Steady.\u00a0 Motivating.\u00a0 Devoted.\u00a0 These were some of the traits that best described 2001 Branford Sports Hall of Fame inductee Mellen E. Bigelow, who was a major contributor to recreation events in the town of Branford.<\/p>\n
Mel and his twin brother Jim were born in Branford on June 3, 1905.\u00a0 At a young age, Mel was a steady worker.\u00a0 His employment included the Spaulding Drug Store in town, delivering for a local\u00a0 bakery – the Rockbestos Company in New Haven, and reading meters for Connecticut Light & Power before he went on to school to become an electrician working for Bigelow Electric.\u00a0\u00a0 At age 17, Mel and twin brother Jim embarked via bicycle on a 200-mile round trip to Vermont.\u00a0 In the 1930\u2019s the, brothers sang on Station W.E.L.I.\u00a0\u00a0 The \u201cBigelow Twins\u201d were popular over the airways and continued singing harmony in the various variety shows during the World War II while serving in the Connecticut State Guard.<\/p>\n
Active in the Town of Branford, he was one of the first volunteers to help the Recreation Director and fellow Hall of Fame inductee Joe Trapasso (\u201988) implement new programs to the town.\u00a0 He assisted in setting up weekly block dances at Branford Point and Hammer Field and Sunday nights band concerts on the town green.\u00a0\u00a0 Mel aided the Branford Recreation Department\u2019s McDonalds Family Movie Program at Foote Memorial Park and was a major contributor in the set-up for the first Branford Community House.\u00a0 The Annual Branford Italian Festival, an event which raised funds for special education programs was aided by Mel\u2019s hard work and dedication.<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s inductee was a strong motivator during the reorganization of the Branford Townies Baseball team, which was active for a number of successful seasons.\u00a0 He would\u00a0 successfully solicit financial support from local businesses for uniforms, never taking no for an answer and he helped fix Hammer Field in 1951 for the Townies. Mel was an important factor in installing outdoor lights for the outdoor basketball court with the Branford Lions Club and assisted the Community House in installing lights at the outdoor tennis courts.\u00a0 Mel\u00a0 organized\u00a0 the outdoor pro-wrestling show at Hammer Field for the new Community House.\u00a0\u00a0 In his honor, the Branford Recreation Department dedicated the Hammer Field grandstands to him.<\/p>\n
Mel was devoted to the Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green.\u00a0 He served in many capacities\u00a0 such as tenor in the choir, electrician at the church fairs and\u00a0 organized the Brotherhood of St. Andrew\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mel was married to the former Marjorie M. Sawyer and was the father to Melvin, Joan, Elaine, Kenneth, and Wayne.\u00a0 Sadly, tonight\u2019s inductee passed away on June 25, 1985 at the age of 80.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":803,"template":"","class_list":["post-802","inductee","type-inductee","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee\/802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/inductee"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/inductee"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/branfordsportshalloffame.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}