Obituaries

George T. Dracker, who made East Hampton his home for almost 70 years and worked as a linotype operator for The East Hampton Star for 14 years, died on Feb. 3 at his house on Dayton Lane.

John G. Nicholas, an advertising executive and producer whose credits included the first television commercials for the Ford Mustang, died of congestive heart failure on Sunday at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Conn.

E.H. Bonnabeau of Montauk, an Army veteran who worked for the American Tobacco Company for 34 years and later was the golf starter at the Montauk Downs golf course for 14 years, died on Saturday .

Visiting hours for George T. Dracker of Dayton Lane in East Hampton will be on Sunday.

Francis Timothy McLaughlin, who grew up in Montauk and worked in the hamlet as a plumber for many years, died on Jan. 16 at Brookhaven Hospital.

Lou Howard, who was newspaper publisher and a Suffolk legislator and a New York State assemblyman, died last month at the age of 92.

Randi Thulin Dubin died at home in Springs on Sunday at the age of 61.

Dr. James H. Ryan, a pioneer in the field of psychiatry who helped to introduce the use of film and video technique in teaching the science, died on Dec. 28 at home in East Hampton.

Elizabeth Bowser, whose lineage and devotion to history propelled her to work for the East Hampton and Eastville Historical Societies and to have an impact on the understanding of Native American, African-American, and colonial crafts and culture, died at the age of 96 at Southampton Hospital on Dec. 17.

Frederick Ernest Bock, a Korean War veteran who worked at Grumman Aerospace making parts for the NASA lunar module, died at home in East Hampton on Jan. 11.

Catherine Gagliotti was known as a dedicated teacher who was generous with her time, patient with students, and helpful to colleagues during the 37 years she taught at East Hampton High School.

The Star has learned of the death of Geraldine Brulte Campsey, the founder of the popular clothing store Flashbacks, in Sag Harbor, where she was a longtime resident.

"He was a man of the ages that we will never see again," said Daniel Rodgers, an attorney and advocate for East End commercial fishermen. "He was very easy to underestimate, but he was absolutely brilliant, one of the smartest men I ever met."

Dorothy Pierson Page Early, a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor who was known as Tootsie, died on Dec. 24 at the Westhampton Beach Care Center.

Dr. Leon Peltz, a New York City physician with a 40-year-long attachment to the East End, died at his North Haven home on Jan. 8.

Services for Fred Bock, who died at home in East Hampton on Monday, begin Thursday.

Gilbert E. Kaplan, who made his fortune as a publisher in the financial world but gained international renown for conducting Mahler’s Second Symphony, died on New Year’s Day in Manhattan of cancer, at 74.

Joe D. Roberts, a veteran of the Army who spent many years employed by the South Shore Produce Company in Bridgehampton, died of cardiac arrest on Dec. 30 at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Lakeland, Fla.

Linda Tuthill, who had worked as a nurse’s aide at Southampton Hospital, died on Dec. 15 at Peconic Bay Medical Centers in Riverhead.

William Hubert Duggan Jr. of Southampton, an attorney with a practice in East Hampton for nearly 40 years who had been a member of the board of directors of Southampton Hospital and Guild Hall in East Hampton, died on Jan. 6 at Southampton Hospital.

Daisy C. Bowe of East Hampton, a graduate of the Bridgehampton School who returned there to become a much-loved elementary teacher for 33 years, died on Dec. 29 at the Adler Center for Caring in Aldie, Va.

Erika Reider Mark of Manhattan, who owned a house in East Hampton Village for over 30 years and was a member of the East Hampton Tennis Club and the Noyac Golf Club, died in New York City on Tuesday.

Frances Shilowich, an accountant with the Markowitz and Preische firm in East Hampton for many years before opening her own practice, counted not only many local businesses but also the artist Willem de Kooning among her clients and friends.

The family of Gilbert E. Kaplan, who died in New York City on New Year’s Day, will receive friends today at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Avenue, from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m.

Irving Hirschberg, a year-round resident of Amagansett for the last 35 years, died at Southampton Hospital on Dec. 30 following a heart attack.

Janine Marie Strong, familiar to many as a dental assistant in East Hampton offices of Dr. Gerald Sexton and later Dr. Michael Edwards, died at home in East Hampton on Saturday.

Karen Rickenbach Mesiha, 54, a survivor of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, and the daughter of East Hampton Village Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. and his wife, the former Jean Smith, died of cancer on Dec. 12 at St. Francis Hospital in Flower Hill, a village in Nassau County, after a long illness.

Leonard Exter Spector, who most recently divided his time between a house on Flaggy Hole Road in Springs and Deer Isle, Me., died on Dec. 12 at Southampton Hospital.

Antoinette O’Connor, a part-time resident of Montauk for 43 years who was called both Rose and Toni, died on Dec. 5. She was 85 and had had a respiratory illness for about eight years.

Mike Kirshenbaum, a retired director of personnel for the Department of the Navy, died at Southampton Hospital on Friday at the age of 96. The cause was attributed to congestive heart failure and pneumonia.