Connie Kay (Staehr) Plessman, 73, of Mystic, Connecticut, passed away Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut. She is survived by her beloved husband of 42 years, James G. Plessman.
She was born March 22, 1950, in York, the daughter of Lavern and Evelyn (Dinkelman) Staehr. She attended Utica High School, graduating in 1968, and received her bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska. She taught marketing education at Lincoln Southeast High School.
Connie received her PHD in 1986, in Administration Curriculum and Education from the University of Nebraska. She taught at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the University of Missouri in Columbia. The couple, later moving to Connecticut in 1992, with her husband’s career at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, she became the program coordinator for Southern Illinois University (SIU) from 1995 – 2015, teaching a bachelor’s degree at the Groton Sub Base for military and civilians through the Department of Workforce Education and Development.
She was president of the SECT Women’s Business Network, a Member of the Women’s Center Safe Futures and a Lawrence and Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Board member. She was a member and secretary of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Ashaway, Rhode Island.
In addition to her husband, she is survived by her sisters and their husbands, Rhonda Kovac and husband, James and Nancy Dolezal and husband, Roger both of Nebraska and many nieces and nephews.
Visitation is Thursday, April 18, from 1 – 8:30 p.m. at Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home in Seward with family receiving friends from 6:30 – 8 p.m. Inurnment will be Friday, April 19, at 2 p.m. at the Utica Cemetery. Memorial contributions are suggested to Safe Futures, 16 Jay St., New London, CT 06320. Arrangements by Zabka-Perdue Funeral Home.
