A Westporter and two former Westporters made The Associated Press end-of-year notable 2003 Connecticut deaths.

As reported by the AP:

Mary Moers Wenig, 76, of Westport, a Quinnipiac University law professor who wrote many articles on taxation, trusts and estates. She was one of the writers of the Uniform Marital Property Act and was a founding member of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund.Ӕ

Wenig was also a member of Westports Representative Town Meeting.(See WestportNow April 13, 2003).

The Westport Country Playhouse has set Jan. 12 for the groundbreaking ceremony for work on its renovation and expansion project.

The 2 p.m. ceremony will be held in a heated tent and include speeches by Playhouse officials, including Joanne Woodward, artistic director, and Bob Wright, chairman and CEO, NBC, and vice chairman, GE, and Playhouse campaign chair.

The Playhouse hopes to raise $30.5 million in its comprehensive campaign to remodel the legendary Playhouse as well as create an endowment and support artistic and educational initiatives.

The Westport Arts Center is seeking entries for an April exhibit it calls The Figure NOW.

The juried show featuring contemporary interpretations of the ageless subject will run at the Center April 2 to May 23.

Open to all media, the exhibition will be juried by Jennifer Gross, curator of modern and contemporary art at Yale University Art and visiting critic at Yale School of Art.

The Figure NOW will display a variety of work that interprets the human figure with excellence of expressionӔ and innovation,Ӕ according to a WAC announcement.

Westports Save the Children is appealing for public support to help victims of the devastating earthquake in Iran.

Emergency response workers from the Wilton Road-based humanitarian group arrived in Iran over the weekend. They plan to provide dislocated families basic shelter assistance, medical care and help children who have lost parents and other loved ones.

“There are tens of thousands of people without homes,” Michael Kiernan, a Save the Children spokesman, said today. “Many are sleeping on the ground. It’s freezing. It’s clearly important to respond to the survivor’s needs.”

U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays met privately over the weekend with Gov. John G. Rowland but did not ask him to resign from office, according to a Rowland spokesman.

The Hartford session with the governor is expected to be among the topics the congressman will discuss in a series of district community meetings next month, including one in Westport on Jan. 17.

Dean Pagani, the governor’s chief of staff and spokesman, said the two Republicans met at the executive residence for about 2 1/2 hours.

They discussed the scandal that has enveloped Rowland since he admitted lying about renovation work done on his Bantam Lake cottage in Litchfield.

Westport police have arrested two Westport teenagers in a trespassing and burglary incident and questioned them and three others about reports of youths dropping a burning gasoline-filled bottle off of a Merritt Parkway overpass.

Arrested shortly before midnight Friday at the Curran automobile dealership at 561 Post Road East were Matthew Fogel, 16, of Cedargate Lane, and Robert Pekar, 16, of Palmieri Road, police said today.

They were charged with trespassing, burglary and larceny in connection with thefts and attempted thefts from cars at that dealership as well as another on Post Road West, according to police.

Seniors enjoy a fireside chat today at Westport’s new Senior Center. WestportNow.com photo

The new Westport Senior Center hosts bridge players today as limited activities got underway in the $4 million facility. The official ribbon cutting is Jan. 16. WestportNow.com photo

The Westport Fire Department’s new recruits got some tower ladder training and also learned how to create a man-made rainbow. The location was the office park at 55 Greens Farms Road.Brett Kirby/Westport Fire Department photo