Fire claims old factory in Torrington

MILLERTON — Sam Busselle, Millerton resident for 50 years who dedicated himself to connecting people and improving life in his community, died peacefully July 31, 2026, at Woodland Pond, New Paltz, New York. Born in 1940, he was the son of architect Alfred Busselle and educator Martha Knapp Busselle. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, where he graduated from the Lawrenceville School and then Yale University, which he attended on a swimming scholarship, followed by a master’s degree from the Yale School of Architecture. He then taught high school for several years in the Boston area, where he met his wife, Rebecca.

Sam, Rebecca, and her 7-year-old son Wynne moved to Manhattan, quickly expanding their family with the birth of Katrina and Max, all the while gut-renovating a floor of an abandoned SRO on St. Mark’s Place. Weekdays Sam left the lively East Village neighborhood by bicycle to work uptown on Fifth Avenue for the General Learning Corporation in the environmental services division. On weekends he tore down plaster walls, laid flooring, built bookcases, plumbed a kitchen and bathroom, and cut a door to a sizable outdoor rooftop where the family grew tomatoes, and the kids splashed in a plastic swimming pool. Strapped into kiddie seats on their parents’ bikes, with Wynne in the lead, the family explored New York City and picnicked in its parks.

SALISBURY — Astrid Daphne Satre passed away peacefully on July 25, 2026, in Sarasota, Florida, after spending the last year and a half at a rehabilitation center. She was 87 years old.

Born on April 11, 1939, in Salisbury, Connecticut, Astrid was the only daughter of Astri and Magnus Satre. Her parents emigrated from Norway in the early 1900s and settled in Twin Lakes, Connecticut, where she spent her childhood surrounded by the beauty of the Berkshire foothills and the rich Norwegian heritage that remained an important part of her identity throughout her life.