OBITUARY: Cathy Lester Has Died at 60 - Baywoman and town supervisor set an example for others in public life.

"It has not necessarily been a flamboyant past, but for me, it has been very rewarding," Cathy Lester wrote in a 1983 letter to the East Hampton Town Democratic screening committee.

Ms. Lester would eventually become East Hampton Town Supervisor, but at the time she was seeking the Democrats' nomination for town trustee, her first foray into town politics. She won the nomination and served for two terms before becoming a member of the town planning board for three years, then a town board member, and finally, in 1995, winning election as town supervisor. Ms. Lester, who was 60, died on Monday. The family did not know the cause of death as of press time.

A baywoman from the age of 16, she was passionate about the town's harbors and bays and determined to protect the natural environment and a way of life she loved. "That led her to a political career that she never envisioned," said Lynn Ryan, Ms. Lester's executive assistant during her second term as supervisor.

Born on March 4, 1945, in Southampton and raised in Tuckahoe, Ms. Lester was a daughter of the former Helen Dix and Ruben Shaffer. Her father was a boatbuilder and the co-owner and manager of a boatyard. Growing up, Ms. Lester spent most of her free time with her father at the yard and worked there in the summers. "I seem to have a compelling urge to be near the water," she wrote in that 1983 letter.

She left high school after her sophomore year, and on Sept. 7, 1961, was married to Thomas Lester, an East Hampton bayman. The couple worked together on the bay until the following year, when their daughter, Della Ann, was born. After a few years at home with her daughter, Ms. Lester returned to fishing.

"I think she was as proud of being a baywoman as anything else in the world," said Brad Loewen, her nephew by marriage.

With her husband, Ms. Lester became active in the East Hampton Town Baymen's Association and later was a founding member and president of the Northwest Alliance, a group that led the successful drive for the preservation of the Grace Estate in Northwest Woods and Barcelona Neck.

Both organizations believed that developing the Grace Estate on the banks of Northwest Harbor would harm the harbor's pristine quality and its value as a shellfish resource.

Her involvement in that cause was the beginning of her public life. By example, she encouraged others to become more active in preservation and town politics. "She was kind of the groundbreaker for so many of us that came behind her," Mr. Loewen said. It was largely because of her that Mr. Loewen, the outgoing president of the East Hampton Town Baymen's Association, became a member of the town planning board 16 years ago. This month, Mr. Loewen was elected to the town board.

"Cathy, with her husband, Tom, represented one of the strongest, best traditions in the baymen's community - living with the environment and from the environment. She was an outstanding, insightful person," Arnold Leo, the secretary of the baymen's association and a longtime friend, said Tuesday.

As a town trustee, Ms. Lester became involved in efforts to supplement the town's natural population of clams. She opposed the "relay" of clams from areas close to New York City to town waters because they were found to be contaminated with heavy metals.

Instead, she worked with the baymen's association and Democratic Supervisor Judith Hope's administration on ways to raise shellfish here. She supported the idea of allowing baymen to create small aquaculture projects, a departure from the association's strict opposition to aquaculture on public bottomland.

In 1985, shellfish populations were destroyed by the first in a series of brown algae blooms. Two years later, and in large part due to Ms. Lester's work, the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery was established on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk with the help of a $164,000 grant from Gov. Mario M. Cuomo's administration.

In 1987, Ms. Lester won a seat on the town board and continued to champion the preservation of open space, public access to the water, and protection of the town's harbors and bays. After two terms as councilwoman, she won the top position in town government in 1995.

Lisa Liquori, a former town planning director, who became friends with her at Town Hall, recalled that Ms. Lester was set to attend a conference upstate for new town supervisors when a snowstorm hit the East End and kept her in East Hampton. "She just had to learn the job as she was going, and she did," Ms. Liquori said Tuesday.

"I was always struck by Cathy. She would be in a room with a group of 'experts' and . . . she would ask the most relevant questions," Ms. Liquori said. Ms. Lester never graduated from high school, but earned her high school equivalency diploma in 1977. "She was a very bright woman, and would just put her knowledge together in a way that I was constantly impressed," Ms. Liquori said.

"She has truly left her mark," said Town Councilwoman Debra Foster, a friend. "If it weren't for Cathy Lester we wouldn't recognize our Northwest Woods in East Hampton. They would be totally developed."

"People always said, 'She knows what's below the surface and what's above it,' " Ms. Ryan said Tuesday. Yet, despite having attained the highest elected office in town, Ms. Lester considered herself neither a leader nor a politician, Ms. Ryan said.

In 1999, Ms. Lester lost a third bid for town supervisor. She had served in public office for 15 years and said at the time that she had no intention of returning to government work. Instead, she earned her real estate license, began working for Allan M. Schneider Associates, and became a Democratic committeewoman.

Ms. Lester battled liver cancer in 2004, but it was rare for her to talk about her health, Ms. Liquori said. "She was just so strong that we forgot she was sick."

Ms. Lester is survived by her daughter, Della Bennett of Southampton, and two sisters, Dorothy Giacoia of South Carolina and Gail Wienclawski of Southampton. Her husband died in 1992.

The family will receive visitors at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 23, and from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday. A service will be held at the funeral home on Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. Ms. Lester is to be cremated.

Memorial contributions have been suggested to the East Hampton Trails Presevation Society, The Baymen's Association, or the Springs Fire Department.

With Reporting by Russell Drumm.