Obituary of John L. Armitage

John L. Armitage, 96, of Essex, CT, formerly of Madison, NJ and Morris Plains, N.J. died peacefully on May 14, 2013. John L. was born on July 24, 1916 on the kitchen table of his grandfather's house in Newark, NJ, middle child and first son of Elwood Spencer Armitage and Adra Fitts Armitage. After graduating Lawrenceville, he attended Princeton University, and graduated in 1938. While in college he met Karen Marie de Chambaud Conze of Greenwich CT, when she was 16 and whom he married on Sept 22, 1939. "After fifty-six years, I can still remember the white brilliance of her hair and slim tall figure at Princeton events," he wrote in his autobiography. The marriage of "Johnny and Connie" as they were dubbed in their engagement announcement by thirties social columnist Cholly Knickerbocker, lasted 55 years until her passing in 1994. In 1938 he joined John L Armitage & Co in Newark, NJ., a chemical coatings business started by his grandfather in 1876. Soon after Pearl Harbor, he left the family business to serve as an officer in the Army Chemical Warfare Service from 1942 to 1946. "I wasn't too sure I was going to make it." he wrote. He returned and in 1949 became President of John L Armitage & Co until he retired in 1982 and was succeeded by his son, Norman S. Armitage, who still serves as President of the company in Gallatin, TN. Other surviving children include Adra Carr of Old Saybrook, CT, Spencer Leineweber of Honolulu, HI, and Amelia Armitage of Ridgefield, CT. He is pre-deceased by his sister Adra Fairman and brother James D. Armitage, who worked closely with him in the family paint business. John L. was active in the National Paint and Coatings Association (NPCA) where he served as both President and Chairman (1972-1976). He is survived by 4 children, 12 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren. An avid reader in his nineties, he chronicled his life and times in Seventy Five and One-Half, a book for his grandchildren and generations thereafter. "I have lived for the better part of the Twentieth Century," he wrote. "It has been a remarkable century for the American Nation....If you look at the Twentieth Century, it has always been the unexpected that has made the greatest influence. I might only mention the electric light (his mother and Mrs. Edison were friends), the automobile (all those years selling paint to Detroit), World War I, the Depression, World War II and the atomic age as examples of the unexpected.... in terms of the expected and the unexpected...(the) unexpected wins out every time in terms of impact." His life will be celebrated by his family and close friends in a service June 23, 2013 at the First Congregational Church in Essex at 1:00. In memory, the family requests donations be made to the Weiss Hospice Unit, Middlesex Hospital, Office of Philanthropy, 28 Crescent Street, Middletown, CT 06457. Arrangements by the Robinson, Wright & Weymer Funeral Home in Centerbrook.