Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Mark Langlois THE NEWS-TIMES
Published: 01:00 a.m., Friday, December 3, 2004
DANBURY - Dr. Thomas Draper, no stranger to the Danbury Health Department, was named acting health director Wednesday, the fourth time he has held the title since beginning work in Danbury in 1958.
The health director's post is one of three high-level jobs now vacant in Danbury, including the police chief and the parks and recreation director. The city is working to fill all three jobs.
Draper, 78, first served as the director in 1971 under then Mayor Gino Arconti. He is now filling in for former director Bill Campbell, who retired at the end of November.
Draper earned his medical degree at Queens College in Ontario, Canada, and his master's degree in public heath at Yale University in New Haven in 1969.
Draper has served as the associate director of the department in charge of communicable diseases. He is the father of seven children and the grandfather of 18.
"He knows the people. He's served as the city's health director in the past," said Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton. "He's willing to fill in until we find someone."
Danbury is now in the midst of job searches for a new police chief, a Parks and Recreation Department director, the director of the Health Department and a new engineer.
Boughton said he expects to have a new health director in place within three months. He said the parks and recreation director's job list is down to four finalists, who will be interviewed in the next 30 days.
The finalists for the police chief job will visit Danbury in February.
Eleven people have applied for the engineering job.