Donald Francis Fromm, a former captain on the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Ferry, died of brain cancer on June 27 at home in Shoreham. The Amagansett summer resident was 68 and had been ill for four weeks.
Known as Captain Don to friends, he had grown up with a father and other relatives who were merchant seamen, and had followed the same career path after graduating from Oceanside High School in Nassau County.
He earned a tugboat captain’s license while working for the Poling Marine transportation company, and later had jobs at several other marine companies, but it was in 1989, when he joined McAllister Towing, which operates the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Ferry, that he found his “work home,” according to his family. He went on to become a port captain and a member of the company’s management team.
In 1974, he married Lorraine Rizzo, who survives, and the couple settled in Shoreham, where they brought up three children.
Born on May 17, 1952, in Brooklyn to Frederick Fromm and the former Margaret Dehanich, he grew up in Rockville Centre. He and his four brothers spent summers fishing, clamming, boating, and hanging out on the beach at the Napeague Camping Club at Lazy Point. He and his wife continued the tradition with their children, grandchildren, and extended family.
He enjoyed hunting, going offshore fishing with his sons and daughter, and regaling the younger generation about the wonders of Napeague. He had been the proud winner several times of the annual East Hampton Town Trustees Largest Clam Contest.
He was a member of St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Shoreham and the Ducks Unlimited waterfowl habitat conservation group.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Bryan Fromm of Montauk and Michael Fromm of Massapequa Park, a daughter, Daniele Cappiello of Wading River, and five grandchildren. His brothers, Robert Fromm of Charlottesville, Va., Gerard Fromm of North Port, Fla., and Amagansett, Thomas Fromm of Southampton, England, and Amagansett, and Michael Fromm of Amagansett, also survive.
A funeral Mass was said on July 2 at St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church in Shoreham, followed by burial at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.
Memorial donations have been suggested to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude.org, the Glioblastoma Foundation at P.O.Box 62066, Durham, N.C. 27715, or a charity of one’s choice.
