Burt Glinn, Veteran
Burt Glinn, a photojournalist and one of the first American members of Magnum Photos, died on April 9 at Southampton Hospital of pneumonia and kidney failure. He was 82 and had been in ill health for some time.
Mr. Glinn, whose long career took him all over the world, always credited his time at The Harvard Crimson as being one of the two or three “formative experiences in my whole career.” Mr. Glinn was admitted to Harvard after World War II had begun, and he was able to attend only after serving as an artilleryman in the Army from 1943 to 1946.
Although he became well known for his photographs of Fidel Castro taking over Cuba and his coverage of the Sinai War, the Vietnam War, the Six Day War, and the U.S. Marine invasion of Lebanon, Mr. Glinn was a newspaperman at first, having grown up with parents who were politically active. He was told during the competitive application process at The Crimson that he would have a better chance of getting in if he wanted to be a photographer and so, “I started that way,” he told an editor at the American Society of Media Photographers in 2007, a professional association started in 1944, of which he was president in the 1960s.
But, as he said in the interview, “I still think back to The Crimson, and although I’ve worked with most of the major publications in the world now, I still think that The Crimson was the best.”
At Life magazine, Mr. Glinn was hired in 1940 as an assistant photographer and worked with Alfred Eisenstadt, Cornell Capa, and, through Mr. Capa, he met his brother Robert Capa, who later hired him at Magnum Photos, an international cooperative founded by a group that included Henri Cartier-Bresson, with offices in New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo.
Mr. Glinn spent a lot of time carrying strobe lights and power packs for the Life photographers he assisted, including Gjon Mili, who became a close friend. “I think I learned more from Mili and the Life photographers for whom I carried bags than I did from anybody else in my life,” he said.
Mr. Glinn was active in the movement to protect photographers’ rights to their work, a battle that Magnum and ASMP were in the forefront of. It is because of those efforts, he said in 2007, that “I am sitting here [in Springs] in a 600-square-foot office/studio that we built out here. I am surrounded by thousands and thousands of transparencies that are categorized by story number and subject and everything. This all came out of the insistence on owning our own material.”
In addition to Life, Mr. Glinn worked for National Geographic, Esquire, Travel and Leisure, Fortune, Geo, Paris-Match, and Holiday magazine, for which he did special issues on Russia, Japan, Mexico, and the islands of the South Pacific. His photo-essay on the latter won the 1960 Mathew Brady magazine photographer of the year award from the University of Missouri and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Laurens van der Post, a well-known South African writer, did the writing and later he and Mr. Glinn collaborated on the books “A Portrait of All the Russias” and “A Portrait of Japan.”
At the end of December 1958, Mr. Glinn started the evening at a New Year’s Eve party and by 7 a.m. on Jan. 1, 1959, he had landed in Havana, “not knowing what the hell I was going to do and with no contacts.” The country was in chaos. “There was a lot of shooting in the street,” he said. “There was nobody in charge. The Batista people had left and the Castro people hadn’t arrived.” Because of Mr. Glinn’s decision to continue shooting in black and white (“because I thought it was a black-and-white story”), he did not get a cover shot in Life, but “I got a picture that’s in a lot of people’s collections now, and I think that was a good decision to make.”
In 1959, Mr. Glinn was in Washington, D.C., covering Nikita Khrushchev’s visit. It was the end of the day and the photographer was tired and arrived late at the Lincoln Memorial, where the Soviet leader was making a stop. When Mr. Glinn finally arrived, he realized that he was standing right behind Khrushchev, who was looking up at Lincoln’s statue, not in front with the pack of other photographers and journalists. In the end, Life bought his photograph and ran it as a double page. “I consider that picture a personal triumph. It was the kind of picture a journalist always hopes he’s going to be able to get. You’re only going to get it through luck. I like that.”
Mr. Glinn also did commercial photography for Pepsico, General Motors, and Revlon, as well as shooting advertising photographs for Seagram and Foster-Grant sunglasses.
Asked about the difference in the demands placed on his work depending on whether the job was commercial or journalistic, Mr. Glinn replied, “For ads and commercial work, I try to create a situation in which people can react in real ways. For journalism, I don’t touch a thing, I don’t tell anybody to go there and sit there or move there or do anything. I’m really devoted to the idea that this is too important to screw around with.”
Burton Samuel Glinn was born on July 23, 1925, in Pittsburgh, the son of A.H. Glinn and the former Fannie Roth. He studied history and literature at Harvard and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949.
Mr. Glinn’s most recent book, “Havana: The Revolutionary Moment,” came out in 2002. His work has been widely exhibited and is now on view at the Seattle Art Museum through May 3.
Mr. Glinn is survived by his wife, Elena Prohaska Glinn, whom he married in 1981, and their son, Samuel Pierson Glinn of Manhattan. A sister, Norma Madden of Pittsburgh, also survives. He was cremated and some of his ashes will be taken to Pittsburgh.
A small group met at his house on Springs-Fireplace Road on Friday. His family is planning a private memorial in New York City later in the spring. I.C.
Howard Hughes of Thistle Patch Lane on North Haven died on Saturday at Southampton Hospital. He was 94.
Mr. Hughes retired to North Haven in 1973 after a career at the Metropolitan Life home office in Manhattan that began in the 1920s and was interrupted only by his Army service in World War II.
He was born in New York City on Aug. 25, 1913, to William V. Hughes and the former Ella Rankeillor. His childhood was spent in the Bronx when it was still mostly farm country, the family said. He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx.
Mr. Hughes started in the mail room at Metropolitan Life during the Great Depression, his family said, working his way up over the years. He was stationed in England during World War II and worked transporting wounded troops to hospitals in the north of the country, out of the range of German bombers.
He married the former Irene Rothamel, with whom he had two children, William Hughes of Sag Harbor and Janet Schneider of East Hampton. All of them survive, as do two grandchildren.
Mr. Hughes was active in AARP and volunteered for a time at Southampton Hospital, his family said. They described him as a devoted, loving husband, father, and grandfather who was self-sacrificing on behalf of his family and others.
A service was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor on Monday and a Mass was said for him on Tuesday at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor. He was buried at Calverton National Cemetery.
The family has suggested memorial donations to St. Andrew’s Church, 135 Division Street, Sag Harbor 11963 or to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan Avenue, Floor 17, Chicago 60601.
Kathleen H. Baird
Kathleen Henrietta Baird, who moved to Sag Harbor from the West Indies island of Grenada more than 30 years ago, died on April 8 at the Southampton Care Center at Southampton Hospital. The cause was congestive heart failure, her family said. She was 83.
Ms. Baird followed her sister, Esther Edwards, and three children to the United States. She lived with Ms. Edwards at Ninevah Beach in Sag Harbor before moving to an apartment on Main Street.
Ms. Baird worked as a caretaker in the homes of those in need of assistance. “She enjoyed helping others,” one of her daughters, Bernadette Church of Bow Oarsman’s Road in East Hampton, said yesterday.
For years, Ms. Baird would volunteer to collect donations for the Eastville Community Historical Society’s annual fish fry. She did so up until last summer. “She had a good way with people,” her daughter said.
Ms. Baird also volunteered her time to the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry and was a member of the League of Women Voters. Every Sunday, she walked to Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor.
Born on Aug. 8, 1924, to Egbert Baird and the former Elfreda Edwards in St. George’s, Grenada, Ms. Baird attended St. George’s Anglican School.
In addition to Ms. Church, she is survived by another daughter, Tracy Yarbrough of Texas, and a son, Reginald Baird of Maine, who is a lieutenant general in the Coast Guard stationed in Maryland.
Ms. Baird is also survived by her sister Esther Edwards and another sister, Edith Edwards, both of Florida, as well as 8 grandchildren, 1 great-grandchild, and 10 nieces and nephews. A service was held on Saturday at Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor, followed by a burial service at Oakland Cemetery.
Memorial contributions have been suggested to Christ Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 570, Sag Harbor 11963, the Eastville Community Historical Society, P.O. Box 2036, Sag Harbor, or to the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry, P.O. Box 1241, Sag Harbor.
After Moe Stone retired some 30 years ago from a career in Manhattan, he tried to get in as much fishing in the waters around Montauk as possible, said his nephew Rich Bail of Scottsdale, Ariz.
From his Mozark II, a Luhrs powerboat, he reeled in plenty of bluefish and bass, some of which he would share with friends and neighbors near his house on Captain Kidd’s Path in Montauk. But some of the fish was destined for his smoker. Mr. Bail said that his uncle made superb smoked bluefish, not an easy task.
Mr. Stone, 95, who died in East Meadow on March 26 of conditions related to congestive heart failure, was self-taught, having attended school only until the eighth grade. He was a voracious reader and an outspoken conservative, his nephew said. While not taking a role in any political party, he made his views crystal clear to those around him, he said.
His interests were wide-ranging and included Shakespeare, history, and politics. He retired as a vice president in the American Arbitration Association in New York City.
He was born on Aug. 5, 1912, in Brooklyn to Julius Stone and the former Molly Messer. He spent much of his early years living in the Bronx, and then moved to Mineola. He served in the United States Army stateside during World War II.
Mr. Bail said that Mr. Stone spent nearly every minute he could in Montauk, with occasional sportfishing trips to Cabo San Lucas or Ixtapa, Mexico.
In addition to Mr. Bail and several other nephews and nieces, a sister, Dorothy Feinman of Mineola, survives him. Three other sisters died before him.
At Mr. Stone’s insistence, there was no funeral.
Leona D. Walton
Leona D. Walton of Abram’s Landing Road in Amagansett died on Saturday at Stony Brook University Hospital. She was 49. Her family said the cause of death was related to Down syndrome.
Ms. Walton was gregarious, her sister Michelle Chatfield of Amagansett said. Ms. Chatfield, who is known as Midge, said that Ms. Walton loved everybody she met. “She left a lot of broken hearts behind,” she said.
Ms. Walton was a regular performer in the East End Special Players theater group and was a star in its inaugural production of “The Mikado,” a mime version that the troupe performed for then-Gov. Mario Cuomo in Albany, Ms. Chatfield said.
A show by the East End Special Players at East Hampton High School on Tuesday was dedicated to her.
She was born on Dec. 2, 1958, to Robert A. Walton and the former Lillian Just. Her father survives; her mother died in 1989. She attended kindergarten at the Amagansett School, then, when the Board of Cooperative Education Services opened a center in Westhampton Beach, took classes there until she was 21.
After that, she continued to go to Westhampton, working in an Association for the Help of Retarded Children shelter workshop when she was needed, or doing other activities.
In addition to her father and sister, Ms. Walton is survived by another sister, Adele Walton of Amagansett, who is known as Dee Dee, and a brother, Robert J. Walton of Springs.
A funeral service was held on Monday at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Burial was on Tuesday at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton. The Rev. Robert Stuart, the former minister at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church, officiated.
Her family has suggested memorial donations to the East End Special Players, P.O. Box 232, East Hampton 11937 or to Elsa’s Ark, P.O. Box 2900, East Hampton 11937.
Hildegard Walburga Stuit, a native of Germany who traveled the world with her husband, a ship’s captain, and lived on Accabonac Road in East Hampton Village, died at home on Saturday. She was 98, and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.
Mrs. Stuit was 8 years old when she came to the United Sates with her grandmother to join her mother, who was already here. She grew up in New York City and attended high school and then college in Woodside, Queens. She spoke several languages and, as a young woman in the 1930s, worked as an office manager at a company that imported Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW automobiles.
At a Dutch social club in New York, she met Harm W. Stuit, and the couple were married in 1954. They lived in the city, but began to spend summers at the house on Accabonac Road, eventually spending most of the year there. Mr. Stuit predeceased his wife.
Born on Dec. 27, 1909, in Wurburg, Germany, Mrs. Stuit was the daughter of Julius Doerfler and the former Therese Puster. Mrs. Doerfler once ran a restaurant in Wainscott called the Oak Inn.
Mrs. Stuit is survived by a cousin, Mary Horstyng Stuit of the Netherlands. A service was held on April 9 at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, with the Rev. Donald Hanson presiding and speaking in Dutch. Burial followed at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery in East Hampton.
Alvin Bennett, a lifelong Bonacker and fisherman who lived on Neck Path in Springs, died of cardiac arrest on Saturday at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, where he had lived since December. He was 93.
“He was a hell of a great guy — everybody loved him,” said Mr. Bennett’s son, Allen B. Bennett of Amagansett. On the water, Mr. Bennett went trap fishing and clamming — “you name it, he did it,” his son said. “He loved that fishing — that was his hobby.”
Mr. Bennett worked also as a carpenter and a groundskeeper at the Maidstone Club golf course, and as a truck driver for the East Hampton Town Highway Department, from which he retired at age 74.
Born on April 11, 1915, he was the son of Reynolds and Ruth Bennett. His mother belonged to another local family, the Lesters. He attended grades one through eight at the Springs School.
During World War II, Mr. Bennett served in the Army from May of 1941 through October of 1945. He was a member of the East Hampton Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion Post in Amagansett.
He was married to the former Sarah L. Smith, who predeceased him. The couple had two children, Leslie H. Bennett, who is also deceased, and Allen Bennett.
A wake was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Monday night. The Rev. Shawn Williams of Christ Episcopal Church in Sag Harbor presided over a graveside service at Green River Cemetery in Springs on Tuesday.
John Philip Davis
John Philip Davis, who throughout his life spent a great deal of time with his father in Sag Harbor, died on Friday of complications after being hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer at Ocean Medical Center in Brick, N.J. He was 46.
Mr. Davis was an exceptionally popular teacher at Sea Girt Elementary School in New Jersey, where he also coached girls softball and basketball and was president of the Sea Girt Educational Association. His wake and funeral earlier this week were attended by hundreds of students and their parents, colleagues, relatives, and friends.
Like his father, Paul Davis, Mr. Davis was a natural artist and graphic designer. While studying he worked in his father’s studio, but he decided he did not like sitting at a drawing table all day.
Ultimately, his gift for encouraging others and his passion for sports led him to become a teacher and coach. After earning a bachelor’s degree in education from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, he taught elementary school in Montague, N.J., and later in Naples, Fla. While in Florida he also earned a master’s degree from Walden University in Bonita Springs.
Born on Aug. 25, 1961, in New York City, Mr. Davis attended high school in Rhode Island. A talented runner, he was captain of his high school track team in Charlestown, and later participated in college track in Rhode Island. He also attended Southampton College for a semester.
He had a fine singing voice and played guitar. In 1980, he was a summer theater intern at Guild Hall in East Hampton, and began entertaining thoughts of a career as an actor. Arriving in a red sweater as a last-minute extra for “Sweet Liberty,” filmed in and around Sag Harbor, he was chosen by the director, Alan Alda, to climb out a window in a schoolroom scene.
Mr. Davis went on to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, where he began to have some success in acting.
In 2001, when he was teaching, he moved with his family from Florida to the Jersey Shore. He leaves his wife of 19 years, the former Terry Van Gorden of Point Pleasant, N.J., and two daughters, Elizabeth, 14, and Laura, 12.
Besides his father, Mr. Davis is also survived by his mother, Elise Laviano of Naples, Fla., and Charlestown, two stepparents, Myrna Davis and Andrew Laviano, and two brothers, Matt Davis of Sag Harbor and James Laviano of Waltham, Mass.
Mr. Davis was buried at St. Catherine’s Cemetery in Sea Girt.
Edmund M. Tate
Edmund M. Tate of South Breeze Drive, East Hampton, and New York City died on March 16 in Palm Springs, Calif., following a fall. He was 84.
Mr. Tate, whose career began in radio and ended in advertising, became a vice president of the Ted Bates and Company agency in New York in 1965.
His first job was producing, writing, and directing radio shows at Tri County Broadcasting in Dubois, Pa., in the early 1940s.
He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was in the European Theater from October 1944 to 1945. He was captured by German forces during the Battle of Bastogne and held for six months as a prisoner of war.
After his discharge from the Army, he worked for RKO Pictures in Los Angeles and as a model. He moved to New York City after three years in California and became an assistant director in the commercial broadcast department at the Bates agency.
Mr. Tate was born on Feb. 16, 1924, in Avalon, Pa., to Edmund and Florence Tate. He graduated from Avalon High School in 1941 and studied commercial art at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh.
Hank Rybicki, his companion of 42 years, survives. A memorial service will be announced for a later date.