David Lee Brown, a well-known metal sculptor and Pratt Institute arts educator who lived in Springs before moving to Southampton some years ago, died on Friday after an illness. He was 77.

Mr. Brown was born in Detroit in January 1939 to Raymond Brown and the former Ruth Crowthers and graduated from Cass Tech High School there.

During his high school years he worked as a model builder for Minoru Yamasaki, who designed the original World Trade Center in New York City.

He attended North Carolina State University’s architecture program, studying with Eduardo Catalano, and pursued graduate studies in sculpture at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

After working as the head of the Design Department at the Worcester Craft Center in Massachusetts, he worked with the sculptor José de Rivera in New York City, where he settled with his wife, the former Andrea Samagochian, whom he married in 1960.

Mr. De Rivera chose Mr. Brown to work with him on the sculpture commissioned for the United States Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair.

Professional commissions of Mr. Brown’s sculptures include large-scale installations at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport, Gimbel’s Department Store in Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and smaller and medium-scale works in numerous private, corporate, and museum collections around the world.

The Grace Borgenicht Gallery represented Mr. Brown’s work in New York City. Mr. Brown was best known for his often very large abstract stainless steel sculptures, many buffed to achieve a distinctive mirror-like polish.

His family said he was a devoted design professor, teaching for more than 50 years at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, influencing thousands of students across generations.

A lover of design, architecture, materials, and structures, Mr. Brown also consulted at the Walt Disney Imagineering studio when it operated in Wainscott. His projects at the studio included a free-walking, full-sized robot dinosaur and designing and fabricating the exhibit for a national tour of the United States Bill of Rights original document.

Mr. Brown’s interests were many, and his hobbies ambitious. Early in his career he raced bicycles competitively. He also competed nationally as an oarsman, winning a national title with the Detroit Boat Club’s eight-man boat. In recent years he enjoyed rowing his single shell in Springs and on Mecox Bay.

He was passionate about ice boating — building by hand the first DN boat he raced — and served for several years as the commodore of the Mecox Bay Ice Yacht Club.

In recent years, he was an active and dedicated member of the Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Service. He is survived by his wife, his daughter, Victoria Brown of Manhattan, and one granddaughter.

Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Southampton Village Volunteer Ambulance, P.O. Box 832, Southampton 11969.

A memorial gathering may be announced at a later date.

Craig Tuthill, a former chief and 63-year member of the Montauk Fire Department, died on Friday. He was 80 years old.

Funeral arrangements had not been made as of yesterday, according to the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A memorial service is being planned. A full obituary will appear in a future edition.

In a 2004 interview published in Harvard Law Today a year after his 50th law school reunion, M. Bernard Aidinoff was asked whether he considered the practice of law a profession or an industry.

“There is no question that the private practice of law, particularly big-firm law, is a business,” he answered. “At the same time, there is constant awareness that professional standards must be maintained. So the question is: How do you retain the independence of being a true professional? How do you retain collegiality, the camaraderie, the sense of purpose that you are doing something more than just making money?”

Mr. Aidinoff, who died of heart failure at his Manhattan home on Aug. 8 at the age of 87, was widely recognized as a “true professional,” not only by his colleagues but by the high-powered master-of-the-universe clients he advised, the young lawyers he mentored, and his fellow board members of the many organizations, including Guild Hall and the East Hampton Historical Society, that benefited from his philanthropy and his counsel.

 An internationally respected tax expert, he was a former chairman of the American Bar Association’s taxation section, editor in chief of The Tax Lawyer, and on the Commissioner’s Advisory Committee of the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Aidinoff’s given name was Merton, but his parents, Simon and Esther Miller Aidinoff, may have been the only ones who called him that; he was known as Bernie all his life. He was born on Feb. 2, 1929, in Newport, R.I., where as a boy he delivered groceries to the resort’s grand “cottages.” He remained a member of Newport’s famous Touro Synagogue, the oldest in America, throughout his life.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan, Mr. Aidinoff was a member of the Harvard Law School class of 1953 and an editor of  The Harvard Law Review. He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps after he graduated, and served for two years before being appointed a law clerk to the legendary federal judge Learned Hand.

Mr. Aidinoff joined the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm in 1956, the same year he married the former Celia Spiro. They bought a house on Bluff Road in Amagansett about 10 years later. Cissie Aidinoff died in 1984; Mr. Aidinoff married Elsie Vanderbilt Newburg in 1996 and continued to vacation here until his death.

“Elsie took care of my father for 20 years,” Seth Aidinoff said. “She was there for every minute and every kind of attention one could want for one’s father.”

Mr. Aidinoff, a music lover and civil libertarian, was a longtime chairman of the board of St. Luke’s Orchestra, and a director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. He also was a board member of Human Rights First, the Foundation for a Civil Society, and the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. A lifelong Democrat, he was counsel to the Clinton Legal Defense Fund during the president’s Whitewater and Lewinsky difficulties.

A funeral service, attended by about 35 members of the family, was held at the Aidinoff residence in Manhattan on Aug. 10, Senior Rabbi Joshua Davidson of Temple Emanu-el in Manhattan officiating. Several hundred people visited afterward. “Human rights people next to St. Luke’s Orchestra people next to Goldman Sachs people,” his son said. “It all came together.”

Mr. Aidinoff was cremated. His ashes will be distributed in Amagansett and in Lyme, Conn., at his wife’s family home. In addition to his wife and son, he is survived by a daughter, Gail Scovell, also of New York and Amagansett. He also leaves four stepchildren, Michael Newburg of Lyme, Anne Newburg of Millerton, N.Y., Daniel Newburg of London, and Thomas Newburg of Berlin, as well as two sisters, Judith Aidinoff of Manhattan and Ruth Elkind of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and three grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned in the fall. Memorial contributions have been suggested for the Storefront Academy Harlem, 70 East 129 Street, New York 10035, or the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, 450 West 37th Street, Suite 502, New York 10018.

Donna Lynn Steckowski, who had been a volunteer emergency medical technician and most recently worked in a CVS pharmacy, died at St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown, Md., on Aug. 15, from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. She would have been 56 in three days.

Mrs. Steckowski, who was raised in East Hampton and graduated from high school here, always had a smile that left a lasting impression on those around her, her family wrote. That carried into her  work with the Lexington Park Volunteer Rescue Squad. One of her proudest achievements was following in the footsteps of her son Kevin and her daughter, Jody, by joining the ambulance squad. “She obtained so much gratification and happiness helping those in need,” they said.

Born on Aug. 18, 1960, at Southampton Hospital, her parents were George Seacord and the former Judith Holmes, who died before her. Mrs. Steckowski met her future husband, John (Jody) Steckowski, in high school. They lived in Amagansett, where her husband was from, for a time after they married on Nov. 4, 1978.

Because her husband joined the Navy, they moved around quite a bit, until they settled in Lexington Park in 1992. The couple often came to East Hampton to visit family.

Mrs. Steckowski’s greatest joy was becoming a grandmother, her family said, calling “all seven of her grandchildren apples of her eye. In addition to having had several retail jobs, she enjoyed arts and crafts, especially cross-stitching and painting, and doing crossword puzzles. A reader, she completed several novels a week, her family said.

In addition to her husband of 37 years, Mrs. Steckowski is survived by her children, Kevin Steckowski of Leonardtown, Jody Lagestee of Davidson, N.C., and Christopher Steckowski of California, Md., and by seven grandchildren.

A service was held on Monday at the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department Company headquarters in Lexington Park. Memorial donations have been suggested to the Hospice of St. Mary’s, 44724 Hospice Lane, Callaway, Md. 20620, or a charity of one’s choice.

Kenneth Alan Johnson, an attorney and investment adviser, an athlete and an elder of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, died on July 13 at the age of 57 of amyotrophic laterals sclerosis, which is known as A.L.S. or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He had been ill for three years.

Mr. Johnson was a corporate lawyer in Manhattan for Cahill Gordon, had been assistant general counsel for the Aquarin Water Company in Bridgeport, Conn., and was an attorney with Wiggin & Dana. In the late 1990s, he switched careers, going into equity sales at Jeffries and Co. in Manhattan, before heading the New York office of Tudor Pickering and Holt, a Houston energy investment firm.

He was born on April 15, 1959, in Syracuse, to the former Joan Schenk and Edward Johnson. His mother died when he was 4, and he was raised in Latham, N.Y., by his father and stepmother, Pearl.

He attended Shaker High School in Latham, where he starred in cross-country running. He also competed in shorter races in track meets, but distance running remained his preference. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in international affairs while competing on its cross-country team. He then earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

“We met at Southampton Tavern in about 1989,” Laurie Cecile Gordon, his wife, said yesterday. They had a number of things in common: Both were in share houses and both were attorneys. They quickly became a couple, spending the next few summers in a share house in Quogue, while otherwise living in Manhattan. They were married on May 7, 1993, at the Westhampton Presbyterian Church.

Four years later, the couple bought a house in Bridgehampton on Long Pond Trail, where they raised two daughters, Evan Johnson, who is now 18, and Charlotte Johnson, 14. For several years, the family maintained a residence in Manhattan, but eventually they made Bridgehampton their full-time home.

His years as a competitive runner infused a love for the sport that he never lost, his wife said. He ran in 5K races here, such as Katy’s Courage in Sag Harbor. Ms. Gordon said she would run in the races as well, but “he was a much better runner than I was.” His love of running and athletics was passed on to their daughters, and he became a coach, alongside Patricia Kab, for the Southampton Blizzards, a girls travel team, from the time his oldest daughter was 12. The team is still together.

He was also a great swimmer, and was at home in the ocean and would swim with his daughters for hours, Ms. Gordon said.

Church was also an important aspect of the family’s life,  Ms. Gordon said, as was education, and their older daughter graduated from Pierson High School second in her class.

A lifelong Yankees fan, Mr. Johnson was a season ticketholder. Starting “in the bleachers and moving our way down,” Ms. Gordon said, finally settling on season tickets right by the field behind first base. Given seats in the owner’s box, right behind the plate, he went to his last game a few weeks before he died. The Yankees won.

Mr. Johnson also enjoyed gardening, particularly his rosebushes. “Some guys were on the golf course every weekend. He was in his rose garden,” Ms. Gordon said.

“He was a kind, loyal man who collected friends throughout his life, and always saw the good in people,” she said. She would try to jokingly goad him to say something, anything, negative about someone, but he never would. “He was just a good guy who supported other people.”

Besides his wife and daughters, Mr. Johnson is survived by five sisters and a brother. They are Cheryl Johnson of Bridgewater, Conn., Deborah Nash of Plattsburgh, N.Y., Kim Niforos of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Lea Ann Richards of Fairlawn, N.J., Sandra Leslie of Monsey, N.Y., and Christopher Johnson of Clifton Park, N.Y.

A funeral service took place at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on July 18. The family said donations in his memory would be appropriate to any organization dedicated to fighting the disease named for Lou Gehrig, the Yankees great who died after contracting it in the prime of his career.

  The organizations suggested were alscenter.org, als.net, TheAngelFund.org, or the Frates ALS Research and Support Fund.

Joseph Howard Mintzer, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, died in his sleep on July 22 at the home of his companion, Lucy Silver, in Niantic, Conn. Mr. Mintzer, a resident of East Hampton and Boca Raton, Fla., was 93 years old.

Born in Brooklyn on Dec. 22, 1922, to Hyman Albert Mintzer and the former Rebecca Fox, he graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and went on to Brooklyn College, where he earned a degree in political science. He later attended Indiana University and became fluent in French, which stood him in good stead during World War II, when he served in intelligence with the Army’s 70th Infantry Division in France and Germany. During the Korean War, he was a psychological warfare officer. He earned two Bronze Stars for his service.

Mr. Mintzer began his business career as a copy boy for The New York Times, leaving to become a newsroom editor at The Times’s radio station, WQXR. He later worked as a copywriter at Grey Advertising before helping to establish the ad agency Daniel & Charles, and eventually started several agencies of his own.

He began visiting East Hampton as a young adult, while living in Scarsdale, N.Y., and started spending more time here about 30 years ago. He became a contributor to the East End’s literary community, writing for Dan’s Papers and publishing short stories in The Star. He helped to inspire the 2002 book “Hamptons Bohemia,” an illustrated history of the artists and writers of the East End, and was a co-founder and associate publisher of Hampton Shorts, a not-for-profit literary journal that provided scholarships for young writers.

During the Vietnam War, Mr. Mintzer was a founding member of the Scarsdale Appeal for Peace. A former president of the Scarsdale Democratic Club, he twice represented Westchester County on the New York State Democratic Committee.

He was a member of Mensa as well, and an inventor who held several patents. He was a director of the New York City Police Foundation and the Y.M.-Y.W.H.A. of Westchester (now called the J.C.C. of Mid-Westchester). He was a former president of the County Tennis Club of Westchester.

More recently, Mr. Mintzer was the chairman of the Off Broadway Quaigh Theater, and even took to the stage himself, acting in “Bury the Dead” and “12 Angry Jurors” at Guild Hall. He led a Socrates Cafe group in East Hampton and participated in the group’s meetings in Boca Raton as well. At the time of his death, he had been working on a screenplay based on the lives of Sinclair Lewis and Dorothy Thompson.

Mr. Mintzer was married for 55 years to Serena Maria Maltese, who died in 2008. In addition to his companion, Ms. Silver, who also lives in Boca Raton, he is survived by a daughter, Leslie Mintzer of New York City, a son, Laurence Mintzer of Scarsdale, and three grandchildren.

A graveside service was held last Thursday at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.

Jean C. Lane, an art professor who, after retiring in 1986, moved to Sag Harbor and devoted much of her time to the fight for clean water, died of lymphoma on April 18 in Seattle. She was 93.

In a profile in The East Hampton Star in 2002, Dr. Lane said, “It’s wrong to call somebody an environmentalist. We are all involved in the environment. It’s where we live. You can just become more knowledgeable.”

During her 16 years on the East End, Dr. Lane was president of Save the Bays, which helped achieve national recognition for the Peconic Estuary; a member of the Southampton Town Conservation Board, the South Fork Groundwater Task Force, the Coalition of Neighborhoods for Preservation of Sag Harbor, and the chairwoman of the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board’s Harbor Committee.

She felt the Southampton administrative boards were not sufficiently responsive to environmental issues, citing in 2002 the town’s approval of the Bridge, the Noyac golf course built over the area’s prime drinking water source. The conservation board had recommended that the land be preserved but, she said, “We were voiceless.”

Dr. Lane was born on Aug. 23, 1922, in Winnebago, Minn., to Severn D. Lane and the former Nellie Curtis. She grew up in Huntley, Minn., and Walla Walla, Wash., and earned a B.S. degree at Mankato State University in 1944. She subsequently received both M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from Columbia University in New York City.

She was employed from 1956 to 1986 by New Jersey City University, where she was professor of art and chairwoman of the art department. She was also a professional artist who exhibited her work throughout the New York metropolitan area and in Sag Harbor at the Goat Alley Gallery, Romany Kramoris Gallery, and Canio’s Books. After moving to Portland, Ore., in 2003, she exhibited at galleries on the West Coast.

While living in Jersey City, she served on the Courthouse Restoration Committee of Hudson County, which successfully fought for the preservation of the Hudson County Courthouse. She received a certificate of merit from the Women’s Equity Action League and ran, unsuccessfully, for the New Jersey State Senate on the Republican ticket, a defeat she blamed on that state’s “Democratic machine.”

Dr. Lane is survived by a niece, Carol Buchholz of Seattle, and two nephews, Steven Slaymaker of Portland, Ore., and Mark Slaymaker of Eugene, Ore. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Winnebago, and family members will gather there in late September for graveside services at the Lane family burial site.

The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Sierra Club, 85 Second Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94105, Emily’s List, 1800 M Street NW, Suite 375N, Washington, D.C. 20036, or a local charity.

Paul B. West, a retired patent lawyer who was a longtime summer resident of East Hampton Village, died at home in Manhattan on July 20. He was 88 and had been ill with cancer for two years.

Described as a gentle, quiet, and intellectual man, Mr. West had many interests. He was a devoted tennis player and a founding member of the East Hampton Tennis Club. He was also an accomplished and adventurous skier who made annual trips to Vermont, the Alps, and the West to hone his skills.

“He loved nature and relished the challenge of doing most of the work in his garden and house himself,” a prepared obituary said. “He had discriminating taste and curiosity in music and the visual arts and enjoyed attending many local events.” Among them was the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival.

Born on June 16, 1928, in New York City, his parents were Sidney West and Ruth West. He grew up in Great Neck and held degrees from M.I.T. and New York University Law School.

He was a partner in the law firm of Ladas & Parry for many years. In his retirement, he began writing poetry, which he studied at the 92nd Street Y.

He is survived by a sister, Margo Otis of Westchester, N.Y., a niece and a nephew, and his companion, Judith Grandes of Manhattan.

Irma Ann Damark, a lifelong East Hampton resident and a longtime owner of Damark’s Deli on Three Mile Harbor Road, died on Saturday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Westhampton Beach at the age of 89. She had had Alzheimer’s disease for several years.

Before taking over Damark’s in 1977 with her husband, who was the second generation to run the family business, Mrs. Damark taught physical education at several local school districts from Shelter Island to Montauk. She became a familiar, welcoming face to customers. Often the last to stop working, she continued running the deli after her husband died in 1991, eventually retiring in 2000 at the age of 74.

Her grandson Evan Armstrong said she was a devoted reader and a passionate traveler who loved telling stories. She had an unending sense of humor that old age never diminished, he said.

Mrs. Damark was born in Southampton on Oct. 26, 1926, to John Hasselberger and the former Ann Eister. She graduated from East Hampton High School in 1944 and four years later from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y. She later earned an M.A. in physical education from Southampton College. Her accomplishments and determination inspired all who knew her, Mr. Armstrong said. She was a member of the American Association of University Women.

On Aug. 29, 1948, she married Allen Joseph Damark at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. They lived first in a house on Cedar Street and later, for over 50 years, on Maple Lane.

Mrs. Damark leaves five children, all of whom live in East Hampton, They are Allen Damark Jr., John Damark, Wendy Armstrong, Bruce Damark, and Brian Damark. One sister, Paula Trenton of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., survives, as do six grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and three nieces and nephews.

A wake was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Tuesday. Yesterday, a funeral service took place at Most Holy Trinity Church, Msgr. Donald Hanson officiating. Burial followed at the church’s cemetery on Cedar Street.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the Kanas Center for Hospice Care, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.

Peter F. Clifton, an educator at two prestigious independent schools who ran the Harvard College Fund for 10 years, died at home in Water Mill on Aug. 3. He was 90 years old and had had Alzheimer’s disease for five years.

Mr. Clifton, who received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1949 and had a master’s degree from Columbia University Teachers College, directed the Harvard College Fund, one of the Harvard Alumni Association’s philanthropic campaigns, from 1976 to 1985. He was a steadfast Harvard football fan.

He began his career in 1953 as a teacher  at St. David’s School in Manhattan, eventually becoming its admissions director and assistant headmaster. He was headmaster of the Episcopal Green Vale School in Old Brookville, Conn., from 1967 to 1974. Mr. Clifton also was one of the founders of the New York Interschool Faculty Diversity Search, which recruits teachers and administrators of minority descent for independent schools.

He was born in Overbrook, Pa., on Jan. 27, 1926, to Gorham Clifton and the former Margaret Keenan. He grew up in Philadelphia.

He and his wife, the former Alice Ann O’Brien, whom he married in 1953, moved to the East End permanently in 1983. Locally, he served on the board of trustees of the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center and was a member of Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Bridgehampton.

He also had an interest in politics, favoring the Democratic Party, and was among those who started a group called “The Caucus,” retirees who meet weekly at the Bridgehampton Candy Kitchen for lunch and conversation. Their gatherings are also a fund-raiser for the Bridgehampton Food Pantry.

Mr. Clifton is survived by his wife and four children, Suzanne Walsh of New York City, Peter Clifton Jr. of Nashville, Sasha Wade of Locust Valley, and Alicia Chabot of Rye, N.Y. Thirteen grandchildren also survive, and he was said to love the fact that they called him Poppy.

Mr. Clifton was cremated. A Mass of Christian burial will be held on Sept. 12 at noon at Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, with the Rev. Peter Devaraj officiating. Donations in his memory have been suggested to the Peter Clifton Scholarship Fund at St. David’s School, 12 East 89th Street, New York, N.Y. 10128.