It’s a misty autumn afternoon and along a winding country road in New Milford, a housing development emerges of stately though modestly-scaled homes with manageable lawns and pristine porches.
Connecticut
Pratt & Whitney’s Eddy: Connecticut Ecosystem a ‘National Asset’ » CBIA
In its near 100-year history, East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney has become one of the world’s leading aerospace manufacturers.
“Every second of every day, a Pratt & Whitney powered aircraft of some kind is either taking off or landing somewhere in the world,” company president Shane Eddy said at CBIA’s 2024 Economic Summit + Outlook Jan. 18 in Hartford.
“We think about technology, we think about how the engine has evolved, and it’s hard not to be impressed.
“But we think about the technology, there’s an equally important part. Those are the factories, it’s the industrial base that is able to produce technology at that scale.
“And that is something no other country in the world can do.”
Eddy said that’s the core of Pratt & Whitney’s business in Connecticut.
‘National Asset’
And that has led to an entire ecosystem and industrial complex in the state.
“It’s a national asset, what we have here,” said Shane Eddy. “It would take generations to replicate, if it could even be replicated.
“But it’s also fragile, and so we’ve got to keep the conditions strong.”
Pratt & Whitney has 11,000 employees in Connecticut, and the company’s impact includes more than one billion dollars in annual supply chain spending in the state.
Eddy credited the state for implementing, and strengthening fiscal guardrails and providing stability for businesses like Pratt & Whitney.
“All the comments about creating the conditions, not only for Pratt & Whitney to continue investing, but for the ecosystem around Pratt & Whitney and our products, are spot on,” he said.
Navigating Change
Eddy said that from the pandemic, to the wars in Eastern Europe and Israel, a lot has changed in the world in recent years.
And, he said a lot has changed for his company as well.
In April 2020, at the outset of the pandemic, what was then United Technologies spun off Otis Elevators and Carrier and merged with Raytheon, becoming RTX.
“What we ended up with at RTX is the most advanced aerospace and defense system provider there is in the world”
Pratt & Whitney’s Shane Eddy
“It was an interesting time to completely overhaul the company,” Eddy said.
Eddy credited RTX CEO Greg Hayes for leading the transition.
Hayes, who is stepping down in May, will be succeeded by Connecticut native and former Pratt & Whitney president Chris Calio.
“What we ended up with at RTX is the most advanced aerospace and defense system provider there is in the world,” he said.
Investing in the Future
Eddy said that Pratt & Whitney has invested a billion dollars in its factories in Connecticut, and plans to continue that investment.
On the military side, Eddy noted that they are “sole sourced on key fighter mobility, tanker, and bomber programs.”
He highlighted the success of their 5th Generation fighter engines, which power the F-19 and F-35 aircraft with stealth capability.
“This stealth capability is going to be even more important for the next generation fighter,” Eddy said.
“We’re also investing in 6th Generation technology for the next generation fighter for the future.”
Eddy
“So while we’re delivering this at scale, and while we’re upgrading this program, we’re also investing in 6th Generation technology for the next generation fighter for the future.”
Along with the success of the military business, Eddy said the backbone of Pratt & Whitney’s commercial growth will be the growing commercial aviation industry.
The company started delivering the geared turbofan engine in 2016.
“I think it’s safe to say they’re the next generation of single aisle,” said Eddy.
The GTF engines run more efficiently and burn less fuel with lower CO2 emissions, and noise footprint than previous engines.
Sustainability
“When you talk about sustainability, this is our first major step in a number of years,” Eddy said.
“It’s also the engine that brought Pratt & Whitney really strongly back into commercial aviation.”
Eddy said sustainability is a focus for the company moving forward.
Pratt & Whitney joined an industry-wide commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“This is really about scaling the production of sustainable aviation fuel.”
Eddy
While they are developing electric and hybrid engines, Eddy said it’s going to be a while before that is produced at scale.
He said the key to sustainability will be sustainable aviation fuels.
“The total available infrastructure to produce sustainable aviation fuel today is less than one percent of the needs of the industry,” he said.
“So this is really about scaling the production of sustainable aviation fuel.”
Workforce Pipeline
As Pratt & Whitney grows its business in Connecticut, Eddy said the company is investing in its next generation workforce.
“Ensuring that we’ve got the right skills, the knowledge and ability coming into the workforce, I think is incredibly important,” he said.
Eddy said that Pratt & Whitney has developed long-term relationships with organizations like the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology and schools like Goodwin University and UConn to develop that workforce.
He said they’re also having conversations about starting that development for younger students in grade school and high school.
“We’ve got to make sure that that pipeline is full for everybody involved.”
Eddy
Eddy said that it’s a little easier for a company like Pratt & Whitney to fill roles.
But he said their goal is to create an ecosystem that benefits everyone in the Connecticut supply chain.
“There are a lot of medium, and in particular small businesses that are part of this ecosystem,” he said.
“And we’ve got to make sure that that pipeline is full for everybody involved.”
Productivity & Growth
Eddy said that as Pratt & Whitney grows, they are also putting an emphasis on productivity, in part due to inflation.
“How we’re dealing with inflation, both in terms of our people and wage and then in terms of our productivity, I think is incredibly important as we’re addressing this growth.”
Eddy said that to improve productivity, they work with employees to help eliminate waste from their jobs.
“Our job as managers and leaders is to understand from them where there’s waste in their job,” he said.
“The people doing the work know it better than anyone else.”
Eddy
“The people doing the work know it better than anyone else.”
Eddy said about half the work done in their factories has a level of automation to it.
They are also using things like analytics to help them reduce costs.
“We’re dipping our toe, I would say, in the water of machine learning and artificial intelligence,” he said.
“And using that to drive forecasting models, help us make sure we’re getting the right signals out to the supply base.”
Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut Media
In one of the dozen or so homes in this quiet mini-village is where theater director Jack O’Brien has lived for the past 10 years.
“I call the style of home ‘Early Ozzie and Harriet,’ ” he said laughing, as he greets his visitors.
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Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director has an extensive collection of framed posters from the many productions he was part of.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut MediaLike the avuncular man himself, the two-story house reflects a sense of the classic, the playful and the practical.
Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home holding the Tony he received for lifetime achievement, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut Media
Over a six-decade career in the theater and nearly 50 Broadway credits, O’Brien has earned three Tony Awards and in June received another for lifetime achievement.
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At 85, he’s still achieving plenty.
This fall on Broadway he directed close chums Patti LuPone and Mia Farrow — who live nearby — in the Jen Silverman comedy “The Roommate.” He also launched the national tour of the 2023 Broadway musical “Shucked,” which earned him his seventh nomination. He is readying to cast the musical for its London premiere and for 2025 he will be working on a Broadway-bound revival of “The Sound of Music.”
Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut Media“Let’s go upstairs,” O’Brien eagerly said, leading his guests to a large alcove whose walls are covered with production photos, design sketches and posters of some of the hits (and misses) of his career. To comfortably take it all in there’s a butterscotch-colored leather couch, accented with a colorful variety of textured pillows.
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“Isn’t this fun?,” he said taking a seat, clearly pleased in showing off the room to a theater aficionado. “And this isn’t even everything!”
It’s a theater archivist’s dreamscape: memorabilia that goes back to the start of his career with the APA Phoenix Repertory Company in the ‘60s; the launch of his Broadway career — in the ‘70s with an acclaimed production of “Porgy and Bess;” his years as artistic director of San Diego’s Old Globe and its Broadway transfers in the ‘80s and ‘90s; a string of hit musicals and collaborations with Tom Stoppard in the 2000s; more awards and nominations in the 2010s; and his latest nomination in the 2023 for “Shucked.”
Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director, has an extensive collection of framed posters from the many productions he was part of in his New Milford home.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut MediaFor each piece of the past, there’s inevitably a backstage tale and O’Brien is known to be one of the best theater storytellers in the business, the person you most want to sit next to at dinner. He has authored two anecdote-filled memoirs, the last being “Jack in the Box or, How to Goddamn Direct.”
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The airy second floor is for overnight guests and those who might enjoy looking at his theater collection, he said. For himself, well, O’Brien is just too busy to overindulge in nostalgia, residing on the ground floor.
“I have no rear-view mirror,” said the upbeat director. “I only look forward.”
Connecticut escape
Connecticut — and specifically Litchfield Country — has been O’Brien’s refuge from the demands and chaos of Manhattan for nearly 25 years, initially wooed by theater pals who lived here.
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Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut Media“Lindsay Law, who produced all my television shows (for PBS’ “American Playhouse” in the ‘70s) lived in Roxbury and I would come up to visit every weekend,” he said.
Following the death of his partner, composer James J. Legg Jr., in 2000, O’Brien decided to create new memories in the serene corner of Connecticut. He bought a sprawling homestead which he named “Imaginary Farms,” after the 2002 Broadway play he was directing at the time, “Imaginary Friends.”
”It was the house that ‘Hairspray’ built,” he said, referring to his 2002 hit musical.
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Tony Awards, won by director Jack O’Brien , are photographed in his New Milford home, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut Media“It was gorgeous,” he said of that first home, noting its swimming pool, guest house and 20 acres. “We always had loads of friends there. I traditionally cooked Thanksgiving or Christmas for (composer Stephen) Sondheim and all our friends.”
“But several years ago my financial advisor said to me, ‘You can’t keep this house because it takes three staffs of people to run it.’ So I said OK, and I made a video of the place and sent it to all my theater people, most of whom had been guests there at one time or another.’
Ethan Hawke, whom O’Brien directed in Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia” trilogy and Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” and “Macbeth,” bought the house “And everything in. He said, ‘We want to live like you live.’ I feel so wonderful about how it all turned out.”
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Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut MediaAfter selling his apartment on Central Park West 10 years ago, he sought a return to Connecticut. He learned that a new development was being built in New Milford, and that he could customize a home to his tastes, which one might call a slightly different kind of directing.
“The entire development looks like the back lot of MGM in 1945,” he said. “And by that I mean quite charming. It’s perfect for me now.”
Long runs for directors
O’Brien leads his guests to his ground-floor bedroom where on display are shelves of his multiple awards — including his Tonys, an armful of Drama Desk trophies, and the Theatre Hall of Fame honor. On the floor there’s a throw rug created by stage designer David Rockwell completely made up of colorful satin bow ties.
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In the living room, he eases into an oversized, wing-chair next to a marble fireplace, as Coda, as if on cue, jumps into his lap.
“I’ve had four Yorkies in my lifetime and Coda (is) the last of a distinguished line,” he said, seemingly a nod to his own age more than his dog’s.
Jack O’Brien, a Tony-winning director is photographed in his New Milford home with Coda, a female Norwich Terrier, Oct. 29, 2024.
Carol Kaliff/For Hearst Connecticut MediaIt is pointed out to him that legendary theater director George Abbott lived to be 107 and continued working until his death in 1995.
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“I met him when he was 105,” he said, referring to the time O’Brien directed a revival of “Damn Yankees” starring Jerry Lewis. Abbott was protective of his original script which O’Brien sought to rewrite. “Those extra two angry years kept him alive,” he said.
“I guess there’s something about theater directors. Twenty years ago, I didn’t know anyone in their 90s. Now I know a lot and many of them are still working. I’m working all the time now, too. It’s ridiculous. I thought it was going to stop — but it didn’t.”
Connecticut
Officials: CT troopers respond to 108 crashes from midnight Monday to about noon Tuesday
As of noon Tuesday, Connecticut State Police stopped 98 vehicles since the start of the Christmas holiday.
State police responded to 108 vehicle crashes, including 12 in which a person was injured. No fatalities were reported.
Eleven people were arrested for driving under the influence since midnight Monday.
State police responded to 982 calls from motorists seeking assistance on the highway.
A rural town connects beautifully to the miraculous event so long ago.
“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie,” begins a beloved Christmas carol sung since 1868, paying homage to Jesus’ birthplace.
But have you heard of Bethlehem, Connecticut?
It’s a favorite destination because of its Christmas connection. With approximately 3,400 residents, modest in size like its ancient namesake once was, the rural town of Bethlehem has two places that connect beautifully to that miraculous event of the Nativity.
The Nutmeg State’s Bethlehem is home to Regina Laudis Abbey, a community of cloistered Benedictine nuns founded after World War II. Here, the nuns have a magnificent early-18th-century Neapolitan crèche, displayed in a restored barn nearly as old and donated specifically to house this Nativity scene. Both the crèche and barn received a meticulous four-year restoration completed less than two decades ago by experts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
This is no small Neapolitan crèche. It spans 16 feet wide and 6 feet deep. The Nativity scene takes place before a backdrop mural of an 18th-century seaside and an azure sky.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph are at the heart of the crèche where our Savior’s birth is set vividly in a Neapolitan mountainside village — complete with angels hovering in wonderment and awe and scores of villagers react in different ways to the overwhelming presence of the Holy Family.
Simple peasants close to the Holy Family stand in awe and mingle with the Three Kings. Some villagers stop to contemplate Jesus’ birth. Others go on with everyday life as if nothing unusual or life-changing is happening.
The animated scene’s 68 figures and 20 animals of carved wood, ceramic, metal and plant fiber stand up to 16 inches high. They’re dressed in their original period dress that the Metropolitan Museum specialists also carefully restored to pristine condition.
From all indications and evidence, this crèche was a gift to Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia on his coronation in 1720. In 1948, it was brought to America and then in 1949 the woman who then owned it donated it to the abbey to preserve and display it.
Also on the abbey’s grounds is a simple, life-size Nativity scene of the Holy Family, located in a simple shed, with Joseph dressed in a checked farmer’s jacket. Abbey visitors might even spot a sheep or two.
Later during the Christmas season, you might want to watch the 1949 film Come to the Stable that tells the story of Regina Laudis Abbey and whose main characters, two nuns played by Loretta Young and Celeste Holm, are based on the actual Benedictine nuns who came from France after World War II to establish it. It’s a much neglected classic.
Church Highlights Nativity All Year
In nearly a straight line, less than 3 miles from the abbey and a few yards from the center of town, the Church of the Nativity remembers the birth of Jesus year-round. Now a part of Prince of Peace parish, the church was built in 1992 of fieldstone and wood and specifically designed to suggest or look like a large crèche. The church is topped with a star that is lit at night and directs people to the sacred edifice like the star directed the Magi.
The focal point of the church vestibule is a life-size manger scene. The figures were carved from a single pine tree by a Maine artist.
A panorama of the town of Bethlehem is etched high on the glass behind the Holy Family. Etched on another glass panel are the Three Kings, depicted following the star to adore the Newborn King.
In the nave, the church’s interior of stone, wood and large beams intentionally add to the manger atmosphere — as do the words “O Come All Ye Faithful” that stretch and beckon from high behind the altar.
The Nativity atmosphere continues all year. The Knights of Columbus built a 20-foot crèche on the parish’s front lawn.
Another Major Nativity
A little over 500 feet away is the Bethlehem Post Office, which, of course sees lots of extra traffic at this time of year — people enjoy getting their Christmas cards postmarked from “Bethlehem” and envelopes stamped with a Christmas greeting from the town.
Those who do visit these two Nativity treasures can continue singing Little Town of Bethlehem’s later verses:
How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.
O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter in Be born to us today O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel!
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Visiting hours for the abbey crèche: Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Winter Closure: Jan. 7-Easter Sunday; free.
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