Norwich — Local bell enthusiasts and those involved in the city’s 2013 celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation are mourning the death of the president of the Verdin Bell Co. of Cincinnati, the company commissioned to forge the nation’s only bell for the anniversary.

Jim Verdin, 82, died Aug. 8 after a brief illness, the Verdin Bell Co. announced. Verdin was president and CEO of the family-owned bell and clock business founded in 1842.

Verdin came to Norwich with the mobile foundry in June 2012 and befriended local volunteers heading up the city’s celebration of the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s Jan. 1, 1863, proclamation that declared slaves in the rebellious southern states were freed. The 250-pound bronze bell was cast at the Howard T. Brown Memorial Park and was erected in a permanent tower in the plaza in front of City Hall. The $100,000 project was funded through grants and donations.

“Jim Verdin's vision and skill had a dramatic influence on Norwich in his company's casting of our Norwich Freedom Bell in 2012,” Kevin Harkins, a member of the 150th anniversary committee and current chairman of the New England Chapter American Bell Association International Inc. and president of Friends of the Norwich Bells. “Jim came to Norwich several times and personally oversaw the making of the bell in June of that year in Howard Brown Park. I was told last week by a company representative that the Norwich Freedom Bell was extremely important to Jim and that he was very proud of it.”