Obituary of Eric Sweeney

E. Corbin Sweeney, 83, beloved husband of Helen (Luhta) Sweeney for 51 years died on Sunday, February 17, 2013 after a brief hospitalization. Born in Britstol, CT, on 16, April 1929 to Marion (Ford) and J. Eric Sweeney, where he grew up on Federal Hill and graduated from Bristol High School in 1947. He received a BME in 1951 from NYU where he was in Psi Upsilon (Delta) fraternity. He then served in the U.S. Army for two years with a 13 month tour of duty in Korea as a 1st Lt. in the 13th Combat Engineers Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. This was followed by a MSME degree from Lehigh in 1953, after which he was hired by PWA-UTC and stayed for over 38 years in the engineering dept. in design analysis. In 1961 he received a Master's degree from RPI, and a state prof. engineer's license. Surviving him beside his wife are daughter, Megan and her husband Rick Lindgren of East Hartland and son Sean E. Sweeney of Collinsville, grand-daughters Kerstin and Elise, his brother David F. Sweeney of Amherst, NH and two nephews, two nieces and two grand-nieces. Corbin's many and varied interests included sailing and racing on the L.I. Sound, bird watching, hiking, photography, and especially gardening and planting many shrubs from the ericaceous family. A member of the Buckingham Church for over forty years, he was a trustee and a deacon. He belonged to numerous organizations, among them the Rhododendron Society of CT of which he served as president, and as a volunteer he worked on Blue Trail maintenance and coached the E. Hartford YMCA target shooting team. He was a charter member of the Finnish Am. Heritage Society, Canterbury, CT. Visitation will be held at the Mulryan Funeral Home, 725 Hebron Avenue in Glastonbury on Friday, March 1 from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. A memorial celebration will be held at the Buckingham Congregational Church, 16 Cricket Lane in Glastonbury on Saturday, March 2 at 11:00 A.M. Memorial donations may be sent to the CT Forest and Park Association, 16 Meriden Road, Rockfall, CT 06481 or to a charity of the donor's choice.