Fiske Holcomb Ventres (1906-1991)

From the Farmington Valley Herald, September 13, 1945.

   Two-term Connecticut state assemblyman Fiske Holcomb Ventres was for many years an insurance dealer in the city of Avon, and while there is a dearth of resources mentioning him, enough information has been found to compile a small biography for him. Born on June 30, 1906, in East Hartford, Connecticut, Fiske Holcomb Ventres was the son of Ernest and Essie (Holcomb) Ventres. 

   A student at the Holcomb School, Fiske Ventres graduated in 1920 and later took work as a traveling salesman with the Prentice Manufacturing Company of Berlin. Ventres would later decide upon a career in the insurance business, becoming a representative for the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Co. This line of employ later saw him stationed in Chicago, and by the mid-1930s had returned to Connecticut to serve as Fidelity Mutual's supervisor of agents for Northern Connecticut.

  Remarked as an "ardent and enthusiastic Republican worker", Ventres served as a member of the Avon town Republican committee, was a Grand Juror for Avon, and was a past president of the Avon Republican Club. In 1940 he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the Connecticut State Assembly from Hartford County, and in November narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Phillip Hewes, 557 votes to 521. Taking his seat at the start of the 1941-43 session, Ventres would sit on the house committees on Aviation and Insurance.

   In November 1942 Fiske H. Ventres won a second term in the statehouse, defeating Democrat Otto Mathews by a vote of 583 to 259. During the 1943-45 session, he chaired the Insurance committee and in December 1943 was appointed as executive secretary to state insurance commissioner W. Ellery Allyn. The mid-1940s proved to be a busy time for Ventres, and in addition to the above posts was named as Hartford County chairman for the Life Underwriter's War Bond Committee, Division of Salary Savings in 1942.

   Ventres would further aid the war effort by chairing Avon's U.S.O. War Fund Campaign in 1942 and 1945 began a year-long stint in Europe as an "accredited correspondent" for the Hartford Courant, visiting American and British occupied zones in Germany, as well as Switzerland, France, Austria, Belgium, Poland, and Italy. Following his return in August 1946, Ventres undertook a lecture tour throughout Connecticut where he detailed his experiences, as well as giving "his opinion on the significance of current political activities overseas."

   Fiske H. Ventres' life following his political service remains largely unknown. He would marry late in life at age 57, taking Verna May Lloyd (1922-2009) as his bride in 1963. Through the 1960s he continued in the insurance business and also dabbled in real estate and land sales. In the early 1980s, he undertook the development of a large tract of land in the vicinity of Taine Mountain, an area that, following a court suit that saw Ventres emerge successful, developed into a "subdivision of five lots." Ventres died in New Britain, Connecticut on March 1, 1991, aged 84 and was survived by his wife Verna. A burial location for both remains unknown at this time.