Don Rankin: Madison’s Renaissance Man
Sitting behind a table at the 15th annual Friends of Hammonasset Plant Sale by the entrance to Hammonasset State Park one muggy day last week, Madison resident Don Rankin, 75, appears to be having the time of his life.
He jokes with every customer, stranger or not, who approaches to pay for his or her plants: “These prices are so low, even doctors and hedge fund operators can afford them!” To a well-dressed man: “I’m proud of you, you kept within your budget. You should run the government as far as I’m concerned. Maybe you do run the government—are you a senator?”
It’s clear Don plays well with others, but he takes his interactions one step farther by sharing his knowledge and love for the area with the people he encounters.
As for the plant sale, Don says, “This year’s sale is wrapping up. We still have a lot of stock, but we give a lot of stock away to nonprofits and churches and so on. Clinton Nursery donated the stock to us, so that’s very helpful. The greenhouse stuff we pay for. That comes from JC Farm in Durham on Route 68.”
Don, a surgeon, is retired.
“That’s why I’m so happy!” he quips.
He was trained as a general surgeon in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and returned to Yale, where he was briefly an assistant clinical professor of surgery, for more training before going into emergency medicine. He served as chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Park City Hospital in Bridgeport and was director of Emergency Medical Services Planning for Connecticut’s southwest region.
More recent days have found Don making a difference throughout his own community. He was recently awarded the Madison Jaycees’ Distinguished Service Award for outstanding service to the community in 2014, a year during which the Friends of Hammonasset (FOH) Plant Sale (June), Mum Sale (September), and Christmas Tree Sale (December) netted $107,000 for FOH to assist the state in constructing the new Meigs Point Nature Center to house new exhibits.
Last year Don also organized the Bauer and Schumann educational lecture series as well as the Meigs Point Festival.
“The Bauer series is held in February and St. Andrew’s Church has been hosting that series for several years,” Don says. “It was created in honor of the Bauer brothers. Erwin C. Bauer left a foundation, and we had been the recipient of multiple grants from the Bauer Foundation, so...we honor the Bauer brothers for their contributions to the town and specifically through their foundation to us.
“Bob Schumann was a big supporter of the Friends of Hammonasset. He supported our festivals and he was a remarkable environmentalist and birding advocate who was a main supporter of Stop Griswold Over Development, which preserved the Griswold Airport property for the town of Madison, and because of his support of the birding experience and Friends of Hammonasset, we honored him with a summer series of educational programs that take place Friday evenings in August behind Meigs Point Nature Center.”
Speakers present nature programs for area residents to enjoy.
“Todd [Secki] and Christine [Cummings] from A Place Called Hope bring in live birds,” Don says. “Russ Miller usually gives a program. He’s sort of the director of Meigs Point Nature Center, and we work with Russ very closely on a number of fronts. The main function of Friends of Hammonasset is to provide environmental education, so Meigs Point Nature Center is one of our public faces.”
Don is also on the board of Madison ABC (A Better Chance) and an active member of St. Andrew’s Church and Madison Cares/Habitat for Humanity (now known as Raise the Roof).
“My main activities are with the Friends of Hammonasset and giving public programs on different kinds of things,” he says. “I lead a lot of hikes of the park. I’m familiar with the geology, the Native American history. It’s a wonderful landscape here.”
Don is also interested in what’s below the surface. He has been a presenter of the Connecticut Archaeology Roadshow at museums and libraries across the state to promote appreciation for Connecticut archeology.
“One is coming up in a few weeks at the Peabody Museum,” he says. “I work in conjunction with the Office of State Archaeology in the context of the Friends of the Office of State Archaeology. My interests are Native American sites. I’m one of those that actually participates in the digs. Forget about all this, ‘Oh, Columbus discovered America,’—you could write a book about the people who discovered Columbus!”
Don knows plenty about the Hammonassets who roamed the namesake land where he now sits selling plants, and he also helps organize the Native American-themed Hammonasset Festival that takes place every other year. This year it will be held Oct. 3 and 4.
Don speaks knowledgeably about history and science. He has a background in physics.
“I just gave a talk on the evolution of the universe,” he says. “The Big Bang, how matter is created...the word physics comes from the Greek work physis, or nature. When you’re studying physics, you’re studying nature.”
He recently wrote an article about Daniel Hand (the man, not the school) for the Madison Historical Society. He likes public speaking.
“The best thing that sometimes happens is that in the audience somebody will share some comments and then I’ll learn.”
He has even unearthed many gems about his own family history.
“One of my cousins was Reverend John Rankin,” he shares. “He was arguably one of our country’s foremost Underground Railroad conductors and he just got inducted into the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame in Peterborough, New York. I gave one of the nomination speeches and it was an incredible honor. I mean, he was inducted along with Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, and that group. He had nine sons that worked on the Underground Railroad with him.”
Don and his wife, Nancy, have lived in Madison for about 38 years, he says.
“My wife and I grew up on Long Island. I’ve known her since she was 5 and I was 7. It was typical; she was a cheerleader, I was quarterback on the football team. We went to school together and have been married 51 years.”
The Rankins have three children, Craig, Libby, and John, and four grandchildren. Don and Nancy like to travel when they’re not enriching the lives of Madison residents. They just got back from a trip around Ireland. They’ve also been to Scotland, England, Wales, Italy, and plan to visit Iceland.
“Life’s good,” Don says. “I come from a place of being grateful for everything.”
Learn more about the Friends of Hammonasset and the group’s upcoming events at www.hammonasset.org.
To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Melissa at m.babcock@shorepublishing.com.