Richard W. McGowin, Public Safety Advocate
Richard W. McGowin, a former Montauk Fire Department chief and commissioner who served on the Suffolk Fire and Rescue Services oversight board for more than 30 years, died on Sept. 28 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. He was 88.
Mr. McGowin’s involvement with firefighting and public safety began when he joined the North Sea Fire Department as a young man. After he moved to Montauk in 1953, he switched departments, serving as its chief twice and later being elected to the Montauk Fire District Board of Commissioners, of which he was a member for 20 years, five of them as its chairman. In addition he was the head of emergency preparedness for East Hampton Town for more than 25 years.
His daughter, Terri J. Gaines of East Hampton, said that he was interested in the safety of firefighters as well as of the public. He pushed for the creation of a townwide hazardous materials team and brought in Red Cross disaster training and shelter management training, roles that harked back to his service with the civil defense during World War II, when he was too young to follow his brothers into military service.
He was born on March 21, 1929, in Southampton to J. Arthur McGowin and the former Estelle Whitman. He attended public school in Southampton, graduating from high school there in 1947. He graduated from the State University at Farmingdale in 1950 with an associate’s degree in landscape design.
He married H. Jane Sanford on Feb. 11, 1951. She died in 1996.
Early in his adult life, Mr. McGowin worked for Global Aircraft and Republic Aircraft on Long Island. Once he moved east, he started and ran McGowin’s Landscape and the Montauk Garden Center.
Ms. Gaines said her father was concerned about the welfare of residents and visitors to East Hampton during hurricanes and winter northeasters and sought to improve ties and communication with county, state, and federal emergency agencies.
He was an accomplished athlete, she said, playing football and basketball and going on to take part in New York Knicks practices and play with a New York Giants farm team. The family had a stock car that they raced at the Riverhead Raceway on weekends. He played men’s softball in the summer leagues and sailed. He also raced iceboats on Mecox Bay; Ms. Gaines said that she believed this was his favorite pastime of all.
In addition to Ms. Gaines, he is survived by 4 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
A firematic service for Mr. McGowin was held on Oct. 1 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, where a Masonic service was held the next day. His funeral there on Oct. 3 was officiated by the Rev. Bill Hoffmann of the Montauk Community Church. Burial was at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.
His family suggested memorial donations to the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Recreational Therapy Department, 64 County Road 39, Southampton 11968; the Red Cross of Southampton, 116 Route 27A, Southampton; the Friends of Long Island Horticulture, P.O. Box 964, Riverhead 11901, or to any local fire department or ambulance corps.