Obituaries

The Star has received word of the unexpected death of Karie Renee Gardiner, formerly of East Hampton Village, who was found at home in Fullerton, Calif., on Dec. 3. Ms. Gardiner, who had been in declining health, was 62.

Carla Margaret Grimm of Montauk, who had been an employee at the former Gin Beach Market there, died of a heart attack on Nov. 17 at the Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in Lakeway, Tex. She was 64.

Robert P. Lawler, a member of the East Hampton Fire Department's Company No. 6 for 40 years, died of cancer at home here on Dec. 2 in the company of family and friends. He was 68 and had been ill for four years.

Selma Stein of Manhattan, Springs, and Boca Raton, Fla., died on Nov. 20 at home in Greenwich Village. Ms. Stein, who had been a longtime social worker and who loved the theater, was 89 and had been in diminishing health for five years, her family said.

Christopher Avery Clark, a lifelong visitor to Drew Lane in East Hampton and the founder of Clark Construction in New York City, died of congestive heart failure in New York on Sept. 26. He was 62.

John J. Mullen, an environmental activist and founding partner of Mullen & McCaffrey Communications, died of a heart attack on Friday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 73.

Richard Lawless of Springs, a self-employed painter and writer, died on Nov. 23 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 75.

Howard John Lebwith was recognized around town as the dentist who ran, sometimes from his house in Springs all the way to his office on Main Street in East Hampton. Mr. Lebwith died at home, surrounded by his loved ones, on Nov. 20 at the age of 90.

A former vice chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board who had been a co-chairman of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee and an editor at The East Hampton Star before that, Robert S. Schaeffer died on Nov. 17 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. A longtime Wainscott resident, Mr. Schaeffer had been ill with cancer for five years. He was 76.

The Star had word this week of the death of Janet Zobel of Amagansett and Greenwich Village, on June 29 at N.Y.U. Medical Center in Manhattan. She was 78 and had been given a diagnosis of primary peritoneal cancer five years ago, although she was in remission until this year.

Robert S. Schaeffer, a former member and vice chairman of the East Hampton Town Planning Board and a former editor at The East Hampton Star, died Tuesday morning at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital following a long illness. Mr. Schaeffer was 76. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Marianne Bernadette Egan Ketcham, formerly of Springs, died on Friday at the Chautauqua Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Dunkirk, N.Y. She was 87 and had been ill for six years.

Living here from 1985 to 2015, Ms. Ketcham frequently worked as an election inspector and loved camping in Hither Hills, among other places, with her family. She once made an eight-week, cross-country trek that her family said was her most memorable trip. Also an avid gardener, she loved "sharing" her flowers with the deer that visited her property in Springs, her family said.

Marion Ruth Horner, a former nurse at the East Hampton Medical Group, died of Covid-19 on Oct. 19 at the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community in Asheville, N.C. She was 99.

Wilson Stone, a lyricist, composer, conductor, and piano accompanist, died at the Middle Island home of his daughter, Susanna Stone, of metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer on Nov. 2. He was 93 and had been ill for two and a half years.

David Geiser, an artist whose career ranged from the underground comics he created in San Francisco in the late 1960s and 1970s to heavily textured mixed-media works he focused on after moving to New York in 1979, died unexpectedly of heart disease in his sleep at home in Springs on Oct. 14. He was 73.

Betty Sheldon Kane, who had been an agent at the former Sheila Devlin Real Estate firm here, died of heart failure on Oct. 20 in Scottsdale, Ariz. An Amagansett resident for many years, she was 87.

Jeremy Goncalves, a lifelong resident of Springs who loved the outdoors and traditional Bonac pastimes like fishing, clamming, and duck hunting, died suddenly at home on Oct. 25. The cause was a heart attack.

For almost four decades practicing medicine on the South Fork, Dr. Raymond Francis Medler made some 4,000 house calls. He was known to accept payment in the form of a striped bass or a basket of just-harvested vegetables, and to have made hospital rounds with a flask and two tiny glasses in his pocket -- the last of the region's old-style country doctors.

Robert H. Meinke, a builder, former East Hampton Town highway superintendent and assessor, and lifelong resident of East Hampton, died on Oct. 28 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 94.

Allen Maietta, a summer resident of Montauk for many years who was affectionately known as Big Al, died on Oct. 13 in New York City.

Michael Christopher Regan enjoyed living in East Hampton but never lost his love for his hometown in Ireland. Mr. Regan, who was 94, died of cardiac failure on Oct. 5.

Nancy J. Page, a former technician and sales representative for telephone companies, died on Oct. 5 at home in Sag Harbor. She was 74.

Dr. Raymond F. Medler of East Hampton Village died at home on Monday after a long illness.

George Arthur Wilson, who started his ministry at the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor, ended it at the Springs Presbyterian Church, and sailed the world between postings, died in Mill Valley, Calif., of late-stage kidney disease last Thursday. He was 89 and had been ill for seven years.

Paula P. Trentham, who grew up on Talmage Lane in East Hampton and worked for the East Hampton School District for many years, died on Sept. 29 at Community Hospice and Palliative Care's Earl B. Hadlow Center for Caring in Jacksonville, Fla. She was 86 and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease nine years ago.

Bernard Green of East Hampton, a hairstylist who co-owned a salon in New York City and was later a leading stylist on the South Fork, died on Oct. 6 at N.Y.U. Langone Hospital in the city. The cause was complications of surgery. He was 57.

Christine Elizabeth Hensler, a staffer for many years at the Flowers by Beth store in Amagansett, died of complications of lung cancer on Sept. 12 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. She was 64 and had been ill for about seven months.

Jacqueline Loomis Quillen, a pioneer in the wine retail and importing business, died on Oct. 1, surrounded by her family, in the East Hampton house where her paternal grandfather, Dr. Alfred Lee Loomis, lived long ago. The family attributed her death to heart failure.

John F. McCluskey, an Amagansett native who loved to travel the world, who loved his dog, and who loved his family above all, died unexpectedly on Sunday in Athens, Greece, where he lived part time. The cause was heart failure. Mr. McCluskey was 33.

Richard V. Mendelman, who was for 50 years an active member of Long Island's marine business community and an advocate for clean water, died at home on Three Mile Harbor-Hog Creek Road, East Hampton, on Oct. 8. The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest as a consequence of Parkinson's disease with Lewy body dementia. He was 89.