Frederick L. Dankmyer, Retired Physician
Frederick Loftus Dankmyer of Orwigsburg, Pa., and Amagansett, a physician who had been a flight surgeon and was an ophthalmologist, died on Nov. 13 at home in Amagansett. He had had Parkinson’s disease for many years and was especially ill in the last year.
Dr. Dankmyer graduated from St. Vincent Preparatory School and St. Vincent College, Benedictine centers of education in Latrobe, Pa., and from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He served as a flight surgeon at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash., during the Vietnam War.
After leaving the service, Dr. Dankmyer completed a residency in ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He then practiced in Pottsville, Pa., after which he held a volunteer teaching position a Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. He was a member of the Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans and the Northeast Pennsylvania Lions Eye Bank in Bethlehem, Pa.
Dr. Dankmyer’s family said he loved nature and marksmanship, hunting upland birds, ducks, and deer. He also was an accomplished woodworker who made finely crafted furniture.
Frederick Loftus Dankmyer was born on June 16, 1937, in St. Mary’s, Pa., one of the four children of Edward D. Dankmyer and the former Helen O’Connor. His parents and a brother, Edward Dankmyer, died before him.
He is survived by his wife, Constance Dankmyer, the owner of Nellie’s Antiques in Amagansett, which she opened in 1992. Their four children, Kimberly Ann Foster of Darien, Conn., David Sedgebrook Dankmyer of St. Louis, Christopher Charles Dankmyer of Collegeville, Pa., and Katina Elizabeth Dankmyer of Orwisburg, survive, as do two sisters, Jane Eacobacci of Dennis Port, Mass., and Nancy Casey of Oakton, Va., and nine grandchildren.
The Rev. Msgr. Donald Hanson will officiate at a funeral Mass for Mr. Dankmyer on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Donations in his memory have been suggested to East End Hospice. P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978-7048, or the St. Louis American Parkinson Disease Association, 1415 Elbridge Payne Road, Suite 150, Chesterfield, Mo. 63017.
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Correction: The original version of this obituary failed to include some of Dr. Dankmyer's professional positions and affiliations and incorrectly stated that he had held positions at the Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans and the Northeast Pennsylvania Lions Eye Bank in Bethlehem, Pa., when in fact he was a member of both the academy adn the eye bank.