Obituaries

Mary Ellen Wilcox, who worked as a teacher and guidance counselor for 32 years upstate, died at home on Round Pond Lane in Sag Harbor on Monday after what was described as a long illness. She was 66.

Soon after moving to Sag Harbor 20 years ago, Ms. Wilcox became a volunteer at the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry, which enriched her life. According to Ann Wallingford, her life partner of 33 years, she would say, “I come home with so much more than I gave.”

The Star has received word of the death of James Alan Ruthenberg, who grew up in East Hampton and Bohemia, on April 24 in Roanoke, Va., of cancer. He was 54 and had been living in Roanoke for the last 20 years.

“He was kind and generous,” said his mother, Alison Pidgeon of Sweetwater, Tenn., “and well liked by everyone he met.”

Steven Harry Scheuer, who pioneered the previewing of television programs in newspaper columns and books and helped create the academic field of ­tele­vision history, died on June 1 in New York City of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

A funeral for Richard G. Ehrlich, the founder and owner of the Clam Bar restaurant on Napeague who died on Saturday of pancreatic cancer, will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the First Presbyterian Church on Main Road in Southold. Mr. Ehrlich, who was 73, lived in Southold and Jensen Beach, Fla.

Manfred Sobotka, a retired aeronautics and electrical engineer who lived on Round Pond Lane in Sag Harbor for 41 years, died of heart failure on May 4 at Southampton Hospital. He was 84 and had been ill for several years, his family said.

Berta Jimenez, who emigrated from Guatemala 25 years ago and saw her children achieve the American dream of success, died at home on Accabonac Road in East Hampton on May 20. She was 98 years old, and had been diagnosed with metastasized bone cancer one month earlier.

Mrs. Jimenez witnessed two world wars and one revolution, welcomed in a century, and, despite having only an elementary education, embraced the computer era, often using Skype to keep in touch with her family. “She was absolutely extraordinary,” said her daughter Marta Nilon of Manhattan.

A graveside memorial for John Haessler will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street in East Hampton. Mr. Haessler, who was from East Hampton and owned the Seafood Shop in Wainscott for many years, died on Feb. 21.

Jeraldine D. Coyle, a former clerk in the East Hampton Town Assessor’s and Town Clerk’s offices, died of cancer in Naples, Fla., on Saturday. She was 74.

Her family’s roots in East Hampton dated back to the 1800s, according to her daughter, Karin Beaver Julin, with whom she lived in Nebraska for a time after retiring from her job here. She moved to Florida in 2010.

George Balasses, who ran Balasses House Antiques in Amagansett with his late wife, Teda Balasses, for over half a century, died at home on Fresh Pond Lane in that hamlet on Tuesday at the age of 97. He had suffered from dementia in the last years of his life.

A memorial gathering for Phyllis and Richard Madan will be held on Saturday. Friends have been invited to stop by and share stories or have a glass of Champagne at 46 Maple Lane in East Hampton from 4 to 8 p.m.

The Madans retired to their vacation house here in 1991. Both became active with the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, Mr. Madan serving for a time as its co-chairman. His wife died on Nov. 13, 2013; he died on Jan. 23.

Margaret Ann Paxton, who was called Midge, died of pneumonia in Alexandria, Va., on Sunday. She was 69 and had persevered against an autoimmune disorder for many years.

Ms. Paxton and her husband, the folksinger Tom Paxton, who were married in 1963, were part of the early folk scene in Greenwich Village. Over the years, they traveled extensively as she supported his performing career and they took part in civil rights and antiwar demonstrations.

The Ross School in East Hampton has announced services for Franco Denaro, a cook at the school for 12 years who died on Wednesday.

William Rockliff Claxton III, a surfer and lifeguard who loved adventure and his red 1961 MGA sports car, died on April 22 at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

Services for Tyler Valcich, who died on Monday at the age of 20, will begin on Sunday.

Arnold J. Cox, a retired police officer who grew up in Sag Harbor, died on May 16 in Dorchester, Mass. He was 58.

Virginia R. Erario, a homemaker who was a foster mother to some 25 babies awaiting adoption even as she was raising her own children, died of congestive heart failure at home in Montauk on May 17. She was 91.

Mrs. Erario worked for Catholic Charities in South Ozone Park, Queens, where the family then lived, caring for the children of unwed mothers. She took care of about two dozen infants until they were 6 months old, sometimes until they were 2, said her daughter Virginia Sayers of Montauk. “She gave a lot of love,” Ms. Sayers said. “She treated them like her own kids.”

Jean Fischer, an animal rights activist and well-known member of the Montauk community, died on May 18 at Southampton Hospital.

Chris Cosich, the founder of Honor Flight Long Island and an Amagansett resident who died on April 21, will be honored posthumously at an event Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. at Southampton High School on Narrow Lane.

Jeremiah Edward Joseph Desmond, a dentist who had lived in Montauk for 40 years, died at Southampton Hospital on Sunday.

Leona Smith, a resident of the Windmill Village II complex in East Hampton, died on May 24 at the age of 84.

Services for Tyler Miller Valcich, who died on Monday at Southampton Hospital, will be held at the Montauk Firehouse on Sunday from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. A Mass will be said at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk on Monday at 11 a.m., followed by burial at Fort Hill Cemetery.

Mr. Valcich, who was 20, is the son of Mitchell (Mickey) Valcich and Valinda Miller Valcich. His sister Carin Valcich also survives.

His family has suggested donations be made to the Montauk Fire Department, 12 Flamingo Avenue, Montauk 11954.

    Victoria Kingsley, a psychologist with a practice in East Hampton, died on May 19 in Buffalo, not long after being diagnosed with small-cell cancer. She was 73. Dr. Kingsley saw patients for many years in New York. After leaving the city, she established a full-time practice here, working out of her residence in Northwest Woods. As longtime patients learned of her sudden illness they flooded her with calls of support and encouragement, her son said.

    A memorial gathering for Robert Dash, the founder of the Madoo Conservancy in Sagaponack, who died in September, will be held there on Sunday at 5 p.m. Several of Mr. Dash’s friends will speak, and afterward clams and Bloody Marys will be served in his honor. Those attending have been asked to let Alejandro Saralegui, the conservancy director, know in advance by phoning the Madoo office or emailing [email protected].

Jason Henry Pollak, a competitive surfer and practitioner of jujitsu who founded an organization that encouraged young people to offer their time to help those less fortunate, died at Southampton Hospital following an accident. He was the passenger in a car that crashed into a tree on Flying Point Road in Southampton, just down the road from the house where he was living, on April 19. He was 24.

    Richard Maxwell Dunn, a teacher, scholar, and banker who taught at the Ross School and East Hampton High School, died of pancreatic cancer on Friday in New York City. He was 70 and had been ill for 15 months.

    Mr. Dunn, who lived full time in Springs since 2003, followed an unusual career path. He received a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in French literature from Yale University. From 1969 to 1974, he was a French professor of the University of Chicago.

    Myron B. Levy of Atlanta, a former East Hampton resident who had helped run Hren’s Nursery here, a business in his late wife’s family, died of a heart attack on May 12 in New Mexico, where he was vacationing. He was 81.

    Mr. Levy, who was known as Mike, loved working, his family said, and had no plans to retire. He had worked in commercial and residential real estate, and most recently in sales and marketing with contractors doing home modifications to accommodate the disabled and elderly.

    A memorial gathering for Eleanor Leaver, who died on Feb. 16 at the age of 93, will take place at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on May 25 from 5 to 7 p.m. Ms. Leaver, a pen-and-ink illustrator and artist who was known as Chip, lived in Springs for 43 years.

Mary Frances Steinberg, a former East Hampton resident and East Hampton Star employee, died on April 27 at home on Staten Island. The family said she died of natural causes. She was 80.

A native of Manhattan, where she grew up on the Upper West Side, Ms. Steinberg was born on April 26, 1934, to Michael McCarthy and the former Mary Arrigan. In 1965 she married Harold Steinberg, a former co-owner and executive of Chelsea House publishers. He died in 1999.

Mary Klassa, who lived in Montauk as a girl and attended South Fork schools, died on April 3 at Garden City Hospital in Michigan following a stroke. She was 64.

She was born Mary Alice McGuire on June 29, 1949, at Southampton Hospital, to William McGuire and the former Eva Holmes.

Albert Edwards Bennett, who was born on Cedar Street in East Hampton and lived all his life there except for Army service in World War II, died at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton on April 30, just shy of his 88th birthday. He had leukemia and colon cancer, said his neighbor and friend Robert Jones.