Longtime Canton Resident David Leff Has Died, Town Says

CANTON, CT — Longtime Canton resident David Leff died suddenly over the weekend, and the town will honor him with a memorial service tonight.

The service will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Collinsville Green, and anyone who knew David is invited to set up chairs on the green.

"This is the place that David loved the best, and his family plans a joyful remembrance of his many interests and accomplishments in his too-short, but busy life," town officials said in a news release.

Parking is available in the church parking lot on South Street, the Town Hall parking lot on Main Street or the museum parking lot along the rail trail off Main Street. Leff's family asks that attendees carpool to the service, if possible.

Leff, former deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, was a poet, essayist and poet laureate who lived in Canton.

According to the Hartford Courant, he was Canton's deputy historian and served 26 years as a volunteer firefighter. He was also the poetry editor of a quarterly magazine called Connecticut Woodlands, the Courant said in an April 2021 story highlighting him.

"David's love of Canton/Collinsville, and his many works, both written and tangible, will be forever entwined into the fabric of this town," town officials said in their news release.

The town didn't specify the day Leff died, the cause of his death, or his age.