Obituaries

Richard B. Spero Jr., a lifelong resident of East Hampton who ran a pool service company here, died of cardiac arrest at home in East Hampton Village on Aug. 28. He was 57.

Janet L. Grossman came from a long line of medical doctors in a family that valued education. It made sense, then, that she would go on to travel extensively and study design and architecture abroad, and later became the first woman in her family to earn a Ph.D., specializing in human resources and adult education at the Fielding Institute in California in the late 1980s. She died of pulmonary fibrosis at home in Sag Harbor on Aug. 27. She was 89.

Louis E. Sherry Sr., who grew up on Sherry’s Dairy Farm in Southampton and worked as a milkman from East Hampton to Montauk for many years, died on June 25. Most recently of LaGrangeville and Berkshire upstate, he was 86.

A conservationist who was fond of birds and dogs in particular, Polly Bruckmann devoted many years to organizations that benefited the environment and the community. Mrs. Bruckmann, of Lily Pond Lane and Manhattan, died on Sept. 3 following a fall. She was 90.

A. Philip Dinkel Jr., the owner of the Montauk I.G.A. for almost 30 years, died on Aug. 23 in Easton, Md., at the age of 89.

Jean Greenlees Ruggles, who had a long career teaching at the Montauk School, died at home in Montauk on Sept. 1. She was 96.

Friends of Allan Weisbecker will gather Thursday afternoon at 3 at Montauk's Ditch Plain Beach for a paddle-out in his memory, with an exhibition of his photographs to follow at 6 at the 484 Gallery on West Lake Drive.

Barry Kohlus, a Montauk fisherman whose career on the water spanned 68 years, died of cancer at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Aug. 25. He was 82.

Peter Greene of Sag Harbor, an academic turned working pilot, died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 85.

Denise O’Brian-Lutkins, a gardener and self-taught painter, died of cardiopulmonary arrest at home in Montauk on Aug. 16. She was 60.

Andrew Blauschild, a photographer, surf-business entrepreneur, and Montauk surfer, died on Aug. 19 at the age of 53.

John Wanag, who ran MTK Custom Rods and Repair, died of cardiac arrest at home in Springs last Thursday. He was 64.

John Graham, the executive director of Hampton Racquet in East Hampton until this year, died of esophageal cancer on Aug. 16 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He was 63.

Solange Damaz, a French-born raconteur, cook, and gardener, died of cancer at home in Springs on Aug. 13. She was 91.

A descendant of the Round Swamp Lester family who was known for her caring nature and generous spirit, Mary L. Lester died after a short illness on Aug. 11 at the Bridgeway Care and Rehabilitation Center in Hillsborough, N.J.

Phil Gamble of Montauk, fisherman and plumber turned Z.B.A. chairman, died on Aug. 3 at the age of 83.

Richard B.H. Stern, a management consultant known as the Mayor of Main Beach, died at home in East Hampton on June 27. He was 94.

Meredith Blake, a part-time resident of Amagansett, died of ovarian cancer in hospice care on July 15. She was 52.

Carol Rogers, a dedicated employee at Montauk Point State Park, died at home in Montauk on July 16. She was 87. 

Melanie Amanda Ross, a veteran of the real estate industry here, died on June 30 of complications of a brain aneurysm. She was 76.

Jeanette Loper Beebe, a lifelong volunteer and skilled knitter formerly of East Hampton, died on July 15 in South Carolina at the age of 98.

Victoria Montague Helmuth, a native of East Hampton, died on Nov. 7 in Minnesota. She was 78.

A service for Carol H. Rogers of Montauk will be held on Tuesday at 5 p.m. at St. Michael's Lutheran Church in Amagansett.

Ruth Schiffman, an author and retired teacher who for many years split her time between East Hampton and New York City, died in New York on June 9. She was 99.

Mina Ellen Cory Kahofer, an executive assistant at Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights, Queens, for 23 years, and a Wainscott resident for 30, died at home on July 21. She was 90.

Joan L. Loria of Belmont, Mass., an artist who had a long career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a curator, museum director, and author, died in hospice care in Minnesota on May 8. A frequent summer visitor to East Hampton, she was 88.

Jerome Tauber of Montauk, a mathematician and lawyer, died of pneumonia on July 3 at the age of 79.

Neil Hausig, well known in East Hampton for his advocacy of affordable housing and his long career in real estate, died of cancer on July 13. He was 80.

Nathan Halsey Dayton, an East Hampton native and Navy veteran who lived in North Fort Myers, Fla., died on June 28 at the age of 99. 

Martin Ligorner, once “the unofficial mayor of Napeague,” died at a memory care facility in Northampton, Mass., on July 9. He was 89.