By Gretchen Webster

The minuteman logo on Westport’s official flag came “home” to stay Wednesday when artist Miggs Burroughs signed off on the intellectual property rights to the design, giving it to the town in perpetuity.

Miggs Burroughs with his lenticular artwork on display at the Westport Book Shop in February.

Burroughs gave his signature to an “assignment of artwork agreement” at a meeting of the Board of Selectwomen. The agreement, approved unanimously by the selectwomen, officially hands over ownership of the logo to the town with certain conditions. The agreement is subject to approval by the town attorney’s office.

Burroughs, a lifelong Westport resident and graphic artist, has designed hundreds of logos, ads, brochures and websites for commercial and nonprofit clients. In addition to the Westport flag, he has also designed a U.S. postage stamp, an Easter egg for the Reagan White House, and four covers for Time magazine, one of which, along with the Easter egg, are in the Smithsonian Institution collection.

His lenticular artwork was showcased in February as the “artist-of-the-month” exhibit for February at the Westport Book Shop at 23 Jesup Road. Four of his works were auctioned at the March 13 fundraiser, “Growing Our Community,” by Westport Book Sales, which supports both the book shop and the Westport Library.

 Flag design steeped in town history and celebrities

The flag’s image, which Burroughs designed in 1985 to celebrate Westport’s 150^th anniversary, depicts the statue of a Minuteman soldier during the Revolutionary War which now stands on Compo Road South. Burroughs’s design has been used over the years to decorate various items including Frisbees, coffee mugs, and Girl Scout badges in addition to the flags.

He told the selectwomen that in his design he wanted to use a few simple colors in the flag that represented Westport, he said, including blue for the river, green for the land, and a gold sky.

“The gold was sunshine and the warmth and vitality of the town,” Burroughs said.

Artist Miggs Burroughs marched in the 2019 Westport Memorial Day parade with the flag he designed. Photo by Helen Klisser, WestportNow.com.

What seemed to really interest the selectwomen at the meeting was his story about some famous Westporters involved in the anniversary celebration 40 years ago.

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who lived in Westport at the time of the anniversary celebration, donated $4,000 to buy 1,000 small flags for the Memorial Day parade that year, Burroughs said, and several large flags to fly above Town Hall, schools, and other town-owned buildings.

Burroughs related an incident at a press conference on the new flag when Dangerfield, known for his caustic humor, became enraged and screamed at two women who were talking noisily. The loud talkers turned out to be Burroughs’s wife and Patty Hearst, another well-known Westporter and member of Westport’s 150th anniversary committee.

Hearst, an actress and granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst,  came to Westport after a stint in prison serving time for a conviction for bank robbery in 1976 after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army 19 months earlier. Her sentence was commuted in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter.

“This definitely ranks as maybe the most fun agenda item we’ve ever had,” said Selectwoman Candice Savin.

Going forward, Burroughs will keep the right to use the logo on his own artwork. The town will have the right to license the minuteman design for use on merchandise only if approved by the Board of Selectwomen, and only if a substantial amount of the profits go to nonprofit organizations, Assistant Town Attorney Eileen Lavigne Flug said. The agreement also stipulates that the colors and design on the flag cannot be changed, and must be used respectfully.

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.