“He loved fishing and was always surfcasting,” Allison Throop said of her father, Donald R. Klein, who ran a company called EastEndTech to service computers from Montauk to Manhattan until he retired in 2018. “They maintained an apartment in the city, but 90 percent of the time they were in East Hampton. Their house was on Three Mile Harbor, and he’d fish off the dock there.”
Mr. Klein died in New York City on Sept. 16. He was 77 and had been ill with pancreatic cancer.
Born on April 8, 1945, to George Klein and the former Florence Williamson in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn, Mr. Klein attended Xavier High School in Manhattan. “He wasn’t quick to make too many decisions towards the end of his life, but he knew he wanted to donate money to Xavier,” Ms. Throop said.
After high school, Mr. Klein spent a year at Notre Dame University before graduating from St. Francis College in 1970 and going on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Fordham University.
Mr. Klein was passionate about computers and could often be found programming and coding late at night when inspiration struck. He enjoyed a stint as president of Infodex, Inc., from 1984 to 2000.
Mr. Klein and his first wife, Korynne Taylor, had five children between 1965 and 1973. Their marriage ended in divorce, but they remained friends. Mr. Klein remarried in 1985 to Karen Loucks, and they had a child together in 1986.
The Kleins started visiting East Hampton in the summer of 1979. “We had friends with houses there, and he loved playing golf with his sons,” Ms. Throop said. In 2007, Mr. Klein and his wife bought their own house, in which his favorite spot was “his kitchen,” where he would prepare meals for extended family and friends.
During the later years of his life, he was happy to sit with his wife, watching boats coming and going from Three Mile Harbor. He also enjoyed a good martini, listening to Sondheim hits or crooner classics, and watching his 11 grandchildren play and laugh.
In addition to Ms. Throop, who lives in Bozeman, Mont., Mr. Klein is survived by four other children: Richard Klein of West Palm Beach, Fla., Christopher Klein of Endicott City, Md., Adrienne Ratto of New York City, and Stephanie Reppert of Austin, Tex. Another child, Matthew Klein, died before Mr. Klein. A sister, Elizabeth Squeglia, lives in Bedford, N.H.
Memorial contributions have been suggested to the East Hampton Food Pantry at easthamptonfoodpantry.org, Xavier High School at xavierhs.org, and the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research at lustgarten.org.
A celebration of Mr. Klein’s life will be held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan on Oct. 8 at 3 p.m.
