New London Superior Court Judge Harry "Hal" Calmar is dead after a lengthy hospitalization with COVID-19.
Colleagues said Calmar, 63, died Thursday at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass., where he was transferred with the start of the new year. Predeceased by wife, Martha, and daughter Isabelle, he leaves behind two grown children, Harry and Margot.
Those who spoke with The Day would not comment on whether Calmar was vaccinated against COVID-19.
New London Superior Court Judge Hillary Strackbein last saw Calmar in early December, several days before he checked himself in to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital because he felt sick. Now the district court has lost the glue that held it together, she said.
"I never thought that would be the last time I saw him. I can't believe he's not there," she said of the Huntington Street courthouse where Calmar oversaw civil cases while she presided over criminal ones.
Calmar came to the New London Judicial District in 2017 after being appointed to the bench in 2006. It was a homecoming of sorts for the man, who got his local start as an attorney for the New London law firm Suisman Shapiro.
"It's going to sound like hyperbole that Hal Calmar is the nicest person, the most wonderful person I think I've ever met," Strackbein said.
She described it as especially striking that he came to work every day with a smile on his face — and a pervasive sense of humor and warmth in all his interactions — despite the tragedies that had...
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