholarship, and a civic-minded doctor.

Meriden will induct four new members into the city's Hall of Fame this Sunday.

City Councilor Matthew Dominello, Sr., musician Rob Hyman, scholarship founder Rhudean Raye, and local physician Francis Giuffrida will each be honored for their contributions to the city and/or professional excellence.

The public is invited to the free event, at 2 p.m. at the Augusta Curtis Cultural Center, 175 East Main Street. Short descriptions of each honoree that are adapted from biographies the city will be placing on each plaque are below.

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Dominello, 80, is currently the town's Deputy Mayor and has been on the city council since 1976. He graduated from Wilcox Technical High School and has been involved in numerous city leadership positions since, be it on local government or civic organizations like the Civitan Club or Meriden-Wallingford Society for the Handicapped. He served as the city's mayor from 1981 - 1983. Dominello is currently presiding over the city's rebuilding of its two public high schools as Chair of the School Building Committee.

Hyman, 61, a musician, songwriter and music producer began his career with childhood piano lessons in Meriden. He attended Israel Putnam Elementary School, Washington Junior High School and was valedictorian at Maloney High School. Upon graduation from the University of Pennsylvania he became a founding member of the rock group The Hooters, known for songs like "And We Danced," "All You Zombies" performed at Live Aid in 1985 and at the Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990. Hyman earned a Grammy nomination in 1985 for "Song of the Year" for co-writing "Time after Time" with Cyndi Lauper.

Find out what's happening in Meridenwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Raye, 85, founded the city's Martin Luther King, Jr./Albert Owens Scholarship Breakfast. Since 1985 the organization has hosted a yearly breakfast program on King's birthday honoring the national and local civil rights leaders and provided scholarships to local graduating seniors to the tune of $104,000 total to date. Raye herself was a local pioneer, moving to Meriden in the 1950's to become one of Meriden's first Black teachers and the first Black nurse to work at the Masonic Care Center in Wallingford. Raye taught first and second grade at Nathan Hale Elementary school for 32 years. 

Giuffrida, who died in 1966, was a prominent physician and civic leader in Meriden who succumbed to cancer at the age of 56. The Wesleyan University and Tufts Medical School graduate was born in Middletown but lived in Meriden as an adult and practiced medicine in the city from 1946 until 1966. The East Side park is named after Giuffrida, who was a director and president of the YMCA, director of the Chamber of Commerce, a corprator of the Boys Club, a Rotary Club President, a member of the Meriden Savings Bank Board of Directors attending physician at home football games for Meriden, Maloney and Platt high schools, and a leader in Connecticut's Boy Scout organization.

The city's Hall of Fame was founded in 1975, and currently enshrines 123 people, according to John Hogarth, Hall of Fame President.


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