Robert G. Lamparter
Robert G. Lamparter of Montauk, a civic activist, Boy Scout leader, and dedicated surfcaster who worked passionately to give back to the hamlet he called home, died last Thursday at Southampton Hospital. He was 77 and had cancer.
Mr. Lamparter built a summer house in Montauk in 1973, splitting his time between Montauk and Commack until he moved east year round in 1996, when he retired from his job as an art and photography teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington.
He was a longtime president of the Montauk Beach Property Owners Association and most recently served as its vice president. He helped found the Montauk Memorial Day parade with Ken Walles in 2011, served as a trustee of Montauk’s Fort Hill Cemetery board, and volunteered with Meals on Wheels.
“He left Montauk a better place than he found it,” John Keeshan, also of that hamlet, said in an obituary written by Mr. Lamparter’s daughter Keri Lamparter of Montauk.
Mr. Lamparter and Jim Ketcham, a retired East Hampton Town justice, spearheaded a successful campaign to stop the proposed incorporation of Montauk village.
“Bob Lamparter was the quintessential Montauk volunteer and community leader,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson of Montauk said in Ms. Lamparter’s obituary. “He was persistent, passionate, and plain-speaking” at citizens advisory committee and town board meetings, said Mr. Wilkinson. Mr. Lamparter was “truly a friend of Montauk and I will miss him,” he said.
Mr. Lamparter was born in Brooklyn on Jan. 10, 1936, to William C. Lamparter and the former Nadine Lesch. He grew up in Malverne and graduated in 1953 from Malverne High School. He earned his bachelor of science degree in art education in 1957 from Buffalo State Teachers College, where he was active in the Delta Kappa fraternity, and his master of arts in education from Adelphi University in 1967.
Mr. Lamparter served in the Army from 1958 through 1960, stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America throughout his life, serving as a leader at the Wauwepex Scout Training Camp in Wading River in the 1950s, as the director of the Ten Mile River Trading Post in Narrowsburgh, N.Y., during the 1960s through the early 1970s, and as an assistant scoutmaster for the Montauk Boy Scout Troop in recent years.
He was a lifeguard on Long Island during his 20s and again in the early 1970s at the Montauk Golf and Racquet Club, which later became Montauk Downs.
“My father was passionate about Montauk and its preservation,” Keri Lamparter wrote. “He achieved great satisfaction through his civic involvement and touched so many lives in our community.” She said he was her “closest friend, greatest ally, lifelong teacher and mentor, and the source of my artistic education and inspiration.” Having only recently begun to experience symptoms of his illness, he “lived life very fully, right to the end, and passed away peacefully,” she said.
In addition to Keri Lamparter, Mr. Lamparter is survived by another daughter, Lynn Tighe of Wake Forest, N.C., a brother, William Lamparter of Waxhaw, N.C., and one granddaughter. His wife, Ann, died in 2007.
His family has suggested donations to the Montauk Medical Center, attention Dr. Tony Knott, 699 Main Street, Montauk 11954, or the Montauk Memorial Day parade committee, in care of Ken Walles, P.O. Box 668, Montauk.
A memorial service for Mr. Lamparter is being planned for April.