Neil Hausig was well known in East Hampton for his informed advocacy of affordable housing, which is reflected in particular in the Windmill Village and Whalebone apartment communities. In addition to a 44-year career in real estate, Mr. Hausig tutored students and campaigned feverishly against oppression, fascism, and violence in his weekly letters to the editor in The Star.
But before he came here, he and his wife, Marie-Théresé Sarti, spent seven years in France, where they created a jewelry company, Bijoux Neil Hausig, that immersed them in the world of Parisian high fashion. Their two children were born in France during this “transformative and wild” time in their lives, his family wrote.
When they returned to the United States in December 1978, East Hampton was to have been a stopover “for a few months, but they found themselves unable to leave the pull of the ocean and stayed.”
Mr. Hausig died at home in East Hampton on July 13 after a short illness. The cause was cancer; he was 80 years old.
Neil Gilbert Hausig was born in New York City on Oct. 23, 1943, to J. Donald Hausig and the former Jeanette Finkelbrand. The family lived first in Manhattan and then in Far Rockaway, where he spent a happy childhood playing sports. At Far Rockaway High School, he was class president and captain of the baseball, basketball, and football teams, earning All-American status as an athlete and graduating in 1961. His summers were spent lifeguarding and getting into trouble with friends.
He attended George Washington University on a baseball scholarship and started an interracial, intramural basketball team there before graduating with an economics degree in 1965. Returning to New York, he worked on an anti-racism task force for the Presbyterian Church, did research on the criminalization of substance use, and was heavily involved in the antiwar movement.
In August 1966, while traveling, he met Ms. Sarti in the shower of a youth hostel in Belgrade. They reunited in New York soon after. He taught middle school in the South Bronx, “where he and his students loved each other and had loads of fun,” the family said.
Mr. Hausig played and watched any and every sport, but was a die-hard fan of the Rangers, Giants, Knicks, and Yankees. He was a dedicated reader of fiction, politics, and sports. He was the board president of Whalebone Housing Developments for many years and was also involved in East End for Peace and the War Resisters League.
He “just cared about people, especially kids,” wrote his best friend, Paul Hollander of East Hampton, who, along with his wife, Camille Perrottet, and two other close friends, Lulu and Galen Weiser of Brooklyn, survives Mr. Hausig.
“Neil now lives through his family and friends, with whom he freely shared unconditional love, support, laughter, advice, honesty, and excitement,” his family wrote.
In addition to his wife, who continues to live in East Hampton, Mr. Hausig leaves a son, Matthieu Hausig of Brooklyn, and his partner, Emily Eiselein, and a daughter, Audrey Hausig, and her husband, Jon Rifenburg. Three young grandchildren, Josephine, Odin, and Adelia, survive as well, as does a brother, Michael Hausig of Frisco, Colo., and his wife, Jean. He also leaves many nieces and nephews, cousins, in-laws, and friends in East Hampton, New York City, Paris, and around the world.
A celebration of his life will take place on Aug. 11 at 4 p.m. at the Windmill Village II apartments, 219 Accabonac Road in East Hampton. Donations in his memory may be sent to Whalebone Village, 147 Boatheaders Lane, East Hampton 11937.
