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Otis A. Glazebrook IV

Aug. 6, 1948 - March 28, 2014
By
Star Staff

A self-taught architectural draftsman and dedicated enthusiast of politics, sailing, skiing, and waterskiing, Otis Allan Glazebrook IV of Bell Road in Springs died on March 28 at home. He was 65. The cause of his death was not known pending a coroner’s report, his life partner, Mary Trabona, said.

Mr. Glazebrook had for many years run a home-insulation business in East Hampton. When he tired of that, he bought an early personal computer and learned how to use it for drafting. Ms. Trabona said that such things came easily to him, as he had been very mechanically inclined from the time he was a boy and retained a lifelong interest in understanding how things worked.

His interests in history and politics led him to study his family genealogy. He was a frequent letter writer to The East Hampton Star and blogged about his contrarian views on Americanthinker. org.

He was born on Aug. 6, 1948, in Philadelphia to Otis Allan Glazebrook III and the former Suzanne Howard. He grew up in Bedford, N.Y., and attended school there. He was a competitive skier from a very early age, gaining skills at Whiteface Mountain upstate. During summers, he water-skied at the family’s house on Lake Placid.

He went on to join the ski team at the Fountain Valley School in Colorado. He left school to move to Vail, Colo., to train for the national ski team, but a knee injury put an end to his hopes.

During this period Mr. Glazebrook water-skied competitively in amateur meets, then did so professionally in water shows.

After a time, his recreational interests turned to sailing, and he raced on Lake Champlain and in the Wednesday night races off Sag Harbor. In the 1980s he worked on keel designs for America’s Cup racers, Ms. Trabona said.

Later, Ms. Trabona said, when he decided he was not exercising much more than his lungs (yelling at other sailors), he sold his boat and returned to waterskiing.

He was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternal society, which had been founded by a great-grandfather of his, and served on its board of directors. He also designed the organization’s headquarters in Indianapolis, which evoked the ATO badge. As a draftsman, he did work for many South Fork architects and served on the Sag Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals.

In addition to Ms. Trabona, Mr. Glazebrook is survived by his mother, his siblings, Zina Glazebrook of Maine, Michael Glazebrook of New York City, and Larkin Glazebrook of South Salem, N.Y., and two nephews.

A service for him was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on April 5. Burial was in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the Fountain Valley School, 6155 Fountain Valley School Road, Colorado Springs 80911, or to Alpha Tau Omega, 32 East Washington Street, Suite 1350, Indianapolis 46204.

An earlier version of this obituary incorrectly listed Mr. Glazebrook's siblings as his children.

 

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