Sedgwick
Gordon J. Gianninoto passed away at his home on April 15, 2021, after an extended illness with lung cancer. He came into this world on Oct. 2, 1948, in Redding, Conn., as the first son of Francesco Gianninoto, a Sicilian immigrant, and Margarita Gregor (maiden-Schunk). Gordon lived his last 20 years enjoying life on top of Caterpillar Hill in Sedgwick with his long time loving partner Janet Stanley and their five cats.
Gordon’s dad was a creative international package designer, inventing the flip-top box for Marlboro, for example, which enabled Gordon to extensively travel and open his eyes to the culture of other cities and countries. These experiences early on helped to influence his life to be guided by his heart and to do what he felt was right. Gordon attended the University of Virginia in aerospace engineering but soon became disenchanted with the curriculum that ignored controversial subjects such as the UFO phenomenon. So, later, he transferred to University of New Haven and received his BS degree in psychology. Following that he went to law school in Concord, N.H., graduating in 1977 from Franklin Pierce Law Center, all the while working full time to pay his school bills, mostly through his expertise in carpentry. However, prior to finishing at University of New Haven, Gordon grew his hair long, going to Woodstock in 1969, and then spent a few years in New York and Los Angeles as an independent professional photographer. His work was published in the major newspapers and Sunday magazines as he focused on portraits of certain rock musicians as well as being tutored in specialized fashion photography. During this period he also traveled to the Canadian Rockies to document the one time meeting of 900 Indian tribes from all of North America at the Indian reservation located on the Bow River.
While at law school Gordon worked briefly at the United Nations in New York, then with his law degree was employed as a legal environmental coordinator for the State of Vermont. He soon moved back to Connecticut and for a short time was married to Tova, a Danish immigrant. Gordon opened a solo law practice residing in his hometown of Redding until 1985. During his Connecticut years, he also built the tallest electric generating windmill (at the time) in Connecticut, overseeing much of the basic engineering, landscaping, permitting as well as contracting for the sale of the surplus power. He owned a peach orchard there but later sold his interest in that and started another one at his home on Caterpillar Mountain. It was also during his lawyering years he entered the tile and stonework contracting business. He worked with tile, granite, marble, bluestone and other stone, including cutting his own quarried granite. In 1992, he built two stone walls for the house in the Mel Gibson movie filmed in Deer Isle called “Man Without a Face”. Then he decided to move and wind down his law practice over a number of years but also commute from his new home in Stonington, where he lived for the next 14 years, serving on the Planning Board for two years. It was while he was living in Stonington that he met his love, one Janet Stanley.
In Stonington, he was involved in sea urchin buying but also worked on the fishing boats, including lobster fishing. With his experience in tile and stone cutting, he held various positions with regional employers, including self-employment in that capacity. He also pursued artistic interests in watercolors, oil, pastels and acrylics, even exhibiting his work at a local bank with one painting being published in the Downeast Magazine. Gordon was an accomplished professional finish carpenter, builder and cabinet maker, being employed by some local contractors, yet he also found time to publish a UFO contact newsletter that assisted in documenting local sightings.
Gordon’s last 15 years were focused mainly on his work at his home on Caterpillar Mountain, partnering with Janet along with their cats to expand the flower, grape and vegetable gardens, started a beekeeping operation marketing “Caterpillar Mountain” honey, tending their 20 acres of wild blueberry fields, building storage facilities for his collectibles and tools, expanding his interest with Janet as a UFO contactee specialist as well as attending various UFO conferences around the US while still finding time to listen to the Red Sox and the Patriots. In 2006, as his illness and hip issues began to limit some of his physical abilities, he began hosting a Friday night radio show on the Revolutionary Radio network to discuss politics, religion, UFOs, health, physics, pole shift and many other science topics. It was through this radio show where he picked up a new array of friends throughout the United States and overseas who supported his radio show as well as collaborated in research on these many topics that certainly earned him a label of a Renaissance man. In 2012, Gordon completed a controversial and long permitting process in Sedgwick for a communication tower that was built in a corner of his property which was subsequently leased and subleased to a branch of the military for their vital communications.
Gordon leaves behind his loving partner of 31 years, Janet Stanley; her son, William Chamberlain of Farmingdale along with his spouse Kristen and their son, Liam. He was predeceased by his parents; father Francesco in 1985, mother Rita in 2008, and his younger brother James in 2018.