Category: All Posts

An uncategorized listing of all posts.

Rayhill, Brian

October 19, 2026 /

Brian Rayhill and his wife, AnneMarie, have called Darien home for more than 30 years. Their three children—Alex, who lives in Chicago, and Meaghan and Harry, both of whom live in New York City—all attended Darien public schools. Over the years, Brian enjoyed coaching his children in various Darien sports programs.

Brian has been actively involved in the Darien community, serving as Chair of District IV of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM) and as a Justice of the Peace. He is also an active parishioner at St. John Church, where he serves as a weekly usher.

Professionally, Brian continues to work full-time as a Managing Attorney in New York City, specializing in litigation. AnneMarie is a Realtor with Houlihan Lawrence. Brian is a graduate of Syracuse University School of Law and an enthusiastic Syracuse sports fan.

Sports and music have always been important parts of Brian’s life. As a member of the Middlesex Club, he enjoys playing pickleball, paddle tennis, and tennis. His appreciation for music is also a family tradition. His father, Leo Rayhill, hosts Sounds of Jazz with Leo Rayhill, an archival radio program airing Sunday afternoons on WCNY.org.

 

Landis, Steve

October 15, 2026 /

A graduate of Beloit College (BA, 1976) and Columbia University Graduate School of Business (MBA, 1980), Steve enjoyed a 36-year career as a fixed-income investment professional. His experience included proprietary trading at a U.S. Treasury primary dealer, managing open- and closed-end mutual funds and institutional portfolios, and serving for 14 years as a principal in an emerging-market debt investment fund. He also managed emerging-market debt portfolios for an institutional investment manager.

A resident of Rowayton since 2016, he previously lived in Larchmont, New York, for 28 years. He and his wife of 45 years, Cynthia (Cindy) Graham Landis, have two married daughters and three granddaughters living in Darien and Rowayton Woods. Cindy, a graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University Graduate School of Business, is a retired real estate professional and former manager of Houlihan Lawrence’s Bronxville office.

An avid and accomplished sailor, he belongs to the New York Yacht Club, Cruising Club of America, Storm Trysail Club, and Norwalk Yacht Club. He previously chaired the New York Yacht Club’s Crossing Committee and served as treasurer and Cruise Committee chair of the Norwalk Yacht Club. His sailing accomplishments include podium finishes in Bermuda races in 2017 and 2018. He is also a former rock climber.

He looks forward to becoming more involved in the Darien community and drawing upon the considerable talents, experience, and interests of its residents.

West, Tim

October 15, 2026 /

Tim West has been a resident of Darien since 1998, having previously lived in Rowayton for 10 years. A longtime supporter of Darien youth sports, he served on the board of Darien Youth Lacrosse, coached numerous travel teams, and co-founded the Blue Wave Buddies program for first- and second-graders with Mike Connelly.

Tim graduated from Providence College in 1982, where he met his wife, Margot (née Benedetto). He recently retired following a career in asset management sales that began in 1985.

Tim and Margot have two grown sons, Andrew and Henry, both of whom attended Darien schools and now live in New York City.

Shutts, Jay

October 14, 2026 /

Born in Buffalo, New York, Jay Shutts moved to Darien with his family in 1960 and has maintained close ties to the community ever since. He graduated from Darien High School in 1977 and earned a degree in Economics and Business from the University of Richmond in 1981.

Jay began his professional career in sales with Procter & Gamble immediately after college. In 1989, he joined the book printing division of R.R. Donnelley & Sons, beginning a long career in the publishing and printing industry. He continues to work with Lakeside Book Company, a successor to R.R. Donnelley. In 2019, he added an entrepreneurial venture to his professional pursuits with the purchase of Frog Hooks by Sternmoor, a boat docking system used at facilities across the country, including the Darien Boat Club.

Jay has been an active contributor to Darien’s civic and nonprofit organizations for many years. He served as President of the Darien Land Trust from 1997 to 2003, a period that included the important acquisition of Mather Meadow. He subsequently served on the Darien Library Board from 2012 to 2018, including two years as Treasurer, and as President of the Andrew Shaw Memorial Trust, which supports Darien Scouting, from 2017 to 2019. He currently serves on the Town of Darien’s Advisory Conservation Commission.

An enthusiastic outdoorsman, Jay enjoys skiing, golf, bicycling, boating, and hiking, and is a regular at the Darien YMCA gym.

His two children, both graduates of Darien schools, have ventured farther afield. His daughter, Kendra, lives in London, while his son, Cameron, resides in San Francisco.

 

 

Sargent, Bruce

October 14, 2026 /

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Westfield, New Jersey, where he attended public schools, Sargent has called Darien home for the past forty years. He graduated from Columbia College in 1966 and earned his MBA from Columbia Business School in 1968.

Following business school, he joined Smith Barney in 1968, beginning a career in investment management that has spanned nearly six decades. He remains active with the firm’s successor, Morgan Stanley, where he serves as Senior Vice President and Private Wealth Manager in its Westport office. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he previously served as Chairman of Smith Barney’s Capital Management Division, responsible for institutional investment management, and as a member of the firm’s Corporate Board.

Sargent has been deeply involved in civic affairs in Darien, serving as President of the Darien Historical Society and for more than twenty years as a member and Chairman of the Town Retirement Board. In 2026, he had the distinction of driving the Grand Marshal in Darien’s Memorial Day Parade.

His charitable and conservation interests have included service on the Board of the Inner City Foundation of Fairfield County and as President of Game Conservancy USA. He currently serves on the Board of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, its parent organization in the United Kingdom.

An active club member, Sargent served as President of the University Club of New York from 1987 to 1990 and belongs to several other New York City clubs, as well as Wee Burn Country Club in Darien. His outdoor interests are reflected in his memberships in the Camp Fire Club of America, Mashomack Preserve in New York State, and Ski Club 10 in Warren, Vermont, where he also serves on the Board.

He and his wife, Janet McInerney Sargent, have one son, Matthew, who lives in Darien with his wife, Brenna Kelly, and their son, Win.

 

Conley, Chris

August 26, 2026 /

Chris and his wife, Tricia, have lived in Darien since 1986, where they raised their four children and now enjoy spending time with their four grandchildren.

Chris grew up in Pittsburgh as one of eight children and remains a loyal Steelers fan. Tricia grew up on Long Island as one of seven. With such a large extended family, there is always something going on—and always someone to visit.

Chris earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Health Administration from Duke University.

He retired after a 40-year career in municipal finance. He began as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers before moving into asset management and private equity, where he helped launch several businesses that created high-yield municipal investment funds for institutional investors. He concluded his career in private equity investing in high-yield and distressed municipal bonds.

Chris and Tricia are members of the Middlesex Club and keep a boat at the Darien Boat Club. Chris enjoys paddle and pickleball and, with his siblings and cousins, is working on a project to research and document their family history.

WP Tutorial

August 15, 2022 /

Definitions:

  • WordPress: A free, open source, web application designed for blogging. It is very popular – about 25% of the websites are based on WP.
  • Post: A document – sort of like an email. For example, every speaker, event, and activity is a separate post.
  • Category: Posts are assigned one or more Categories to keep them organized. Sort of like a label in email.
  • Page: A document similar to a Post, but they are not assigned Categories. They are typically assigned to menu trees.  For example, the Speakers page is at the top of the menu and the Speaker Posts are under it.  The Activities Page is also at the top of the menu but underneath are other Pages such as Book Club, Hiking, etc.
  • Theme: the template that determines the general look and feel of the WordPress website. There are many, we use Hemingway.
  • Plug-In: WordPress has basic functionality. A Plug-in is a small piece of code that does some specific task.  For example, we use UltimatePostList to create the Table of Contents for speakers, TablePress allows data in tables – used to show Officers & Directors, A-Z Listing is used to show the Member Directory.  Most have their own admin dashboard.
  • Media: Images and PDF’s are stored in the Media Library. From there they are inserted into Pages and Posts.
  • BlueHost: the company that hosts our website.

wp tutorial

Site Maintenance Information

December 31, 2020 /

sma.darien.org site maintenance tasks.

  1. Periodically (at least once a week) log on to sma.darien.org/wp-admin/ and look to see whether there are any updates to:
    1. The WordPress platform itself.
    2. Any of the Themes, especially “Twenty Ten”, which is the Theme in use as of this writing
  2. Update any items found in step one.
  3. Adding and Modifying Posts:
    1. Note that — for the most part —WordPress sorts Posts for display in the reverse order of their dates, i.e., newer first. So if Posts are not appearing in the order that you want them, you can usually fix that by rearranging their dates.
    2. Note that if a Post is given a date in the future, it will not appear on the website until that date arrives. This is an excellent way to pre-publish future events without having the show up on the website prematurely. For example, this Post, which should never show up on the website, is dated far into the future.
    3. When adding a new Post, be sure to tick off the appropriate Category for the Post.
    4. In particular, if you want the new Post to appear on the All Posts page, be sure to tick off the “All Posts” category in addition to any other category that it is in. You’re going to want to do this for most posts.
    5. Make sure the “Uncategorized” category is un-ticked.
    6. When adding a new “Speakers” category post, if the date for the event is more than three weeks into the future, be sure to change the “Date” under “Quick Edit” to be a future date that is about three weeks before the actual date of the event, that way, the speaker won’t show up on the “Upcoming Wednesday Meeting” sidebar (or the “Speakers” page) until the event is actually nearing.
    7. When adding a new “Events” category post, if the date for the event is fairly far into the future, change the “Date” under “Quick Edit” to be a future date that will make it show up on the “Upcoming Events” sidebar (or the “Events” page) early enough for people to plan, but not so early that it will get  pushed off by other stuff before it happens.
    8. Remember, you can always change the date on a Post to rearrange where it shows up on the sidebars, or on the Home Page.
    9. Posts automatically default to “Standard” format. Be sure to change the format to “Gallery” for any Photo Galleries that you add.
    10. Try to maintain consistency in the titles of Posts. For example, I have used the form:
      1. “Speaker — Month Day, Year<BR />Speaker Name” for Speaker Posts. That “<BR />” inserts a new line character into the title so that you get a nice two-line title.
  4. When the dates for Events and Speakers have passed, you don’t want them showing up on the “Upcoming Wednesday Meeting programs” or “Upcoming Events” sidebars any more. Fix that by doing a Quick Edit of the Post and ticking off the “Past Speakers” or “Past Events” category for the Post.

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Cheese Boards

April 17, 2017 /

Sometimes there is a scrap of lumber laying around that you are sure there MUST be a good use for.   Here the Woodworkers took scraps of contrasting wood, joined, glued, planed, sanded and finished them to make attractive cheese boards.

 

 

Emergency Meeting Cancellations

November 25, 2016 /

If the Darien schools are closed because of weather conditions, there will be no DMA meeting on that day.

If the Darien schools either open on a delayed schedule, or close on an early schedule, the DMA meeting will be held at the usual time on that day.

School closings are announced text crawls on Optimum News12 television, and on Optimum Channel 6, they are also announced on local radio stations WSTC(1400AM) and WLNK(1350AM).

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