John Beedenbender
John R. Beedenbender, a trap-shooter, custom stock designer for shotguns, and longtime member of the Maidstone Gun Club, died last Thursday at the North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 73 and had had throat cancer.
Born in Manhattan on Dec. 2, 1943 to James J. Beedenbender and the former Elizabeth Mrofchak, he moved to Huntington with his family at the age of 10 and graduated from Huntington High School.
He enlisted in the Navy as a Seabee in 1962 and served through 1966, including two years’ service in Greece and another two in Spain. Soon after his return he met the former JoEllen Whiteley, who was working for his mother at a cosmetics firm in Commack. They were married on Oct. 1, 1966.
“My father worked in East Hampton in the late ’70s for Richard Novack Construction,” and later for Ronald Webb Builder, said his daughter Janice D’Angelo. A master carpenter and woodworker, “he did all the stuff nobody else could figure out,” she said.
Mr. Beedenbender travelled up and down the East Coast as a member of the American Trap Association, competing for trophies, and brought many home. He favored a 12-gauge shotgun. He was also an amateur armorer, customizing guns in a shop he had at home.
The family built a house on Montauk Avenue in Northwest Woods in the mid-’80s and lived there for a time before moving to Margate, Fla. When they came back to the South Fork it was to Sag Harbor, where they rented for a time, Ms. D’Angelo said, but wound up on Floyd Street in East Hampton, eventually making a final move back to Margate.
They had three other children in addition to Ms. D’Angelo, who lives in Sag Harbor. They are John R. Beedenbender Jr. of St. Petersburg, Fla., Joyce Beedenbender of Margate, and James Beedenbender, also of Sag Harbor.
He wife survives, as does a brother, James Beedenbender of Patchogue, and four grandchildren. He died just short of what would have been his 50th wedding anniversary, and Ms. D’Angelo said that the children had planned to send their parents on a celebration trip.
Graveside services will be held at the South Florida National Cemetery on June 14.