If it doesn't already, heaven is going to look a lot like Milford, speakers at former Mayor Frederick L. Lisman's funeral said Tuesday.
More than 300 people, including Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the chief elected officials of several area communities, attended the 90-minute service in the City Hall auditorium.
Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr., Lisman's protge, brought smiles to mourners' faces by describing an imagined debate between St. Peter and Lisman about whether heaven or Milford is more beautiful.
"And there's never been anyone not named Barbara Lisman who has ever won a debate with Fred," he said.
Then, choked with emotion, Richetelli recalled the beginning of his friendship with the six-term mayor who preceded him in office. "He took me under his wing and I stayed there until last Friday, when his wings took him elsewhere.
"Fred, I know you can hear me and for once you can't talk back," Richetelli said. "I'm glad your fight is over and your battle won. We'll meet again; not on this Earth, but in a place, like Milford, perfected by you."
The Rev. David Angelica, the Lisman family's pastor on Cape Cod, joked that the former mayor had the plans for Milford's City Hall with him in the casket. "Heaven's waiting room will look a lot like this, I imagine."
Heralded by a mournful bagpiper, Lisman's coffin was borne into City Hall by some of his closest friends serving as pallbearers: Max Case, Thomas Beirne, Thomas Beirne Jr., Thomas Flaherty, Bruce Kolwicz and John P. Fowler. The men, particularly Flaherty, the former police chief, and Kolwicz, the city's public works director, seemed at times to be fighting back tears.
The late mayor's children, Debbie McClelland, Beth Maloy and Scott Lisman, read from the Scriptures and son-in-law Michael McClelland read a statement by Lisman's widow, Barbara.
"What an interesting life journey we had together for 43 years," Barbara Lisman wrote, recalling that they had met while at Purdue University in the 1960s. She said her husband was a chemist, woodworker, artist, teacher and an elected official who loved public service, and a devoted brother, husband, father and grandfather.
When he became ill, Lisman closely questioned his doctors about treatment options, wanting to know as much as possible, his widow wrote. He also talked for hours with fellow cancer patients who needed encouragement.
"Fred had a deep faith and a moral code that he got from his parents, and his Jesuit education taught him that we have to do the best we can," Barbara Lisman wrote. "In this temporary parting, I say, well done, friend.' "
In her eulogy, the Rev. Nancy Shepherd, pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, recalled Lisman's quick wit. As the millennium approached, the mayor was asked if he had a Y2K plan, Shepherd recalled. "Of course Fred said he had a plan: We're going to raise the Devon Bridge,' " the minister said.
"This is a man who prepared as carefully for his death as he did for his life," Shepherd said. "He was the most consistent man of integrity I ever met and Fred knew that he was moving forward into something [by dying] not giving up something."
Soloist Marilyn Mulvey and cellist Thirzah Bendokas performed the music for the service, which at Lisman's request included Communion.
An altar had been set up on the stage, with a cross behind it. "Wherever the spirit of God is, the ground becomes holy, so this site is holy for this period of time," Angelica said.
City Historian Richard Platt said that he was unaware of any other elected Milford leader given the equivalent of a state funeral. "But, of course, I haven't been here for all of them," he cracked. When former Mayor Henry Povinelli died in the early 1990s, his funeral was held in St. Ann's Church, Richetelli said.
"Can Milford go on without Fred? Yes, it can, because of all that Fred did," Richetelli said. "Thank God who was so good to us that He gave us Fred, who used the talents God gave him for our benefit."
After the City Hall service, more than 50 mourners joined the family at Kings Highway Cemetery for the interment.
The Milford police and fire departments' color guard units were at the gravesite, and a bugler blew taps while mourners, many of them city officials, placed flowers on the casket.
Frank Juliano, Milford bureau chief, can be reached at 878-2130.
