Richard F. White Jr., Man of Montauk

Richard F. White Jr.'s Montauk roots date back to 1928, when his grandfather opened White's Drug Store. The family has been civic activists ever since, and Dick White is no exception: in addition to both elected and appointed posts in East Hampton Town government, there is hardly a volunteer job he hasn't held.

A former East Hampton Town Councilman, town budget director, Montauk School Board member, Montauk Fire Department Commissioner, and member of the East Hampton Town Planning Board, Mr. White has a little more time now, since retiring as the proprietor of White's Liquor Store in Montauk, to pursue a lifelong passion - local history.

"My love of history was lit by a fellow by the name of Dick Gilmartin," he said in a recent interview. "As I was growing up, we had a loosely organized club called the Explorers Club. He would drive us all over the East End of Long Island, to different sites, and tell us what happened there. He made history come alive; he gave us this 'elixir.'

"From a very early age, I was given this inspiration, and it's directly related to him."

As chairman of the Montauk Historical Society's lighthouse committee, Mr. White was instrumental in the creation of the Montauk Lighthouse Museum more than a decade ago. Now, he said, it welcomes more than 100,000 visitors a year.

With the Lighthouse Museum having attained "world-class" status, said Mr. White, he and others are brainstorming a museum that will document Montauk's military history, to be located at Camp Hero. That project is "in the embryonic stage," he said, awaiting completion of New York State's master plan for the site.

Meanwhile, Mr. White, who serves as Montauk's representative to East Hampton Town's 350th anniversary committee, is helping to plan the centennial of the Montauk encampment of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, which, as fate would have it, dovetails neatly with the town's tricentquinquagenary celebration.

The Suffolk County Parks Department is collaborating on the first of several memorials to the Spanish-American War veterans, to be held Memorial Day weekend. On Labor Day weekend, Montauk will play host to a two-day extravaganza featuring a re-enactment of Camp Wikoff, where thousands of Rough Riders and other veterans of the war were sent to recover from yellow fever and other tropical illnesses, contracted during the fighting in Cuba. The weekend will also feature a vintage-1898 county fair and a Wild West show.

The group has lined up James Foote, a professional Roosevelt impersonator, to speak before a Sept. 18 parade through Montauk, another event Mr. White is helping to arrange.

Mr. White is retired in name only. In addition to his work for the anniversary committee and the Rough Riders centennial, he is the treasurer of the Montauk Fire Department and a trustee of the County Parks Department. Last year he was the grand marshal of Montauk's St. Patrick's Day parade.

"I used to surfcast," he said. "Since I sold the store, I haven't wet a line."