During her 12 years as a member of the Sag Harbor School Board in the 1960s and ’70s, Patricia B. Zaykowski was the first woman to be elected its president — and was re-elected to that role five more times. A community-minded person who also served a term on the Sag Harbor Village Board and was involved with several charitable organizations, Mrs. Zaykowski died at home in Dunedin, Fla., on March 10 after a brief illness. She was 89.
A lifelong resident of Sag Harbor until she moved to Florida in 1998, Mrs. Zaykowski graduated from Pierson High School in 1952 and went on to the Brooklyn School of Nursing and St. John’s University. She worked at Southampton Hospital for 34 years, including 24 as a charge nurse supervisor, before retiring in 1996.
She was born at that very hospital on Oct. 22, 1932, to Fred L. Butts Sr. and the former Margaret Silvey.
In addition to her work on the village and school boards, Mrs. Zaykowski was a charter member of the Sag Harbor Community Band and a member of the Sag Harbor Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary. In Dunedin, she was a former president of the AmVets Ladies Auxiliary and member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2473 Auxiliary and the Elks Lodge 1525.
In her youth, she enjoyed fishing, water-skiing, and bowling. She later took up golfing, joining the South Fork Country Club, and liked to play bingo.
She and Walter Zaykowski were married in May of 1955; he died in 1996. Her second husband, Thomas Stellmach, whom she married in 1999, survives.
Four children also survive. They are Paul Zaykowski and Terri Lee DeVoll of Sag Harbor, Walter Zaykowski of Fairhope, Ala., and John Zaykowski of Tampa, Fla. Nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren also survive. A brother, Fred L. Butts Jr., died before her.
Mrs. Zaykowski was cremated. A memorial service will take place on Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. at St. Andrew Catholic Church in Sag Harbor, where she was a member. Burial will follow at the church cemetery. Memorial donations have been suggested to the Sag Harbor Lions Club Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 158 in Sag Harbor, or the Chelberg-Battle American Legion Post 88 Ladies Auxiliary, P.O. Box 541 in Sag Harbor.
