As the first Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection, Attilio Frassinelli would have had many stories to tell. In this case, it would be about a housewife from Connecticut who saw an ad to buy a car for 1,395 bananas and decided to bring the bananas to the dealership. When they didn’t honor the ad, she went to Commissioner Frassinelli for help.

In a dedication ceremony in 2009 the Frassinelli family donated the papers of the late Attilio “Pop” Frassinelli to the UConn Archives. Frassinelli’s biography is full of wonderful and interesting surprises.

A life-long resident of Stafford Springs, he was a mill worker, business owner, President of the Rotary Club, Justice of the Peace, insurance agent, the Connecticut Boxing Guild’s “Boxing Man of the Year”, dancer and First Selectman to name a few. In 1955 he was appointed as the first Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection and in 1966 elected Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut.

In the words of his granddaughter Dianne Bilyak, family and friends gathered in the Dodd Center “not just to honor, remember, and celebrate Pop, but also to gather as a family and be reminded of our collective history.” We are pleased that the family has chosen the UConn Archives to care for and house this important collection to the history of Connecticut.