Hundreds pay tribute to beloved Canton poet, environmentalist and public servant David Leff

Hundreds of people encircled the Collinsville Green on Tuesday evening to memorialize the life of David Leff, a former deputy commissioner for the Department of Environmental Protection whose contributions as an environmentalist, lawyer, author, poet, public servant, historian, volunteer firefighter, friend and family man are an enduring legacy.

Leff died suddenly last weekend as a result of a stroke, according to family members. He was 67.

“My father was a man who lived a life greater than any of us could individually understand,” Leff’s son, Joshua Leff, said. “He lived life to the fullest.”

One by one, the litany of speakers including family members, a lawyer, a former town first selectman, a firefighter, poets, educators and environmentalists, spoke to honor Leff, a man described by friends as a Renaissance man.

“One thing about David, he had lots of families, and the number of people here tonight is a testament to how much he meant in so many different areas of life, whether it be poetry, or maple sugaring, or nature, or history. He was very much a Renaissance man who I am proud to have called a friend for over 30 years,” said Jay Kaplan, who noted Leff’s work with the Roaring Brook Concert Series.

Leff’s contributions as a state employee included his hand in the largest land conservation acquisition ever, about 15,000 acres of what’s principally known as the Centennial Watershed State Forest, according to his sister, Elizabeth Leff.

Mark Brance, who attended UConn Law School with Leff in the 1970s, said Leff was instrumental in the state increasing the percentage of land that has been designated as open space.

Leff had a profound love of nature, said Kaplan, showing up at the Hartford landfill before 6 a.m. to census grassland birds, as well as doing Christmas and summer bird counts at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.

Elizabeth Leff also recalled the notepads that her brother always had on him, where he would record the world around him.

“Observations of trees, rocks, turtles,” Elizabeth Leff said. “He called them ‘marvels hidden in plain sight.’”

Elizabeth said David’s attention to nature was on display when, while bird watching in Belize five years ago, he recorded 40 different species of birds, roughly in order in which he saw them. He emailed the list to everyone who hiked with him, including his sister.

“This email brought chortles of laughter and amazement, as no one else knew we had even seen 40 different types of birds, never mind what type they were,” Elizabeth said.

Leff’s roots in Canton ran deep, as he served as the town moderator, town historian, the town’s poet laureate, chairman of the Collinsville Historic District Commission and the safety officer of the Canton Volunteer Fire and EMS.

Wayne Goeben, the former chief of Canton Fire and EMS, credited Leff for coming up with the department’s tagline, “Valuing life at a moment’s notice.”

Leff joined the department in the late 1980s, when firefighter safety was just coming to the forefront, Goeben said.

“He joined at a time when some of us rode on the back step; at a time when we had open-cab trucks and lap belts only,” Goeben said. “Safety was a real challenge, and David was our biggest advocate. … We’ll never know how many injuries or deaths were prevented from David’s intervention, but I know our members were safe because he was there. …

“David was a champion of our village and of all of our residents. I know my life, my family’s lives and your lives and our town are much the better for having him in it.”

Leff was a man with a gift for words, as evidenced by the poets — Joan Hofmann, Bruce Pratt, Rennie McQuilken and Margaret Gibson — who read works either by or for Leff. Pratt, who teaches creative writing at the University of Maine, read one of Leff’s poems, “Village at Dusk,” which is always listed as the favorite among Pratt’s students at the end of the semester.

“I just miss him so much that I’m just glad I’ll be able to teach other young people about his good works,” Pratt said.

Hofmann, Canton’s first poet laureate, said she once was wrangling with the last line of a poem she had written. She emailed the poem to Leff, asking him for advice on what to do. Less than an hour later, Leff sent it back to Hofmann with the line, “Perfect poem now.”

Hofmann worried about what Leff had done with her poem.

“I read through the poem and realized, in the last line, he had moved a comma,” she said. “I really loved it. I was overjoyed.”

McQuilken, a former Connecticut poet laureate who published Leff’s first two books, noted how many people were in attendance.

“David had so much love and it was so visible in so many areas; I loved working with him,” he said. “I feel him standing by me here.”

Gibson, Connecticut’s current poet laureate, said she wanted the global climate crisis to serve as the theme of her laureateship and she was looking for a partner. Someone suggested Leff.

That ultimately began a “beautiful friendship,” she said. “David stands out in my memory as someone who is always at my side. … David was always behind me, pushing me up.”

Through it all, Leff ultimately became something he probably couldn’t bring himself to say: “a townie,” Joshua Leff said.

“He was always seen about town on the trail, at the library, at so many establishments in Collinsville. This place meant everything to my father.”

“My dad was a rare breed,” Leff’s daughter, Tiki Leff Diliberto, added. “A breed of impeccable design, never judgmental of my independent spirit, and friend to all who crossed his path. … My dad was an incredible man of incredible design.”

What was revealed most through Leff’s love of words, nature and volunteering was his even more profound love of people and community.

“He would have loved this,” his wife, Mary Fletcher, said. “He would have loved to have been with you here today. I believe he is here hovering over us now, smiling before he travels on. He was a deep traveler who is departing on his last journey.”