Groton— Clifford Hurley, 89, Groton resident since 1957, WW2 naval combat veteran, Navy Chief
Warrant Officer (20 years service), founder of Groton Realty 50 years ago, died on Monday, January 18,
2010 at Pendleton Health and Rehabilitation Center in Mystic. He was the 1974 President of the New
London Board of Realtors and in the 1970s was twice its Realtor of the Year award recipient.
Cliff was born in Fort Ripley, Minnesota, on July 3,1920. He was predeceased by all his siblings and their spouses: oldest brother Warren and wife Marge, older sister Lil and husband Larry Brown, and older brother Leo and wife Ann Lee. On December 21, 2005 he lost his wife of over 60 years, Winona Ruth (Flieger) Hurley, four years his junior. Before she died, Winnie had also lost all her siblings and their spouses: older sister Connie and husband Gil Mowers, and younger brother Arthur and wife Dottie.
The Hurleys came to Groton in 1957 when Cliff was assigned to the Submarine Tender Fulton in New London. He retired from the Navy in 1960 as a machinist CWO2.
Cliff and Winnie started The Groton Realty in 1960 from 18 Utica Court, a duplex unit in Poquonnock Bridge. The Hurleys accumulated rental properties, at first many of which were duplexes in Poquonnock Bridge in units exactly the layout of their own dwelling and place of business. The use of business band radio in the early 1960s in car and office enabled Winnie to take phone calls and communicate back and forth with Cliff on the road as far as the Rhode Island line.
In the late 1960s Clifford Hurley was elected to the RTM and then the Town Council where he served one term, and was on the Republican Town Committee. He voted for Obama in 2008.
From 1968 to 1984, the Hurleys owned and managed the 23-unit Melville Apartments, 33 Granite Street, New London, now the Griffis Art Center. In 1975, the Hurleys acquired the Sea Village, a 15-unit apartment building at 17 Hancox Street on the direct waterfront of Stonington south of the cannons. Cliff became a Certified Property Manager (CPM) with Winnie’s administrative support. Winnie in her own right was a founding member and former President of the Groton Business & Professional Women’s Club and on the Women’s Council of Realtors.
Clifford Hurley (no middle name) is survived and mourned by his son Attorney Realtor Steven Paul Hurley, daughter Dr. Kathleen Ann Octavio of Caracas, Venezuela, granddaughter Felicia Hope Hurley of Stonington, son-in-law Dr. Miguel Octavio, daughter-in-law, Awo Quaison-Sackey, and Andrea Hope Theresa Clarke, the mother of his only grandchild. He was also loved by nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, and cousins, and friends including the staff at Pendleton.