Radio Sales Service — Malcom D. Burdick

 

The sign reads "Radio Sales Service, Malcom D. Burdick; Hampton, Conn, Call 1011-2, Complete service to All Makes of Radios. Modern testing Equipment. Reasonable Rates. RCA Radios RCA Tubes." Then at the bottom in tiny print "The Morrill Press, Willimantic"

The world used to be full of radio and TV repair shops. I chatted the owner of a junk shop, a former repair person, who just recently who was forced into a new career by those "dang LED TVs."  But thsi sign is fairly old. They appear in old phone books and are now just retail ghosts. 

But Burdick has an obituary in a couple different publications. We can get some background without too much work. Legacy.com Obit [LINK] and the Hartford Courant [LINK].

Malcolm D. Burdick, died at the age of 86. His wife was named Grace Burdick née Rogers. Malcom was born April 27th, 1916 in Ellington, CT son to Asa and Cora "Russ" Burdick. They ran “Hillbur Farm”, a dairy operation on Utley Rd. He lived in Hampton from 1923 until his death in 2003.  He was a U.S. Army Signal Corps Sergeant and veteran of World War II. He was involved in the D-Day invasion of Normandy as a radio man. [SOURCE]

After the war he owned and operated a radio sales and repair business. He employed for 23 years as an electronics instructor at Windham Technical School. Following retirement he enjoyed collecting and restoring antique radios. The barn became his repair shop and he filled his hayloft with collection of phonographs and old radios.

In dating that flyer I can narrow it down a bit. Newspaper advertisements for Morrill press start in 1919 and run through 1931.  A single copyright catalog from 1936 lists them as well. It was located at 37 Church street. From that timeline we can say definitively that the sign predates Burdick's enlistment in WWII. I would estimate that the sign was printed in 1935 or later, shortly before Morrill closed.