Katherine Hargreaves

Katherine A. Hargreaves, a world traveler, soap opera enthusiast, frequent Montauk visitor, and the former executive secretary for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Springfield, Mass., died of complications from hip surgery on May 26 at the Bristal Assisted Living community in Sayville. She was 88. 

Mrs. Hargreaves, whom friends called Kentsy, was born in Hartford on Dec. 2, 1929, to Herbert G. Behan and Elsie F. Farrell. Her early years were spent in West Hartford, where she graduated from the Oxwood School, an all-girls private high school. She went on to attend Bradford Junior College in Massachusetts; then transferred to Brown University, graduating in 1956. 

Afterward, she prepared for a secretarial career at the Katharine Gibbs School in Boston, and became a private secretary at the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. After several years there, she left to work for the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. 

In 1965, she married Walter A. Hargreaves, a physicist and the founder of Optovac, a company that manufactured optical fluoride crystals. The couple lived in the country town of West Brookfield, Mass., where they enjoyed playing golf and planning frequent trips to exotic locales around the globe. Mrs. Hargreaves was also enthusiastic about bridge, gardening, and reading.

After her husband retired, the couple moved to Hilton Head, S.C., and later to the Oak Harbor Retirement Community in Vero Beach, Fla. He died in 2013, after which she lived in Montauk for a year before moving to Sayville. 

She is survived by a niece, Jane Bimson, and a nephew, Chris Behan, both of Montauk. A memorial service and the dispersal of her ashes will take place at a later date at St. Michael’s Cemetery in Springfield. Memorial contributions can be made to the Animal Rescue Fund, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott 11975.