Angelo Tomasso, Jr.

Following in the footsteps of one’s father who happens to be a highly successful businessman and iconic community leader is a monumental challenge for any son or daughter, one that few can meet. In the case of Angelo Tomasso, Jr., that only begins to describe the challenge he faced in August, 1952.

Angelo’s larger-than-life father, Angelo, Sr., had just passed away prematurely at age 59 after a brief illness, only three years after being badly injured during a tragic construction accident at the Tomasso Company’s Plainville quarry. Without a leader, Angelo, Sr.’s oldest son – at age 27 and only a few years removed from his decorated service in World War II – was named to head the company, and run it along with his brothers Victor, George and Bill.

“People see the Tilcon Company today and it’s hard to believe, but back then when our grandfather died, there was almost no money in the bank and my father, along with his brothers, had to take this company over,” says Michael Tomasso, son of Angelo, Jr., one of six 2017 inductees into the Connecticut Immigrant Heritage Hall of Fame.

“They’re basically all kids in their 20s and it was not an easy start,” Michael continues. “But the hard work, the ethics, the reputation my grandfather had built meant everything to the family and they were not going to let it fail. They figured it out and made it work.”

Making it work is an understatement. Led by Angelo, Jr., the Tomasso Company went on to achieve new heights in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and assume a corporate community leadership role, that Angelo, Sr., could have only dreamed of.

Perhaps it was all destined to be in that tiny third-floor apartment at the top of Broad Street where Angelo, Jr., was born in 1925, only two years after his father started his construction company. He was born prematurely and not expected to live, but even then, the Tomasso family determination emerged as Junior not only lived, but went on to thrive and succeed in life beyond anyone’s imagination.

Like many youngsters inspired to defend their country during World War II, Angelo, Jr., enlisted in the U.S. Navy – without his parents’ knowledge – at the age of 17 following graduation from New Britain High School. He was a communications officer in the Amphibious Corps aboard the USS LST 925, serving in the South Pacific, and earned the Military Order of the Purple Heart for his valor.

“They were in the Leyte Gulf during the liberation of the Philippine islands, when their ship was hit by Japanese kamikazes that crippled the ship,” says son Bill Tomasso. “He was fortunate.”

Having displayed leadership qualities, Angelo, Jr., was asked following the battle to attend officer’s training, and upon arriving back on the west coast he boarded a train and rode cross country to Auburn University in Alabama.

“He loved it there, he was with a lot of other veterans and there was a great camaraderie amongst them,” Bill says. “They had that commonality of having experienced war. He met my mother there, earned his engineering degree, and he wanted to become an architect when he got the call.”

The “call” was from Connecticut in 1949. Angelo, Sr.’s quarry accident meant that Junior was needed back home to help run the company, and his life changed forever. In the ensuing years under Angelo, Jr.’s stewardship, the company was ideally positioned to reap the rewards of the growing American Baby Boomer economy. It was the ‘50s, suburbia beckoned young families and the automobile was king. Someone needed to build all those highways, and the Tomasso Company was happy to oblige.

During this period of rapid growth Angelo’s penchant – like his father’s – for working hard paid off as opportunity after opportunity arose. The company became legendary for its highway construction expertise, and it was the Tomasso Company that was largely responsible for the building of Interstates 91 and 84, and Routes 2 and 9.

In 1968, the Tomasso Company received wide acclaim for laying a mile of concrete each day on over three miles of Interstate 84 in Plainville, Farmington and New Britain. In 1972, a joint venture led by Angelo Tomasso, Jr., set a world record by laying 18,300 tons of bitumen in 18 hours at Bradley Airport, repaving a major runway in record time with only a small window of time available to accomplish the job and using 171 pieces of equipment.

The airport project was something Angelo Tomasso, Jr., took great pride in. For him, it was always about accomplishing the impossible, about pride in one’s work, delivering a project as promised. As his father would always say, “Get there early, work hard and make the product of the highest quality.”

 “It was a challenge that went beyond profits and business,” he said at the time.

Eventually the company branched out into redevelopment and site projects, including corporate headquarters projects for such large enterprises as Emhart, Stanley Works, Aetna and Bristol Myers. The company was sold in 1972 to Ashland Resources, and in 1979 a British concern took over, creating Tilcon Tomasso and, eventually, Tilcon. Angelo, Jr., served as President and CEO until 1991, retired as Chairman in 2001 and, in 2015, passed away at the age of 90.

Today, the Tomasso legacy is carried on by the third generation of Tomassos – Angelo, Jr.’s sons Michael, William, Paul and James. The Tomasso Group includes real estate management company Tunxis Management, TBI Construction and TBI Development.

Angelo, Jr., became as renowned in New Britain and beyond for his philanthropy and community involvement as for his business success, taking the seeds of community engagement his father had sown to a new level. In 1996, he was named Man of the Year from the New Britain Press Club. In 1978, he received the National Jewish Hospital and Research Center Humanitarian Award. In 1986, he was named Citizen of the year from the New Britain Lodge of Elks. In 1988, he received the Golden Lion Award from the Order of the Sons of Italy. In 1996, he was honored by the Connecticut Association of Street and Highway Officials and received the Royal W. Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award. And in May of 1990 he received the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from CCSU.

Retired Hospital of Central Connecticut President and CEO Larry Tanner, who considers Angelo Tomasso, Jr., one of the most influential people in his life, fondly recalls his mentor who served on the hospital’s board for decades.

“Angelo Tomasso, Jr., was part of a very small, unique group of incredibly philanthropic and civic minded leaders who make their communities better,” Tanner says. “He was somebody who touched almost every organization in town – and you usually didn’t hear about it. If some non-profit needed a new driveway put in, it just got done. That is the kind of man he was.”

At Angelo Tomasso, Jr.’s funeral service attended by hundreds, Michael Tomasso fondly recalled his father.

“Dad was deeply committed to equal rights for all people, He loved his hometown of New Britain and was proud of this community for welcoming anyone to realize the American Dream.

“In Italian, there is a Renaissance term ‘l’uomo completo’ – the complete man.  Angelo Tomasso, Jr., was a complete man as a husband, father, uncle, grandfather, member of his church, community and in business. This was my father.”

The Honorable Mohammad Nawaz Wahla

M. Nawaz Wahla is not supposed to be sitting where he is today, on the bench as a State of Connecticut Superior Court judge. Remarkably, he is not even supposed to be in this country.

But fate sometimes has a great deal to do with how our lives – and callings – play out. And fate played an important role in Judge Wahla’s rise from a rural Pakistani village without water or electricity as a child, to the front lines in the Pakistan Army, shot and severely wounded in a border fight with ammunitions smugglers, to a seat on Connecticut’s Superior Court.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would practice law, or that I would even be coming to the United States,” says Judge Wahla, a 2017 inductee of the Connecticut Immigrant Heritage Hall of Fame. “That injury became the turning point in my life,”

Judge Wahla’s remarkable journey began on a simple farm in the Punjab province of Pakistan. His father was a diligent farmer, and he had to work hard to care for Nawaz, and his eight brothers and sisters. There was no electricity, no running water, and life became even more difficult when Nawaz’s mother died only a few years after he was born.

“My father had no education. He could not read or write. It was my father who, knowing how hard life was for him, instilled in me the importance of education,” says Nawaz. “His pride in his children exceeded his means, and he did all he could to ensure I had the finest education possible.”

Nawaz ended up being the only one to attend college. While he worked hard to achieve the highest academic levels possible, it was his selection in 1972 to become a cadet at the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) that determined what he thought would be his lifelong career path. It was at the academy, equivalent to West Point and a training ground for officers in the Pakistan Army, where Nawaz embraced the notion of becoming a military officer for life.

Nawaz graduated from the PMA, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery regiment and, while serving, enrolled in the University of Punjab Law College. By day, Nawaz would discharge his military duties, while his nights were filled with constitutional law, torts and contracts. Nawaz earned his law degree and went on to serve more than 17 years in the Pakistan Army.

“I was chasing the dream to become a general, like every officer does,” he says.

It was in 1986, posted on the border of Pakistan and Iran and commanding a platoon charged with stopping smugglers transporting Russian arms and ammunition into Pakistan, when Nawaz’s life changed.

“We were attacked by the smugglers and they outnumbered us,” he recalls. “There were 19 trucks coming in with ammunition, and we had seven soldiers. I was shot, once in the arm, once in my chest, and two of our troops were killed. My arm was shattered and a bullet was lodged just centimeters from my heart.”

Nawaz, who earned the Pakistani equivalent to the Purple Heart for his valor, spent nine months in the hospital. Doctors wanted to amputate his arm, but Nawaz’s wife Imtiaz (Amy) was unavailable to provide consent.

With nine months to think about what the future might hold, Nawaz – who already had a law degree – began to think about using it for a new career. “I never knew that degree would rescue my life.”

Nawaz and Amy embarked on what Nawaz calls their “global adventure,” relocating to the United States in 1990 along with their three young children, daughter Mehvish, son Sarosh and daughter Zulara, and enrolling at the University of Texas School of Law. He earned his Masters of Comparative Jurisprudence in 1991, and completed a prestigious internship at the International Court of Justice at The Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands in 1993.

Following The Hague internship, Nawaz returned to Texas and completed his Masters of Law degree (LLM), an advanced certification with global credibility, in 1998 at the University of Houston Law Center.

Nawaz was admitted to practice law in Connecticut in 1999, and opened a private practice in Hartford two years later. “Since that day,” says Nawaz, “I have learned more about the law than I ever thought possible.”

Upon his appointment by then Governor M. Jodi Rell in 2010 to become the first Muslim and Pakistani Superior Court judge in Connecticut history, Wahla testified before lawmakers during a confirmation hearing and shared with them his passion.

“When I arrived in these United States 22 years ago with my wife and three small children it was foreign and new. Now, with the passage of time, I can confidently conclude that the fateful decision I made was indeed the correct one,” he testified. “My legal education and practical experience over the years has given me a vast wellspring of knowledge upon which I can rely.

“If this day has just a touch of sadness in it for me, it is because my father is not here to share it,” he continued. “He taught me that no dream is too big to dream. It is a true testament to the spirit of this nation that the son of a rural farmer from Pakistan would be given such an opportunity to serve the State of Connecticut.”

Lawmakers were enthralled by Nawaz and his story, and afterward, then-State Senator Mary Ann Handley said, “He came from this impoverished, rural background and made his dream come true. He and his family are the perfect example of what America is supposed to be.”

Judge Wahla and Amy have set fine examples for their children, all adults now pursuing remarkable careers of their own. Both daughter Mehvish and son Sarosh attended the same University of Texas at Austin that their father did and are now practicing attorneys themselves. Their youngest child, daughter Zulara, pursued a different path, attending medical school at Fatima Jinnah Medical College in Pakistan and Cornell University. She is now a second-year resident at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Even at this lofty point in his remarkable career, Judge Wahla is not yet done learning. This past July, he completed the rigorous Global Master of Arts Program at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a unique and exclusive program of intense study in global diplomacy. The Judge is contemplating what might be the next chapter and challenge in his life – might it be a diplomatic assignment with the Department of State? Only time – and fate – will tell.

“I am very humbled by the opportunities I have been given here in this country. I am proud of my Pakistani heritage, and proud to be an American,” says Judge Wahla. “I gave my blood for my home country of Pakistan, and I am willing to give 100 lives for my adopted country.”

“My journey has just begun.”