By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — The Representative Town Meeting is something of a community within a community, and has some family-like traditions.

The 36-member legislative body (when not debating three hours to ultimately vote unanimously) is known to rally around members who are ill, recognize members’ achievements outside their town duties, and note members’ birthdays.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the members wished well to its June babies, Jay Keenan, District 2, and Ross Burkhardt, District 3.

Jessica Bram, District 6, went to the podium to tell the crowd that it would have been the 78^th birthday of Gordon Joseloff, a former member, moderator and two-term first selectman.

“I wanted to note how much he contributed to Westport,” Bram said.

“He was a volunteer EMT, a Westport firefighter, and probably what he would have been proudest of, which was to found Westportnow.com, one of the first of the hyper-local, micro news sites that in a way really brought us together as a community.”

“Gordon was so modest you might not know that he had a prolific career at CBS News,” Bram said.

“He used to sit next to Walter Cronkite,” she said. “He was Tokyo bureau chief, he was Moscow bureau chief, he was the first journalist who got into the Gdansk shipyards, if anybody remembers what that is.”

Joseloff also was a founder of the Westport Minuteman in the mid-’90s, a scrappy, award-winning newspaper later sold to a regional chain, and eventually acquired and shuttered by Hearst.

Joseloff chronicled momentous events and worked alongside famous figures. With a resume like that, most people would have plenty of swagger.

But Joseloff was no showboat. Quite the opposite — kind, helpful, caring and community minded.

Bram recalled the first time she met him.

“It was Paul Newman’s house,” she said. “A political fundraiser or something, and I saw Gordon and he was walking around with earphones.”

“I knew this is a big-time journalist, and I asked him, ‘What’s going on, what are you listening to?’ and he said, ‘the Yankees game,’” Bram said, noting that everyone else was gaga just being at Newman’s house.

“We have much to thank Gordon for, and especially today, for his 10 years in this wonderful position as RTM moderator,” Bram said.

Thane Grauel grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond for 35 years. Reach him at editor@westportjournal.com. Learn more about us here.