Obituaries

Susan H. Rockford, an attorney and active member of the East End arts community, died of complications of ovarian cancer at Tidewell Hospice House in Venice, Fla., on July 15. She was 66.

After retiring as an attorney for the City of New York in 2003, Ms. Rockford moved to Shelter Island, where she rediscovered and nourished her lifelong passion for the arts. Originally a photographer, she turned to abstract painting, creating a series of tactile, multi-textured pieces on canvas and linen.

Donald T. Foley, a fighter pilot during World War II who was instrumental in developing the Montauk Airport and had overseen the opening of nine airport terminals at Newark, LaGuardia, and Kennedy Airports, died at his Montauk home on June 30. He was 93 and his health had been declining over the past year.  

Dorothy T. King, who was in charge of the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection for 31 years, died at Southampton Hospital on Saturday following a stroke. She was 84.

A resident of Gerard Drive in Springs for 43 years, Ms. King retired from the library in 2002 but continued to volunteer there until 2005. She was “a gold mine of information,” Ann Chapman, a library board member, told The Star for a story about Ms. King after her retirement.

Elia Millan, a native of Colombia who made Montauk her home for 30 years, died at Southampton Hospital last Thursday. Diagnosed with cancer several years ago, she had not been really ill until two months ago.

A funeral for Robert E. Kalbacher of Springs is to be held today at 11 a.m. at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett. Mr. Kalbacher, who was 82, died on Saturday. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Pauline Wittmer, who had lived with her daughter on Manor Lane in East Hampton for the past 10 years, died of renal failure on June 29 at San Simeon by the Sound Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Greenport. She was 83 and had been ill for some time.

Mrs. Wittmer was born in Hewlett on Nov. 13, 1931, to Allen Smith and the former Gladys Morrison. She grew up and attended high school there, said her daughter, Jerilyn Giaime.

Visiting hours for Tom Tillinghast, a former East Hampton resident who died on July 14 in Southold, where he had been living in recent years, will be held on Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

Burial will be Friday at 11 a.m. at South End Cemetery overlooking Town Pond in East Hampton. An obituary for Mr. Tillinghast, who was 61, will appear in a future issue.

Growing up Jewish in pre-Hitler Poland with a series of nurses and nannies who sang to him in a Babel of native tongues, Yehuda Nir could read or speak seven languages by the time he was 10. The one that helped save his life, though, he did not learn until he was 11, soon after his father was murdered — Latin, which allowed the blond-haired child not only to pass as a Roman Catholic, but even to serve as an altar boy.

Brian Gayman, an artist who designed and built a Modernist house in Springs, died on July 1 in Melville. He had been ill for five weeks following a heart attack. He was 65.

Mr. Gayman and his wife, Bonnie Rychlak, who survives him and is an artist as well, first came to the East End in 1995, when they rented a house in Montauk. Ms. Rychlak said they “looked around at different areas in which to buy, but Brian just fell in love with Springs. There was its history, but, most important, it felt authentic.” They bought a lot on Neck Path that year.

A memorial service for Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Keller of Montauk, who died in her sleep at home at Camp Hero on Dec. 14, will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Nancy Howarth officiating. Mrs. Keller was 61.

Faith Dewitt Heppenheimer Chase, a summer resident of East Hampton and a direct descendant of William Bradford of the Massachusetts Plymouth Colony, died last Thursday in Tucson after a short illness. She was 80.

Ms. Chase, a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, was active in the community, her daughter, Christina Chase Simonds of Lancaster, Pa., wrote. She was a volunteer for the Ladies Village Improvement Society, Guild Hall, East End Hospice, the Community Council of East Hampton, and Southampton Hospital.

Jeffrey Steven Bogetti, 46, died of brain cancer in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 30 following a four-and-a-half-year illness.

Mr. Bogetti, a roofing contractor who surfed and passed on his love for the water through his work with the East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue Squad and as an instructor of junior lifeguards here, was born on Sept. 25, 1967, in Bronxville, N.Y.

Joseph Kazickas, a summer resident of East Hampton for 55 years, died of kidney failure on July 9 at his home on Egypt Lane. Mr. Kazickas, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, was 96 years old.

Michael Ehrhardt, a travel writer for Conde Nast for 30 years, died on Feb. 4 at St. Barnabas Hospital in Short Hills, N.J., The Star has learned. A former resident of Old Orchard Lane in East Hampton, he was 64 years old and lived in Roseland, N.J.

He was being treated for a recurrence of multiple myeloma and had been hospitalized for about a month when he had a heart attack, according to Howard Cavallero, his companion of 23 years.

Monte Wolfson, a retail executive who had a key role in engineering some of the most important innovations of the modern apparel industry, died at Calvary Hospital Hospice in the Bronx on July 2 after a brief illness. He was 91.

He was an East Hampton summer resident for over 40 years, building one of the first houses on East Hollow Road in Georgica in 1974, said his daughter, Suzanne Wolfson. “My father loved Georgica Beach and would head over there with his beach chair at around 5 p.m. every day that he could,” Ms. Wolfson wrote. He also lived in Manhattan.

William E. Matthews enjoyed fishing, especially freshwater fishing in Maine. He took up decoy carving in his retirement, and he enjoyed golf and photography, but “everything else was secondary to his grandchildren,” his son, Dave Matthews, said.

He had two grandsons and twin granddaughters, now ranging in age from their teens to 20s, who visited him and his wife, Catherine, every summer in East Hampton. “He loved to spend time with them,” Mrs. Matthews said.

Frank Salvatore LaBarbera of Springs, who was diagnosed with leukemia eight years ago, died at Stony Brook University Hospital on Saturday at the age of 48.

Mr. LaBarbera kept his sense of humor and positive spirit, his family said, despite his health issues. He had juvenile rheumatoid arthritis as a child and astounding resiliency throughout several remissions. In fact, said the family, his almost miraculous recoveries led hospital staff to nickname him Wonder Boy.

John J. Crimmins Sr., an electrician and electrical foreman in New York City with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local No. 3 for more than 40 years, took great pride in his work, his family said. He recently received his 65-year union membership pin. Formerly of Lakeland, Fla., and Mineola, Mr. Crimmins died on Sunday at his daughter’s house in East Hampton, surrounded by family. He was 90.

Lawrence A. Nelson, formerly of New York and Sag Harbor, died in Scottsdale, Ariz., on June 22. He was 80 and had been ill with liver and bile duct cancer.

Mr. Nelson was born on June 2, 1934, in Detroit. After graduating from Michigan State University, he moved to New York, where he pursued a career in advertising. While living in Sag Harbor, Mr. Nelson was a member of the East Hampton Tennis Club and the Noyac Golf Club.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Nelson of Scottsdale. Burial will be at the family’s plot in Detroit.

Mary A. Steere loved to read, and it was almost a rule that conversation at her Beach Hampton house would not begin on the weekends until 5 p.m. had come and gone. First-time guests could be puzzled by the silence as Ms. Steere and various family members pored through their books, thinking that they had perhaps done something to offend.

The truth was just the opposite. Ms. Steere loved to cook and entertain just as much as she enjoyed her novels, though it was clear that there were distinct times when both where appropriate.

Ronald J. Humphreys, a retired East Hampton Village Police officer who was president of its Police Benevolent Association for years, died of renal failure on June 28 at Southampton Hospital. He was 71. Known as “Big Ron,” he was “always on top of the world,” his family said.

Yves Antoine Bourel, a 22-year-old former Noyac resident, died on July 2 at Newport Hospital in Newport, R.I., after having collapsed the previous day. His family said doctors are not exactly sure why he went into cardiac arrest.

Eli Wallach, a consummate character actor whose career bridged the acting techniques of the 20th century, died on June 24 at home in Manhattan at the age of 98. Mr. Wallach and his wife, the actress Anne Jackson, had a house in East Hampton for many years.

Elsie J. Edwards, who lived on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett for 66 of her nearly 93 years, died at home on Friday. Her health had been in decline over the last several months, said her son, Bruce J. Edwards of Richmond, Va.

A member of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church, she loved music and sang in the church choir, her son said. She was a determined woman with an energetic spirit, he said.

Janet Carolyn Mundus, who was a fixture in Montauk for many years, died at home on Sunday. She was 88.

Mrs. Mundus was fun-loving and a hard worker with a keen intellect, her family said, and had been married to Frank Mundus, the celebrated shark fisherman.

Nancy Paula Jensen-Norris, an East Hampton native who served for 28 years as a nurse at Southampton Hospital, died on June 21 in Gray, Me. She was 74 and had ovarian cancer for the last five years.

Paul Schiavoni, a member of a large Sag Harbor family and a former member of the Sag Harbor School Board, died at his home on North Haven on June 26. A painting and wallpaper contractor who retired two years ago, he had A.L.S., a neurodegenerative condition known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for three years. He was 74.

Sandra Steinlauf, a former Montauk columnist for The East Hampton Star, died on May 27 in Boca Raton, Fla., at the age of 73. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three and a half years ago.

After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1962, she married Bernard Steinlauf, and the couple moved to Montauk, where, for 15 years, they owned the Takamatzia Motel. Ms. Steinlauf was president of the Montauk PTA, where she implemented a screening program for amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye.

Franco Stephen Denaro, a chef, caterer, and food stylist who lived on Joshua Edwards Court in East Hampton, died on May 28 at Southampton Hospital. Mr. Denaro, who was 61, had a heart attack at the Ross School, where he worked as a chef.

He was a talented gardener and fisherman, said his son, Stephen Denaro of East Hampton. “He was a good guy, an honorable guy,” he said.

Howard T. Rosen, a New Jersey attorney who often took the month of August off to spend with his family on Sandpiper Lane in Amagansett, died at the age of 86 on May 23 in Naples, Fla. He had been in constant, low-level pain since knee replacement surgery eight years ago, his son Jim Rosen said.