Timothy J. Engel

    A memorial gathering will be held at the Engel family home in Katonah, N.Y., on Saturday for Timothy J. Engel, who died on Oct. 27 at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. Mr. Engel had been troubled, and his death was the result of suicide, his family said. He would have been 60 years old on Dec. 4.
    Mr. Engel was well known on the South Fork. He lived in Sagaponack as a child and had worked on the Topping Horse Farm and in farming with his stepfather, the late Bud Topping, with whom he went hunting and ice boating.
    The writer Peter Matthiessen of Sagaponack remembered Mr. Engel as a warm and jolly young man who was kind to the Matthiessen children and provided spirit in a touch football game that was held over the years in a horse farm pasture. He also had worked on a ranch in Wyoming as a young man, an experience he treasured.
    Mr. Engel began his career as a reporter and writer for the CBS house magazine, and he was a speech writer for ABC, both in New York. He went on to work in marketing for the Dreyfus Corporation in New York and Fidelity Investments in Boston. He then managed family real estate holdings in White Plains, N.Y., and Greenwich, Conn.
    The son of Tinka D. Topping of Sagaponack, who survives, and the late Herman Engel of New York, he was born in New York City. He went to the Dalton School and graduated from the New Lincoln School, having also attended the Bridgehampton School for a time. He attended New York University.
    Jon Snow of Sagaponack remembers his brother-in-law as a deeply courteous and thoughtful person with whom he had shared three things important to both: Faulkner, poker, and tennis. “He was a great conversationalist. A great mind and great wit, he was one of the best-educated people I ever knew,” Mr. Snow said.
     Always athletic, Mr. Engel had coached recreational basketball, his favorite sport, as well as baseball and soccer from the time his children were 4 or 5 through their teenage years.
    Timothy and Elizabeth Mclanahan Engel had been married for 30 years. She survives, as do three children: Ruby Engel of Katonah, a senior at John Jay High School in Katonah, Gavin D. Engel, a senior at the Rhode Island School of Design, and Jasper Engel of Brooklyn, who works for American Corporate Partners, a nonprofit organization that mentors veterans seeking careers. Mr. Engel also is survived by three sisters: Kathy Engel of Sagaponack, Susan Engel of Great Barrington, Mass., and Jenno Topping of Santa Monica, Calif.
    The family has suggested contributions in Mr. Engel’s memory for the Ruby Engel College Scholarship Fund. They can be sent to Elizabeth Engel, 193 Todd Road, Katonah 10536.