Caddying Garners Connections
Sanford Cloud’s early career — and to some measure, his later one, too — could have been very different if he’d gotten the job he wanted as a teenager.
Cloud, a former state senator and current real estate developer, thought at age 13 that he’d go out and pick tobacco like most other kids in the area. But he was one year too young and couldn’t yet head out to the fields and their promise of steady payment.
Instead, a friend suggested Cloud work as a caddy on the golf course. Cloud was fuzzy on what a caddy was, exactly, but took the advice and stumbled into a lifelong passion — not to mention a bigger paycheck.
Cloud had already gotten some satisfaction as a wage earner, working as a paperboy for the Hartford Courant at about age 10. The best part of that job, he remembered, was collecting payment on Fridays. That pocket money allowed him to buy a few soda bottles and bags of potato chips to share with family in front of the TV those evenings.
“That was a big treat that I was able to do,” he said. “It was a good feeling.”
But those small earnings were nothing compared to what Cloud was pulling down at the golf course. At the end of that first summer caddying, he was bringing home $90 a week. Even the tobacco job would have only brought in about $45.
Cloud learned about the game during his caddying days, but perhaps more importantly, he started associating with the prominent people who came to spend their leisure hours on the course. Judges, lawyers, even Gov. Abraham Ribicoff came to spend the day on the green. Cloud, who caddied through high school, would spend the rest of his life among influential personalities, eventually becoming one himself.
As he grew older, he considered a professional golf career but ended up in law school instead. As a 19-year-old, he started work part time for the late Sen. Thomas Dodd, doing research and constituent services. While working for Dodd, he met the senator’s son, Christopher Dodd. It’s a connection he has kept up to this day. In fact, Cloud was a national co-chair of Dodd’s presidential campaign.
As a young adult, Cloud had political aspirations. He practiced law at Robinson & Cole and was elected to the state senate in 1976. When he joined Aetna in 1978, he worked on corporate social responsibility issues, a job that included supporting community organizations, investing in low-income housing and, at the time, researching the best investment policies to take with apartheid-era South Africa.
His work eventually led him to become president of the National Conference for Community Justice, then known as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, where he’d lead regional offices throughout the country, support anti-bias initiatives and speak on race and ethnicity issues.
These days, Cloud is most notably active in matters of real estate, redeveloping historic properties, including 15 Lewis St., which houses Sen. Dodd’s Hartford office.
MY FIRST DOLLAR
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