Ray Hartjen, the driving force behind the creation of the Hartjen-Richardson Community Boat Shop in Amagansett, home to the East End Classic Boat Society, died at home in Springs on Jan. 31. He was 93 and, although he had end-stage heart failure, had been alert and physically active until a few weeks before his death.
Described by friends as a “sailor, educator, and community dynamo,” Mr. Hartjen was the “prime mover” in securing funding for the boat shop and the East Hampton Town land on which to build it. Construction on the shop, located behind the East Hampton Town Marine Museum on Bluff Road, began in 2006 and was completed in 2008, much of the labor coming from boat society volunteers, some of whom are still active in it today. Mr. Hartjen was first the treasurer of the boat society and then became its president.
In addition to his efforts to secure a home for the society, Mr. Hartjen was instrumental in raising money and harvesting wood to replace the bridge at Pussy’s Pond in Springs in 2013. In 2019, the East Hampton Town Board presented him with a proclamation recognizing his various civic activities.
Raymond Harold Hartjen was born in Brooklyn on Feb. 10, 1931, to Raymond Herman Hartjen and the former Ella Dora Wilsey. He first came to Springs as an infant, when his family built a summer house. He built his first boat here at the age of 7 and honed his sailing skills on Gardiner’s Bay. By the age of 16, he was a licensed charter boat captain.
When not in Springs, the family lived first in Brooklyn and later in Roslyn. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School and graduated from Roslyn High School.
He enlisted in the Army in 1952 during the Korean War and was trained as a military policeman, “but his nautical know-how resulted in his being detailed to be the private skipper in Japan piloting General Mark Clark’s 48-foot fishing yacht and later serving aboard much larger boats,” a friend wrote.
He received the Korean Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the United Nations Service Medal.
After two years of service, he returned to St. Lawrence University, graduating in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree. He worked as a school psychologist in Rochester for two years, then founded the Koncept-O-Graph Corporation.
He married Andrea Jacobson in 1963.
The couple, who had two daughters, lived in Boca Raton, Fla., Pittsburgh, and Brooklyn while he worked as a learning resource specialist at various higher education institutions. He earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967 and a doctorate in educational research metrology from the university in 1975.
The family then moved to Port Tobacco in Maryland, and Mr. Hartjen worked for 19 years as administrator of a United States Department of Education grant for the children of that state. He wrote “Empowering the Child: Nurturing the Hungry Mind,” a book published by Alternative Education Press in 1994.
He and his wife divorced in 1982. When he retired in 1996, Mr. Hartjen moved full time to his family house on Old Fireplace Road in Springs, near Gerard Point. He became active in the leadership of the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, playing a key role in designing and constructing Tanbark Creek Bridge at Three Mile Harbor.
In 2005, he led a petition drive to convince the Suffolk County Water Authority to extend public water to the Gerard Drive neighborhood.
He is survived by two daughters, Lisa Hartjen of Honesdale, Pa., and Anne Hartjen of New Haven, Conn., and by two grandchildren. His former wife died in 2018, and his sister, Doris Aquila, died in 1985.
A celebration of his life will be held at the boat shop in the spring.
His family has suggested donations in his memory to the boat shop at eecbs.org, or to the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society at bit.ly/4hy8Xfp.
