2012 Carl Paight

Life Coach

An inspirational family man and coach is memorialized through a scholarship that supports student-athletes.

By Natalie Missakian

40 | Charitable Giving Report

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ndy Paight was 6 years old the first time she saw her father’s coaching skills in action. Bundled up in snowsuits, gloves, and hats, Andy and her siblings were trying to learn how to ice skate for the first time when their father set a folding chair down on the frozen pond.

“My Dad taught us to push the chair around on the ice, and when you were tired, sit,” she recalls. Andy says it is a perfect example of the coaching style Carl W. Paight, ’50, brought to the football field during his long career as a high school coach.

“This was my Dad’s teaching and coaching philosophy throughout his career — always finding a way to make kids more successful regardless of their natural abilities,” she says.

Paight, a former captain and offensive lineman for the fighting Owls under head coach Jess Dow, is the inspiration behind the Carl W. Paight Endowed Athletic Fund for Men & Women at Southern. Each recipient must be a full-time undergraduate and a member of an NCAAsanctioned team.

Paight’s wife of 58 years, Audrey, established the scholarship to honor Carl last summer and presented it to him on Father’s Day, while he was surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandson. Paight passed away in September in Palm Harbor, Fla. Originally from Stamford, Conn., he had retired in Crystal Beach, Fla. “He was a consummate educator,” recalls Paight’s son, Joseph. “He was a very dedicated dad and a very dedicated coach. And he really enjoyed every aspect of athletics.”

As part of the scholarship, the family encourages past recipients who are established in their careers to contribute to the fund to support future Southern athletes.

While at Southern, Paight earned his bachelor’s in physical education from the School of Education, and applied his love of learning to his teaching career. Before college, he served in the Coast Guard during World War II. He began his four-decade coaching career at Masuk High School in Monroe, Conn., and went on to teach at Norwalk High School in Norwalk, Conn. In addition, he coached football at Western Connecticut State College, Fordham University, and Weston High School in his hometown of Weston, Conn., where he also served as recreational director. He also coached girls’ track at Norwalk High.

Bob Jones of Westport, Conn., who was captain of the Norwalk High School football team in 1968, remembers Paight as an old-school coach who would push players to their limits to teach them how much they could accomplish.

“He was a very dedicated dad and a very dedicated coach.

And he really enjoyed every aspect of athletics.”

– Joseph Paight

“We all loved him because we knew that he was trying to toughen us up to play better football,” says Jones. “He really cared about his players.”

Paight would close every end-of-game speech with the same words: “He would always say, ‘God bless you. I love you,’ ” Jones remembers. “It would give you chills.”

Jones says Paight also spent lots of time lobbying various colleges and universities on behalf of his players, helping them to get their foot in the door for consideration for athletics scholarships. He said many of Paight’s former players went on to have great success in their careers and lives.

“I would say that the work ethic that he had and he instilled in us was critical to a lot of our success,” Jones says. “He did work very long hours as a coach and that inspired us to work year-round to be better players.”

If Paight’s players felt devoted to their coach, the feeling was mutual, say his children. They remember their father spending hours at the kitchen table reviewing football games and scouting tapes on 8mm film. “He would take notes, draw up new schemes and plays. All looked like hieroglyphs to us,” says Andy.

His youngest son, David, recalls one Halloween when his father’s team members covered their front porch with hundreds of pumpkins. “That made him laugh,” Andy remembers.

His children also describe their father as a history buff, master of trivia, and a prolific reader who could often recite poetry by heart. He also loved the ocean and passed his love on to his children by teaching them to swim and sail a sunfish sailboat around Long Island Sound.

Paight always held his children to the same high standards as his athletes, but if they ever disappointed him, he never let it show, they say. “Dad taught us all not to be quitters,” says his daughter, Mindy. “Once you start something, you follow through with it, which meant a lot to me through the years.”

Spring 2013 | 41