Karl A. Vermandois, an art teacher at the East Hampton Middle School for 25 years whose own work was shown at many East End galleries, died on Oct. 17 at East End Hospice’s Kanas Center in Quiogue after a long illness. He was 83.
Mr. Vermandois also coordinated the middle school’s enrichment programs for gifted and talented students. “He always saw the unique potential in each of us,” one of his former students told the Vermandois family. He retired from teaching in 1995.
His other interests included sailing and fishing. He built several wooden boats and once wrote an article for WoodenBoat magazine about building his Lightning sailboat, which he named Spad. During summer breaks he and his family cruised around Long Island and off southern New England in their Southern Cross 28. He was also an enthusiast of model airplanes, which he both built and flew.
Mr. Vermandois was born in the Bronx on Sept. 9, 1940, to William Vermandois and the former Olga Guariglia. He spent his early childhood in upstate New York, near Lake Champlain. His family moved to Arlington, Va., when he was a teenager, and he attended Washington-Lee High School there. He was a wrestler and spent his free time fishing on the Potomac River.
After high school, he joined the Navy and served as a radio man on the U.S.S. Des Moines. He enrolled at George Washington University after his discharge, earning a bachelor’s degree there and then a master’s degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
He met his future wife, Nancy Lisa, in East Hampton, and they were married at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church on July 7, 1968. They had one son. Mrs. Vermandois also worked for the East Hampton School District, as the high school librarian.
She survives, as does their son, Anthony Vermandois of Sag Harbor, and Mr. Vermandois’s three sisters, Marie Murtaugh of West Virginia, Lys Schaefer of Washington, D.C., and Diane Vermandois of Wisconsin. He also leaves his beloved chocolate Lab, Elly.
A funeral was held on Saturday at Most Holy Trinity.
His family has suggested memorial donations to East End Hospice’s Kanas Center for Hospice Care, 1 Meeting House Road, Westhampton Beach 11978, online at eeh.org, or to Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 79 Buell Lane, East Hampton 11937.
