David Franzetti
David Franzetti, a surfer and former owner, with his wife, Nora, of the Four Oaks Deli down by the docks in Montauk, died at home on Pocahontas Lane of complications of a rare neurological disease. He was 55.
Mr. Franzetti arrived in Montauk in the early 1970s in search of waves. There he met the former Nora Valcich. She was 16, he was 20. She knew even then that he was the man for her, Ms. Franzetti told the congregation during a funeral Mass at St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church on Saturday. The couple were married in November of 1978.
He was born on May 17, 1953, in Tenafly, N.J., a son of Edgar Franzetti and the former Mary Malone. He graduated from Tenafly High School and went on to the Denver Automotive school in Colorado. From 1975 to 1982 he worked as an automotive painter.
He and Nora ran the popular Four Oaks Deli and its adjoining bakery, motel, and cottages from 1982 to 2001, when Mr. Franzetti started a home maintenance business. Ms. Franzetti said yesterday that she was heartened by the number of friends who turned out for her husband’s funeral service, and by the many e-mails and condolence letters she had received, many of which included fond memories of the Franzettis’ Four Oaks years.
Mr. Franzetti’s favorite surf spot in Montauk was the “dirt lot” break at Ditch Plain. He was a regular in the waves there until 2006, shortly after he was diagnosed with corticobasal syndrome, a degenerative nerve disease. His father died in 2003 of a similar disease.
In addition to his mother, wife, and two daughters, Catherine, 21, and Meghan, 19, both of Montauk, Mr. Franzetti is survived by his brother, Peter, of Long Beach, Calif., and sister, Alice Apice of Cresskill, N.J. He also leaves three nephews and four nieces.
A gathering of friends and family took place at the Second House Tavern following the funeral Mass on Saturday. Memorial contributions were suggested to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
Helen B. Vorpahl
Helen B. Vorpahl, a resident of Windmill Village in East Hampton who owned and operated Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett for nearly three decades, died on Dec. 23 at Southampton Hospital. She was 91.
Mrs. Vorpahl was born May 20, 1917, in Mount Vernon, N.Y., to Arthur and Eleanora Hostle Bengtson. When she was a girl, her family moved between New York and California several times before finally settling in Montauk.
Her father joined the Army shortly after she was born and served in England and France in World War I. During his service he became sick from carbon monoxide poisoning, and he was advised upon his discharge to live in a clean-air climate. With that in mind, Mrs. Vorpahl’s family drove cross-country in 1920 to San Diego. They lived in Hume, Calif., for a few years, then drove back east to Mount Vernon for business reasons.
In 1926, the family again headed west to Julian, Calif., where Mrs. Vorpahl’s father started a gas station and repair shop. In 1930, they returned to New York, this time by steamship via the Panama Canal, and moved into one of their summer houses at the fishing village in Montauk.
Mrs. Vorpahl graduated in 1935 from East Hampton High School and was hired as a secretary for Perry B. Duryea Sr. in the mid-1930s. She was working for him when the 1938 Hurricane hit. She and other employees rode out some of the hurricane at the lobster house until a boat came through the side of the building, forcing them to seek refuge up the hill on the lee side of the Mallard Inn.
She was married the following year to Stuart Vorpahl Sr. and moved to Oak Lane in Amagansett. The couple had six children, and in 1948 they took in a seventh, Helen Holste, who was Mrs. Vorpahl’s cousin from the Bronx.
Mrs. Vorpahl’s father built the first dock and a diner for the charter boats on Lake Montauk, where Gosman’s Dock is today. In addition to fishing, the Vorpahls ran the diner and worked with the whole family at the dock.
In 1955, her husband started Stuart’s Freezer, a bait-packing business and shipping house from which local fishermen could ship their catch to the Fulton Fish Market in Lower Manhatten. According to her family, the retail trade in fresh fish began when Robert Gwathmey, the architect, followed an ocean haul-seine truck to Oak Lane to buy a striped bass. Mrs. Vorpahl sold Stuart’s Seafood in the early 1980s.
After that, she worked for many years at the East Hampton Library. When she retired from that job, she volunteered for Meals on Wheels and the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society bookstore. She had also served as a Girl Scout leader and a member of the Amagansett Presbyterian Church women’s guild. Her lifelong passions were reading and playing the piano, her family said.
Mrs. Vorpahl is survived by three daughters, Judy Bennett of Amagansett, Eleanor Miller of East Hampton, and Vivian Edwards of Elloree, S.C., and a son, Stuart Vorpahl of Amagansett. She also leaves her cousin, Helen Holste Payne of East Hampton, her brother, Leslie Bengston of Nesconset, 11 grandchildren, and 23 great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Vorpahl’s husband died before her, as did two sons, William and Gordon Vorpahl.
Visiting and a service took place on Dec. 26 at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Mrs. Vorpahl was cremated. A private graveside service was held on Saturday at Oakview Cemetery in Amagansett.
Her family has suggested memorial donations in her name to either the Amagansett Ambulance Company, P.O. Box 470, Amagansett 11930, or to the East Hampton Ambulance Association, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937.
Lynn Larson, 60
Lynn K. Larson of Deerfield Road in Water Mill died on Dec. 13. She was 60 and had had inflammatory breast cancer, her family said.
Ms. Larson was born on June 1, 1948, in Englewood, N.J., to Jack Rudder and the former Lorna Stoute, both of whom were from Barbados. Her parents were among the founding members of the Sag Harbor Hills residential community, where they built a house in the 1950s.
After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and working as a graphic artist for a number of years in New York, New Jersey, and California, she returned to the Sag Harbor summer house to live permanently with her husband, Rick Larson.
Ms. Larson had great affection for Sag Harbor and the East End’s quality of life, her family said. A daughter, Erika, was born in 1983, and a son, Mark, was born in 1985.
Though she ultimately focused on caring for her family, Ms. Larson never lost her enthusiasm for the arts. She frequented local museums and galleries and collected a range of art objects that decorated her house.
Dating back to her days as a cheerleader at Englewood High School in New Jersey, Ms. Larson loved sports, especially football and baseball. She rooted for all the New York teams.
Another pastime she was passionate about was thoroughbred horse racing. While living in California, she frequently worked as a hostess at the Santa Anita racetrack during the time that her husband worked there in the publicity department.
After their return to New York, the couple became owners and breeders of numerous horses that they raced at Belmont, Saratoga, and Aqueduct under the names of East End Stable, Southampton Stable, and Carpe Diem Stable. She was in the winner’s circle many times, her family said.
She was described by her family as a “devoted wife and mother graced with a genuine selflessness.” She was especially proud of the accomplishments of her children, who attended the Southampton public schools and then went on to graduate from Ivy League colleges, her daughter from Harvard and her son from Yale.
In addition to her husband of 31 years and her children, a sister, Ann Rudder of Barbados survives her. There were no formal services.
The family has suggested donations in her memory to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
Christine Joan Corsiglia, formerly of Sag Harbor, died on Dec. 30 at a hospice in Sun City Center, Fla., where she had lived. She was 89.
Mrs. Corsiglia was born at home on Cross Street in Sag Harbor on April 22, 1919, and lived there most of her life, much later moving to the nearby Harbor Close Condominiums.
Her parents were Louis Remkus and the former Bessie Lassuti. She went to the St. Andrew’s Catholic Church School and attended Pierson High School, though she did not graduate. As a young woman, she worked as a waitress at Sag Harbor’s Paradise Restaurant.
She married an East Hampton man, Reynold Hulse, on Nov. 28, 1936. That marriage ended in divorce.
While in Sag Harbor, she was active in the Columbiettes, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, and the St. Andrew’s Altar Society. She worked for a time in the St. Andrew’s rectory as a cook, said her daughter, Joan Feehan of Sag Harbor and Sun City Center.
In 1964, she married Louis Corsiglia of Staten Island. He died in 1974.
She was the last of four siblings. Elizabeth Checchi, Sophia Finckenauer, and Louis Remkus died before her, as did a son, James Hulse.
In addition to Ms. Feehan, a son, Reynolds Hulse of Boothbay, Me., and 10 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and 5 nieces and nephews survive her.
Members of the Columbiettes held a service for her at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor on Sunday afternoon. A funeral Mass for her was said at St. Andrew’s on Monday morning, and she was buried in the church cemetery.
Ms. Corsiglia’s family has suggested memorial donations to the Sag Harbor Ambulance Fund, Box 2725, Sag Harbor 11963.
Christian Wolffer, Sagaponack Winemaker
Always pushing the envelope, Christian Wolffer made news in the wine industry when, in 2002, the Wolffer Estate Vineyard released a merlot at $100 a bottle. Never before had a Long Island merlot been priced so high, and experts on New York wines could not recall one with such a price tag on its release.
A bon vivant by all accounts, Mr. Wolffer attacked life with enthusiasm, several business associates said. His zest was applied to his business ventures, as well.
He had a reputation as a jet-setter and something of a playboy, Louisa Thomas Hargrave, who pioneered winemaking on the North Fork, said. At the core, he had the understanding of a true vintner, she said. “I think he understood what the potential was for a winery on Long Island to be something that really fit in with the leading wineries of the world.”
He was a part of the second wave of leading vintners on Long Island. Charles Massoud, who owns the Paumnok Vineyard in Aquebogue, said Mr. Wolffer was “committed to quality and excellence,” and always worked to promote the East End industry, not just his own vineyard.
Mr. Massoud said Mr. Wolffer was an inspiration. “He lived every day as if it were the last day of his life.”
Visiting friends in Paraty, Brazil, it was no surprise that Mr. Wolffer swam in the ocean off the coast. While in the water on Dec. 31, he was struck by a passing boat’s propeller and died on the way to the hospital. He was 70.
He chose to spend much of his time in Sagaponack, where he owned a house on Sagg Road. As a world traveler who spoke six languages, he had his choice of places to call home. In 1996, he told The East Hampton Star that the area had “a similar feeling” to Sylt, Germany, a resort island in the North Sea, where he spent summers as a child.
Friends had advised against buying acreage in the less-coveted area of Sagaponack north of Montauk Highway, but he said he saw potential in the house and 14 acres of potato fields that he bought in 1977.
Almost immediately, he built a tennis court next to his house. One story in the article in The Star had it that “the crunching underfoot of potato beetles from the surrounding fields made it difficult to play. He began buying up that land as well, with the idea of eradicating the pests by planting grapes.”
He researched the area and found that the soil had nurtured grapes in the 1700s. While the chemicals used when potatoes were grown there diminished the soil, he believed it could support a vineyard, which he founded in 1987. The first vintage followed in 1991.
Wolffer Estate grew to 175 acres of what has become some of the most desirable land on the South Fork. It includes a state-of-the-art equestrian facility on Narrow Lane East and the vineyards that run south to Montauk Highway and west to Sagg Road.
At one time, Mr. Wolffer had no money for a farm of his own, he told The Star. In postwar Hamburg, Germany, where he was born, he had trained at a bank and an import-export company at 17, but left school two years later, when his father, a commodities broker, had some bad luck.
His father and grandfather were gentlemen farmers, as he described it. Along with his great-grandfather, they had “huge holdings,” Mr. Wolffer said, in the former duchy of Mecklenberg, in northeast Germany.
In the late 1960s, Mr. Wolffer worked in Argentina, playing polo on the side. Later, he moved to Mexico while working for the German chemical company BASF, and managed its sales team. He also held a position with Intergrafica in Mexico, overseeing all of its South American sales.
He established a real estate brokerage firm in Canada in 1971 and worked his way into international real estate development. After he moved to this country, he founded Euro Investors, a venture capital company that finances enterprises in Hawaii — most notably a park — and Florida.
After two decades of travel to England, South America, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, he settled year round in Sagaponack in 1991. Right away, he began designing Wolffer Estate Stables, a luxury equestrian center for schooling, breeding, and year-round boarding and instruction. As the owner, he became a major player in the equestrian community on the East End, attracting top riders such as Federico Sztyrle, a Grand Prix Olympic rider from Argentina.
Wolffer Estate has been a sponsor of the annual Hampton Classic Horse Show in Bridgehampton. “He was basically a fixture at the show,” Shanette Barth Cohen, its director, said. “He was not just someone who would show up on Grand Prix Sunday.”
He was hands-on in running his businesses. In the estate’s sponsorship of the horse show, he was familiar with every element of the package, Ms. Cohen said. He often inspected the grounds and its landscaping.
In designing the 11,000-square-foot winery building, he found blacksmiths in Mexico to make custom door hinges and light fixtures, Ms. Hargrave said. He once told her how important the doors to the building were, as “they opened a portal to a new experience.”
Mr. Wolffer could be temperamental, Ms. Hargrave said. “But he was always incredibly generous and gentle,” she added.
He could be “a pretty demanding fellow,” Mr. Massoud said. “This is how people tend to be successful.”
Mr. Wolffer’s first marriage ended in divorce, as did his second marriage, to Naomi Marks, whose family founded the Marks & Spencer retail chain in Britain. Marc Wolffer and Andrea Wolffer, children from his first marriage, survive, as do two daughters he had with Ms. Marks, Joanna (Joey) Wolffer and Georgina Wolffer. Seven grandchildren also survive. T.K.V.
Alfred E. Stewart
Alfred Edwin Stewart, the proprietor of Stewart Electric in East Hampton for 35 years and a former research engineer who helped the Air Force measure the effects of atomic blasts at its Nevada test site, died at home in Bridgehampton on Jan. 2. He was 80.
Mr. Stewart laid the groundwork for a long and varied career at New York University, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.
Three years after graduating, he joined the Air Force as a commissioned officer. Capt. Stewart was stationed in Cambridge, Mass., during the Korean War before spending two years in Nevada, where, besides making and operating the instruments that measured the blast effects on capsules discharged into the air by the atomic explosions, he was also charged with heading out into the desert to pick up the capsules. “We would wait a couple of days for the radiation to cool down,” he said in a 2005 interview with The Star.
Upon his discharge from the Air Force, Mr. Stewart worked at the Sperry Gyroscope Company on Long Island for 16 years. He designed sonar and torpedo guidance systems, and served for two years as the chief liaison engineer in systems integration for the first missile-firing submarine, the George Washington, going to sea on the sub to test the systems.
In the 1970s, Mr. Stewart moved to the Caribbean island of St. Croix, where he was the president and plant manager at a yarn manufacturing company, Virgin Island Spinning Corporation, for four years, and set up and managed a plant that manufactured fake fur coats.
Mr. Stewart is survived by his wife, Helen Copper Stewart, to whom he was married on July 16, 2005. A previous marriage, to the former Patricia Ronson, ended in divorce in the early ’90s.
Besides Mrs. Stewart, two children from his first marriage survive: Eben Stewart of Wales and Matthew Stewart of Fairfax, Calif. A sister, Joan Levy of Rehovot, Israel, and four grandchildren also survive.
Born in the Bronx on May 23, 1928, the son of Edward Sugarman and the former Florence Bimstein, Mr. Stewart grew up in the Bronx and in Manhattan. He attended the High School of Music and Art for a year and then graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.
He enjoyed reading historical biographies as well as sailing. He ran a sail charter business in the Virgin Islands for five years, and, in East Hampton, kept a boat at Three Mile Harbor. A lover of music, he was a member of the Choral Society of the Hamptons, and had been a member of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons.
Mr. Stewart’s remains were cremated and his ashes will be dispersed at a future date. A service will be held on Monday at 1:30 p.m. at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Bridgehampton. The Rev. Timothy Lewis of St. Ann’s and Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman of the Jewish Center will preside.
Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Bridgehampton Ambulance Company, P.O. Box 1280, Bridgehampton 11932.
Arthur Seibold
Arthur John Seibold, who was known to friends here as Fish, died early Christmas morning at the University of Tennessee Hospital in Memphis. The 57-year-old had “succumbed to a long-term illness, which had destroyed his body but not his indomitable spirit or his irrepressible passion for life,” his stepbrother, Hand Todd of Memphis, wrote in an obituary.
Mr. Seibold first came to East Hampton to work at the James Lane Cafe and the Huntting Inn in 1991. Before that he had been a waiter for the Palm Corporation in Dallas, starting in 1984.
Over the years Mr. Seibold worked at a number of jobs at the Huntting Inn, where he also lived. “He called himself the richest man in the Hamptons because he had a room at the Hedges Inn and the Huntting Inn for many years,” John Grisch, a longtime friend, said.
“He was a buddy, a classic . . . and a character’s character,” said Joe Gonzalez, a friend who was used to seeing Mr. Seibold at Rowdy Hall, where Mr. Gonzalez works as a bartender. “He had a lot of Southern charm to him,” Mr. Gonzalez said, and “he loved talking about his travels,” including cross-country road trips.
Riding his red beach cruiser bicycle, Mr. Seibold was a familiar sight in the village. Several years ago, when his signature bike was stolen, friends put up signs and took up a collection to buy him a new one.
Mr. Seibold loved East Hampton and was especially fond of the golf courses hereabouts. “Wherever he could play barefoot where they wouldn’t catch him, that’s where he liked to play,” said Linda Calder, the Huntting Inn’s general manager. “He had the nicest personality and was a very dear, beloved employee of the Palm for many years,” she added.
According to a longtime friend, Gino Bombace, Mr. Seibold’s favorite golf course was Island’s End in Greenport, but he was also a devotee of the Montauk Downs. “He was an avid horticulturist,” he added. “We would walk down the golf course and he would tell me what every tree was. He always was very interested in plant life.”
Mr. Seibold also enjoyed strolling the ocean beaches. He loved to dance, Mr. Bombace said, and “he always talked about how he had always wanted to do Arthur Murray” ballroom dancing.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Mr. Seibold held a degree in psychology and liked to read newspapers and keep up with current events. According to his stepbrother, he left “a legion of friends from California to Texas, to Florida and Tennessee, and most recently East Hampton.”
He was born on Nov. 16, 1951, in Tennessee. His parents died before him. He is survived by a brother, George Seibold of Memphis, and by his stepbrother. A funeral service was held for Mr. Seibold in Memphis, and some of his ashes were buried alongside those of his parents in Jackson, Tenn.
Some of his ashes will be spread at one of his favorite golf courses on the East End. Ms. Calder is organizing a gathering in Mr. Seibold’s honor at the Palm at 5 p.m. on Jan. 21. “All friends are welcome,” Mr. Bombace said. K.M.
Frank Posillico died at home on Saturday on Gardiner Avenue in Springs, where he had lived for 25 years. He was 75 and had been sick with back problems for some time, his wife, Claire Posillico, said.
The Posillicos had also lived on Springs-Fireplace Road in Springs, where they ran the Fireplace Deli in the spot where Plain and Fancy used to be. They opened the deli around 1971 and kept it going until about 1980.
Mr. Posillico also worked as an inventory controller in Great River for the Grumman Corporation. He took early retirement over 20 years ago when the company started cutting back, then started raising Japanese maple trees in his backyard, more as a pastime, his wife said, than as a livelihood.
He would pick the small wild trees growing underneath the big ones, put them in pots, and sell them from whatever spot he could, sometimes parking on the side of the road in Bridgehampton.
“He wasn’t one to sit around,” his wife said. Mr. Posillico had played golf earlier in life and enjoyed watching the sport on television. He and his wife used to bowl with leagues in East Hampton as well.
He was born in Westbury on May 27, 1933, to Paul Posillico and the former Maria Martone. He grew up in Westbury and attended Westbury High School. Mr. Posillico served in the Navy during the Korean War from 1951 to 1955. He toured the world on ship duty, his wife said, but did not see combat.
He and Claire Baldwin were married in 1954, when he was still in the Navy. They had met during high school.
“My cousin and my parents came out here in summers, and we just followed them out here, we loved it so much,” his wife said. They moved to Springs full time in 1971.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Posillico is survived by three children, Frank Posillico, Susan Morales, and Robert Posillico, all of East Hampton. Two brothers and one sister also survive. They are Paul Posillico of Lindenhurst, Anthony Posillico of Merrick, and Mary White of Louisville, Ky. Five grandchildren and 19 nieces and nephews also survive.
Visiting was on Monday at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home. A funeral service was held on Tuesday at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, followed by burial in the church cemetery.
Donations have been suggested to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978 or to the Dominican Sisters Family Health Service, 31 East Montauk Highway, Hampton Bays 11946.
Margaret Ambrose of Sherrill Road in East Hampton died on Tuesday at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. She was 93. A Mass for her will be said tomorrow morning at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton is handling the arrangements.
Hilary Ostlere of South Fairview Avenue in Montauk died on Sunday at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx. She had pancreatic cancer. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.
Cornelius Wilson, who had owned Wilson’s Antiques in Sagaponack, died yesterday at home in Springs. Arrangements are being made with Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A date and time for a service has not been set. A complete obituary will appear in a future issue.