Obituary of Stephen Andrews Wise

Stephen Andrews Wise, of New Canaan, died at the age of 89 on October 9, 2014. Mr. Wise graduated from the Choate School in 1942 and Harvard College in 1947. After his first two years at Harvard, he enlisted in the Army and was in the 87th Infantry Division when it broke through to Bastogne during the Bulge. After college, he graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1949, and Columbia Law School in 1954. An attorney ever since the last of these graduations, he started practice as an Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, was with several firms in New York until 1970, and then came to New Canaan. Mr. Wise was involved in numerous unusual cases. In one of these, in Danbury, he won a family's right to have a feeding tube removed from a permanently comatose wife-mother, and he was one of the draftsmen of Connecticut's Right to Die With Dignity law. In addition, Mr. Wise brought a lengthy proceeding in Jerusalem to have Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer recognized as one of the Righteous Gentiles at the Holocaust Memorial there. Over the years, Mr. Wise was president of the New Canaan United Way, the New Canaan United Nations Day, and the Harvard Club of Fairfield County, and he served on the board of the Visiting Nurse Association. At his request, Mr. Wise was cremated, and his ashes placed with those of his mother and stepfather, Louise J. & James M. Andrews. Surviving him are his wife, Abby D. Wise, and two sons, Kenneth A. Wise and Andrew E. Wise, and two grandchildren, Jaime R. Wise and Brennan A. Wise. A memorial service will be held at 11 AM on Saturday, October 18 at the First Presbyterian Church in New Canaan, CT. His family has asked that any gifts in memory of him be given to the New Canaan Library. Arrangements under the care of Nutmeg State Cremation Society, Stamford. To send condolences to the family, please visit www.nutmegcremation.com Read Stephen Wise's Obituary and Guestbook on nutmegcremation.com.