Obituaries

Joanne Backlund of Noyac died on Aug. 31 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital after having gone into cardiac arrest at home three days earlier.

Lucas Conrad Matthiessen, 69, an editor and writer who also ran a network of clinics for drug and alcohol abusers, died on Aug. 20 at a hospice near his home on City Island in the Bronx. The cause of death was metastatic cancer, said his wife, Claire de Brunner.

Over the course of 17 years, Susan Lynn Solomon of Amagansett and New York City, a founder and longtime chief executive officer of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, raised more than $400 million to advance the field of stem cell research. Ms. Solomon, who had had only recently stepped down as the organization’s C.E.O., died last Thursday, at home in Amagansett, five years after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She was 71.

Vaughan Bianca Allentuck died at home in Springs on Saturday, surrounded by her family. She was 90. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Barbara E. Schwartz, a former teacher in Manhattan who lived in East Hampton for 20 years, died at home on Settlers Landing Lane on Aug. 31. She was 76.

A onetime Vietnam War tank driver who became a New York Police Department detective and later a proprietor of a local wine shop, Rodney Roncaglio of East Hampton died on Aug. 24 at the Kanas Hospice Center in Quiogue. He was 75.

Maralyn Rittenour was traveling in Italy over the summer when she started feeling unwell. It was lymphoma, she learned when she returned home to Springs. She died on Aug. 18 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital at age 84.

Richard W. Smith Jr., a past president of the Maidstone Club, died at his Borden Lane residence in East Hampton Village on Aug. 20. The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Steve Haweeli, whose WordHampton Public Relations firm in Springs became the pre-eminent promoter of restaurants and hospitality companies here and across Long Island, died on Aug. 23 at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan of complications from Covid-19.

Barbara Anne Sullivan was a fan of the arts. "She took great joy in her home and had a distinctive flair for design," her family said. An enthusiastic reader, she "surrounded herself with beautiful books" and also enjoyed spending time in her garden in Montauk. But "most of all," her family wrote, "she loved traveling and living all over the world with her husband of 64 years, Jim."

A memorial service for Simon Perchik will take place at Ashawagh Hall in Springs on Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Mr. Perchik, a longtime resident of that hamlet, was a well-known poet who died on June 14 at the age of 98.

James Howard Sweeney, who worked as a cinematographer, gaffer, best boy, and props man in the film industry in California for many years, died in his sleep on June 13 at home in Brooklyn.

John Eastman, a prominent entertainment lawyer whose clients included the musicians Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, the Abstract Expressionist painter Willem de Kooning, and the playwright Tennessee Williams, died at his Lily Pond Lane, East Hampton Village, residence on Aug. 10. Mr. Eastman, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two months earlier, was 83.

Before starting Robert E. Otto Glass Inc., Bob Otto was a partner with Ward Freese in a similar business. The two parted ways in 1960 and Mr. Otto took the glass business to a storefront on North Main Street in East Hampton. Five years later, he moved it to where it has been ever since, on Montauk Highway in Wainscott. Two generations of Ottos have followed him in the business.

Joseph John Raffel Jr., 89, a craftsman, painter, miniaturist, and bird carver who retired in 1992 from a 35-year career with the Long Island Lighting Company, died of lung cancer on July 22 at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Katherine Lathrop McSpadden, an artist, teacher, and gardener who was known as Kate, spent every summer of her life until her mid-20s in Amagansett. She grew up sailing on Gardiner’s Bay at the Devon Yacht Club, riding at Stony Hill Stables, and her landscape paintings were inspired by the ocean vistas on Bluff Road, her family said.

When she was in her 60s, Nula Murphy Thanhauser turned her passion for collecting antique and vintage purses into a second career, selling, appraising, and lecturing about them all over the country. She favored the most whimsical of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Egyptian Revival handbags and accessories. At one of her first shows, in 2006 in West Palm Beach, Fla., “customers were six deep in her booth,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly, a trade publication, reported at the time.

Visiting hours for David P. Hummel, who died at home in Springs on Thursday, will be held Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Masonic and Veterans of Foreign Wars services will immediately follow.

Visiting hours for Robin Schiavoni, a popular teaching assistant at Sag Harbor Elementary School who died on Friday, will be Tuesday from 4 to 8 p.m. at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor. A memorial service will take place at 7 p.m.

Alexander Kabbaz, a custom shirtmaker whose clients included Leonard Bernstein and Tom Wolfe as well as numerous business titans, world leaders, and celebrities, died in Amagansett on July 21 of a heart attack. He was 72.

Andrew Malone Jr. of East Hampton died on Monday in Southampton. He was 95. Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton is handling arrangements.

Bernadette Koch, a summer resident of Fairway Place in Montauk, a former model, and a teacher in the New York City public school system for many years, died on July 28 at home in Basking Ridge, N.J. She was 81.

Ernest D. Wildner-Fox, a Parsons-educated interior designer and artist who lived in Montauk for more than 40 years, died on June 26 after two days of hospice care in Lehigh Acres, Fla., where he had been living since 2017. He was 81.

Visiting hours for James R. Ketcham of Montauk, a former town justice, will be Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral Mass will be said on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church in Montauk.

Georges Briguet, who founded three highly regarded Manhattan restaurants — Le Perigord, Le Perigord Park, and La Reserve — between 1966 and 1983, died of a heart-related illness at home in Montauk on July 26. He was 85.

Melissa Bank, an author who taught in the M.F.A. program at Stony Brook Southampton, died of lung cancer at home in East Hampton on Aug. 2.

Sue Feleppa, a real estate broker and former restaurateur whose community spirit led her to serve on the board of directors of the Amagansett Village Improvement Society and as chairwoman of the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, died at home in Springs on July 28 of respiratory failure related to lung cancer.

Christopher M. Forsberg of Montauk, who used to spend summers at the Ditch Plain hotel owned by his parents and returned to the hamlet full time about 15 years ago, died in his sleep at home on July 13. His cause of death was unknown. He was 49 years old.

Sue Feleppa died last Thursday at home in Springs. She was 77 and had been diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago. A service will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Aug. 14, a Sunday, at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

Jennifer Bartlett, a painter who rose to prominence in the international art world in the 1970s and remained an innovative figure perhaps best known for her monumental steel-plate paintings, died at home in Amagansett on July 25. She was 81.