Obituaries

Norman Tuthill, described by his family as "an artist, surfer, and friend to many," died of heart failure on Friday in West Haven, Conn. He was 61.

Rick Murphy, the former co-publisher and editor of The Independent newspaper died on July 21 at Southampton Hospital after a heart attack. He was 70.

Colton Givner, an advertising art director, graphic artist, and illustrator, died of emphysema at home in New York City on June 15. He was 81 and had been ill for a year. A part-time resident of East Hampton since 1979, among his accomplishments was the design of the logo for the Palm restaurant on Main Street.

Dr. Soll Berl, a former World War II Army medical technician who had a long career as a neurochemist and psychiatrist, died of cancer at home in Pittsboro, N.C., on June 7. The part-time Amagansett resident was 101 years old, just five days shy of turning 102.

Colton Givner, an advertising art director, graphic artist, and illustrator, died of emphysema at home in New York City on June 15. He was 81 and had been ill for a year. A part-time resident of East Hampton since 1979, among his accomplishments was the design of the logo for the Palm restaurant on Main Street.

Longtime readers of The Star may remember the many letters to the editor written by Larry Darcey of Sag Harbor over a 20-year span (at least). Mr. Darcey, who was 90, died on July 7 at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook.

Keith Sonnier, one of a handful of artists who, starting in the 1960s, radically redefined the boundaries of sculpture, died on Saturday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital after a long illness. He was 78.

Robert W. Fischer, who lived in Montauk where he ran a fence installation business, died in an all-terrain vehicle accident on May 20 in Albany, N.Y. He was 57.

Rick Murphy, a former executive editor of The Independent newspaper, died unexpectedly late Tuesday at Southampton Hospital after being hospitalized on Friday and having a heart attack. Mr. Murphy’s career as a journalist included a stint as a cartoonist for The Sag Harbor Herald and as a reporter at The East Hampton Star. An obituary for Mr. Murphy will appear in a future edition.

John Leo McGuirk Jr. enjoyed a good party and "welcomed anybody and everybody" to his front porch on the corner of McGuirk Street and Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village, "especially on Friday nights," his children said.

Robert John Buckley of East Hampton, a former Chicago police officer, died of cardiopulmonary arrest on June 25 at the Westhampton Care Center. He was 86.

Glenn Walter Haab of Springs, a former charter boat captain in Montauk and longtime softball league umpire in East Hampton, died on Monday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 71.

Merrall Topping Hildreth, a descendant of a Hildreth who settled on Long Island in the 17th century, died gently at home in Sagaponack on July 5, his daughter, Deborah Hildreth Phelps of Columbia County, N.Y., said. He was 96 and had been in the care of East End Hospice for less than two weeks.

Jessica Chew Martin, who grew up in Montauk and lived in Larkhall, Scotland, with her husband, Robert, and three youngest children, died there on April 1 of complications related to Covid19. She was 42.

Robert Miller, a lifelong Springs resident, died at home on Neck Path on June 30. He was 90 and had been ill for six months. Mr. Miller maintained landscapes for Montauk Point State Park and at the estate of Dennistoun M. Bell overlooking Gardiner's Bay. He also cleaned and did maintenance work for the Springs Presbyterian Church, where he was a deacon elder and member of the choir.

Barbara Cosgrove Proferes of Sag Harbor, a nearly lifelong resident who established Christy’s Liquor Store in the village with her husband in the mid-1940s, died at home on July 2. She was 90 years old and had been in declining health.

Elizabeth Regan, a dedicated homemaker, mother, wife, and community member, died at home in Mamaroneck, N.Y., on June 23. A longtime year-round resident of East Hampton who, with her husband, kept the Mamaroneck apartment to visit relatives nearby, she was 88.

Donald Francis Fromm, a former captain on the Bridgeport and Port Jefferson Ferry, died of brain cancer on June 27 at home in Shoreham. The Amagansett summer resident was 68 and had been ill for four weeks.

June Paler of Wainscott died of cardiac failure last month at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. She was 83.

Ronald Ralph Galione of East Hampton, a former senior vice president of the Alexander Proudfoot management consulting firm, died of pneumonia on June 11 at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in Florida. He was 89. 

Maria Whelan, a longtime advocate for children and families in the Illinois educational community, died of a heart attack in Chicago on June 10. Formerly of East Hampton, she was 69 years old.

Jacqueline Penney, an award-winning painter and the owner of an eponymous art gallery in Cutchogue, died on June 18 at home in the hamlet. She was 90. 

Murray Skurnik, an award-winning advertising executive, died of pancreatic cancer at home in Sagaponack on Sunday. He was 86 and had been ill for three years.

Renee Schilhab Bullock, who had been a journalist, landscape designer, musician, and documentary filmmaker, died of liver and peritoneal cancer at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., on June 14.

Gen Barry Casey, an accomplished athlete, dance teacher, and New York City advertising executive, died in St. Petersburg, Fla., on April 5 at the age of 82.

A graveside service for Renee Schilhab Bullock will be held at Cedar Lawn Cemetery on Cooper Lane in East Hampton on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The Very Rev. Denis C. Brunelle of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton will give remarks. 

Arthur J. Cortes, who owned and operated Halfback Charters in Montauk for 30 years, died from a fall at his home adjacent to Montauk Downs State Park on May 28. He was 74.

Sportfishing and the ocean were Mr. Cortes’s passions, and he worked on many Long Island charter boats before moving to Montauk in 1991, because “that was where the fish were,” as he put it on the Halfback Charters website. He owned the company, which operated from a 39-foot Hatteras Express, from that year until his death.

Connie Dembia of Wainscott and Ramsey, N.J., died on May 20 at home in Ramsey at the age of 98. Her family wrote that she had not been ill, “just very, very old.”

 Her interests and accomplishments were varied, from reading and sewing to politics, social issues, and social justice. As a child growing up in Brooklyn, where she was born Carmela Di Paola on Dec. 11, 1921, she was a champion handball player, and all through her life loved dancing. 

Mark Humphrey of the Mark Humphrey Gallery in Southampton died last Thursday of complications of cancer at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 71.

Diana D. Plitt of East Hampton, a painter, watercolorist, and sketch artist who was a past president of the Artists Alliance of East Hampton, died in Southampton on June 4. She was 83.

In 1955, when she was 18 and still Diana Deutsch, her cousin Margaret Guissinger nominated her for the Miss America beauty pageant, and she was crowned Miss New York State. She went on to study at the Pratt Institute in Manhattan, the beginning of a distinguished career in the arts.