Bonnie Munday, Norwich Town Clerk is, set to retire after Town Meeting Day, however . . .

She will be available to ensure a smooth transition of the office.

Good morning Norwich,

I recently had an opportunity to interview Bonnie on her retirement as Norwich Town Clerk. This was a special story for me to do as I have known Bonnie since 1992. Over the many years we have always worked well together. Here is her story as well as some photos of some other services she provided for the town. The photos will tell their own story as well as the testimony of those who worked with her. If you are in the vicinity of the Town Hall stop in and say hello and wish her a joyous retirement. She certainly deserves it.

In 1992, Bonnie Mundy came to the Town Hall as the assistant to Karen Porter, the Norwich Town Clerk and Treasurer at the time. In 1995, Karen Porter retired from office and Bonnie was voted in as Town Clerk.  Since then, there were many statutory changes and more duties were expected from the Town Clerk.  Election laws pretty much change on an annual basis and it is expected that this trend will continue.

I asked Bonnie to tell me more about the assignments that she had and what was the biggest project she had worked on and here is what she had to say:

 I think my biggest project has been to preserve and microfilm the old records so that we do not lose our history of the Town of Norwich.  When the push came to provide the document digitally I took my time in the transition to see where the bugs in the system and the integrity of the records were safe.  We made the move in 2012 to make this transition.  The system that we use provides a digital record for research and printing while we still print the books and keep them in the vault.

Being Town Clerk has given me so many memories, most of which are good.  It has taught me balance, patience and learning to listen, and not just hear, but to look at many sides of a situation before I make a decision.

Bonnie supports the Norwich Lions Club Memory Tree project faithfully and here are her comments regarding this very worthwhile cause:

I cannot remember when we started to post the Memory Tree for the Lions as one of their events for fundraising.  The Lions support so many people that this was just one way I could help.  I tried to have a complete list up for the Christmas Pageant so that people could look at the list and see that the memories they submitted were posted.  I do hope the next clerk will keep up with this tradition.

This photo is of Bonnie posting the donation list on the Town Bulletin board.

(Photo credit belongs to Steve Flanders)

Another area which is very important to me is the American Legion Lyman F. Pell Post #8, right here in Norwich. Veterans are important to me as many of my family members are/were veterans.  They have some great missions they provide with the citizens of our town and fellow veterans in town and well beyond.  I do my best to help support them on a personal level  and hope I can be some help to them in the future.

The American Legion Post # 8 recognizing Bonnie’s achievements at a recent meeting.

(Photo credit courtesy of Demo Sofronas)

One other board that she served on is the Cemetery Commission.  Again, I believe that she has served about 20+years. The commission sees to the maintenance, headstone cleaning and repairs and expansions of the Cemeteries.

In 2001, Bonnie took classes to become an EMT.  After she passed the course she became a member of the new Norwich Fast Squad.  During this time Bonnie volunteered for the Town and responded to medical calls and structure fire calls.  She told me she learned so much during this time and really enjoyed bringing peace of mind to people who were in need of medical assistance and usually quite overwhelmed.  Bonnie stated that just having someone there who knew them and could call them by name and render care brings a level of comfort and safety.

I reached out to Deputy Chief Matt Swett for some information and photos of Bonnie during her years on the Fire department EMS squad.

Here are Matt’s comments:

Hi Demo,

Bonnie has served our town in EMS and public health capacities for over two decades.  She was an original member of the Norwich Fire Department’s EMS division - the FAST Squad.  She joined the FAST Squad in 2001 and was an integral member until 2020.  She also served as one of the Town’s Health Officers from 2011 until 2022.

I’ve included the speech I gave on March 26, 2016 when I presented Bonnie the Norwich Fire Department’s “Behind the Scenes Award” at our annual NFD dinner.

And here is one with Bonnie observing a Fire Training burn from a safe distance of course. (Photo courtesy of Matt Swett.)

Bonnie Munday and Linda Cook at a fire department training session (Photo courtesy of Matt Swett)

This photo was taken by Matt Swett during an annual training day event.

Photo courtesy of Chad Finer at another training event.