Michael Ehrhardt

Michael Ehrhardt, a travel writer for Conde Nast for 30 years, died on Feb. 4 at St. Barnabas Hospital in Short Hills, N.J., The Star has learned. A former resident of Old Orchard Lane in East Hampton, he was 64 years old and lived in Roseland, N.J.

He was being treated for a recurrence of multiple myeloma and had been hospitalized for about a month when he had a heart attack, according to Howard Cavallero, his companion of 23 years.

Mr. Ehrhardt was an inveterate trans-Atlantic traveler. He particularly loved Italy, where he had lived for a time. He enjoyed being a guide for his friends and encouraging them to feel as if they had found some undiscovered place, Mr. Cavallero said. “Michael always made you feel that way,” he said.

Mr. Ehrhardt also enjoyed cooking, national politics, and movies. He was a member of a movie club in Manhattan that critiqued films.

Born on May 2, 1949, in New York City, his parents were Frederick and Theresa Ehrhardt. He grew up in Manhattan and earned a degree at St. John’s University in 1971.

Mr. Ehrhardt visited the South Fork for about 40 years and owned several houses, including ones in Amagansett and East Hampton. He moved here full time in 1985 and volunteered with Meals on Wheels, preparing food, and the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons. He and Mr. Cavallero sold their house in East Hampton in 1999.

It was here that he and Mr. Cavallero first met through mutual friends. The couple were married in New York in February 2012 and were looking forward to doing so in New Jersey, where they relocated six years ago from upstate New York.

“He was my superhero,” Mr. Cavallero said. Mr. Ehrhardt had been his caretaker during an illness and an injury, he said.

In addition to Mr. Cavallero, Mr. Ehrhardt is survived by three sisters, Lilian Eckert of Lynbrook, Martha Merton of Kingston, N.Y., and Julie Ehrhardt of Old Westbury.

His ashes were scattered in East Hampton.