Obituaries

  Eugene Simonoff, who had a house in the Georgica Estates section of East Hampton, died at his residence in New York City on Oct. 14. He was 95.

  Mr. Simonoff was a mergers and acquisitions consultant whose firm, Eugene Simonoff and Associates, had clients such as BNA, The New York Times, John Wiley, Wolters Kluwer, and Thomson Reuters over the past 22 years. He was associated with publishing firms and read several newspapers every day. He was a particular fan of The New York Times and the letters section of The East Hampton Star.

    Nancy Anne Byrne of Woodcock Lane in East Hampton died on Nov. 1 while on vacation in Orlando, Fla. She was 41. Her familh did not provide the cause of death.

    Born in Monmouth, N.J., on May 27, 1971, she was adopted and raised on Shelter Island by Bob and Anne DeStefano. She attended school on Shelter Island from kindergarten through her 1989 graduation. While in high school, she played on the field hockey and golf teams and was a class officer.

    Hilde Tarkel Smith, a gentle woman who spent years maintaining two of Montauk’s more historic buildings, died at Southampton Hospital on Saturday, three weeks shy of her 90th birthday. She had been in failing health for several months.

    Visiting hours for Laura Connolly, 59, of Harbor Street, East Hampton, who died at home on Monday, will be today from 2 to 4 p.m. and this evening from 7 to 9 at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton.

    A funeral Mass will be said for her tomorrow at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton at 10 a.m. Burial will be at the church cemetery on Cedar Street.

    An obituary will appear in a future issue.

    Martin Benjamin Rubenstein of East Hampton, a former taxicab operator and driver for New York State Assemblyman Perry B. Duryea Jr. and a local youth football, Little League, and biddy basketball coach, died at Southampton Hospital on Nov. 4. He was 86, and been diagnosed with metastasized bone cancer nine days earlier.

    Peter Gettinger, a financier and movie producer who had a house on East Hollow Road in East Hampton Village from 1978 to 2005, died at home in Miami on Oct. 23. He was 84 and had been ill with cancer for 11 months.

    He financed many films, including the Martin Luther King Jr. documentary “Montgomery to Memphis,” co-produced the feature “Force 10 From Navarone,” and produced two documentaries on China. In 1973, he was the executive producer of the made-for-TV movie “The President’s Plane Is Missing.”

Walter Herlitschek, a resident of East Hampton for more than 40 years, died at home on Friday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., just two weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. A man of many interests, he had lifelong passions for painting, travel, cooking, reading, gardening, music, collecting, and dogs. He remained curious and interested in new experiences despite his recent failing health.

    Gary Persan, a commercial fisherman in Montauk for many years, died on Oct. 19 in Melbourne, Fla., following a head injury resulting from a fall at home. He was 63 and had suffered from chronic Lyme disease, which left him disabled in recent years.

    His brother Robert Persan said he had been among the first Long Islanders diagnosed with the illness in the 1970s.

    Born in Mineola on Dec. 14, 1949, to Edgar Persan and the former Betty Sanders, Mr. Persan attended school there and began to visit his family’s summer house in Montauk in the 1960s.

    Albert Francis Sharp, a painter who lived on Buell Lane in East Hampton, died at his home studio on Sept. 29. He was 90.

    “His love of life, his love of his many devoted friends, and his love of the arts and nature was his essence,” an obituary prepared by Carroll West Jones and several other of his friends said. “His sense of humor was hilarious and he was a raconteur par excellence, ever ready to regale us with amusing stories from his wide and colorful experiences.”

    “He lived every day with a smile on his face and joy in his heart,” they said.

    Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor has announced the death Tuesday of Avis Freidah of that village. Funeral arrangements were not complete as of yesterday afternoon. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Ward Mohrfeld, a longtime resident of Floyd Street in East Hampton, died on Aug. 12 at the Westhampton Care Center following cardiac surgery on July 27 at Stony Brook University Medical Center. He was 76 years old.

Robert Godfrey Plitt, for more than three decades the owner of Plitt Ford Mercury, died of natural causes at home in East Hampton Village on Aug. 19. He was 87

Winifred Peckham Miller, a former East Hampton resident, died on Aug. 21 at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home in Winston-Salem, N.C., after a 12-year battle with breast cancer. She was 68.

Stanley R. Schellinger of Sandra Road in Springs died of lymphoma on Aug. 9 at Southampton Hospital at the age of 79.

    Visiting hours for Sherry Kiger of East Hampton, who died on Monday at 65, will be at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton tomorrow from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral is planned for 10 a.m. Saturday at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Thomas Murphy, an educator who lived on Devon Road, Amagansett, and in Lloyd Harbor, died on July 10 at Huntington Hospital. He was 75 years old.

Ron Sauers, a skilled designer and building contractor known for his attention to detail, died on Aug. 14 after a long battle with cancer. He was 73.

D. Elizabeth R. Stonemetz of Cross Highway in Amagansett died on Aug. 9 at the Westhampton Care Center. She was 94.

Joseph W. Sherry of Sag Harbor, a veteran of three American military actions, died on Aug. 2. He was 84.

A service for Bobby Charles Shea will be held today at 3 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton.

Lisette Blumenfeld Georges died on Monday in New York City as a result of complications of Crohn’s disease. She was 89 years old.

Andrea Cavagnaro Tillman died on Aug. 7 at the San Simeon by the Sound Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Greenport. She was 64.

John E. Harrington

    John E. Harrington, 80, former chief financial officer of AT&T and resident of Amagansett and Stamford, Conn., died at his Connecticut house on Aug. 8 after a long illness.

    A native New Yorker and the eldest of three sons, Mr. Harrington began his career at New York Telephone in New York City in 1955, two years before receiving a master’s degree in business administration from New York University. He rose through the ranks to become a vice president and controller, retiring from AT&T in 1987.

    A funeral Mass for Katharine E. MacNiven will be said Monday at 11 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Ms. MacNiven died on July 25 at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx. She was 49 and had lived in Amagansett.

    A complete obituary will appear in a future issue.

William B. Gleckman of Apaquogue Road, East Hampton, and New York City died at the Good Shepherd Hospice in Port Jefferson on July 25 at the age of 79 following a stroke.

    Beverly Ann Rodenbeck, who lived in East Hampton for many years, died in Brick, N.J., on July 10 after a four-year battle with cancer. She was 72.

    Born in Manhattan on June 12, 1939, to John Baldwin Meeker and the former Emily Ann Rice, who later moved to East Hampton, Ms. Rodenbeck graduated from East Hampton High School and Union Junior College in Cranford, N.J. On Nov. 19, 1966, she was married to Donald Rodenbeck. They moved to Westfield, N.J., and lived there for 31 years. For much of that time Ms. Rodenbeck worked at Breuninger Brothers, an insurance firm.

Joan Hagen Anderson Stone, an 11th-generation native of East Hampton, died at home on Sunday surrounded by her family.

Joan Marie Reyes of Sag Harbor and Middlebury, Vt., died there on Oct. 20, 2010, after a yearlong bout with esophageal cancer at 75.

Arthur J. Rossi, who lived on Tyrone Drive in Springs for many years, died in Oldsmar, Fla., last Thursday at the age of 90.

    A memorial for Frederick L. Butts Jr., a former East Hampton Town assessor, who died on March 20 in Dunedin, Fla., will be held at St. Andrew’s Cemetery in Sag Harbor at 11 a.m. on Aug. 6.