Darragh A. Park, Bridgehampton Painter
Darragh A. Park, whose painterly studies of perception skated on the fringes of realism and abstraction, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his house in Bridgehampton on April 17. He was 69.
His brother, James M. Park, said their grandparents had a house in Southampton that the boys visited beginning around the time of World War II.
As an adult, Mr. Park was a friend and peer to notable South Fork artists and writers including Fairfield Porter, Jane Wilson, Robert Dash, John Ashbery, and James Schuyler, for whom Mr. Park served as literary executor.
He was remembered this week as a talented man who had a number of friends as well as some demons.
Ellen Adler, a friend from New York, remembered Mr. Park as “classy and fun. Having him as a friend was a definite plus.” She said they kept up with each other with long phone calls and long visits, particularly after he moved to Bridgehampton and pursued his painting career full time. “I will miss him a lot,” she said.
Of his death, Mr. Dash said that “spring was Darragh’s nemesis, his worst season. He dreaded and feared its advent and suffered its duration.” Mr. Dash said he bought Mr. Park his first folding easel and served as his teacher.
Mr. Park was born in New York City during the World’s Fair of 1939 to Darragh and Sallie Mellon Park. He attended St. Mark’s School in Southborough, Mass., and graduated from Yale University with a degree in French literature with a minor in art history. After college, Mr. Park moved to Africa to teach English in a program that predated the Peace Corps. He then attended Columbia University, where he earned a graduate degree in African studies and political science.
Eventually he began to paint full time, gathering accolades from publications such as Art in America. At first, he was primarily a realist painter, but in the 1980s became more interested in peripheral vision and what was to be seen in the margins of perception. His works became accordingly more abstract. The poet and critic Robert Long described them in The Star as “bright, warm canvases, but their sweetness, which follows from Mr. Park’s admiration of Pierre Bonnard, is balanced by their method, which is as cool and analytical as Cubism.”
James M. Park said his brother always left a strong impression at the family’s Christmas celebrations — from his arrival on a motorcycle to his vegetarianism. One great-nephew, his namesake, has followed in Mr. Park’s footsteps and taken up painting.
Mr. Park was cremated. He is survived by his brother, who lives in Amenia, N.Y. J.L.
Stephen A. Emmons, 77
Stephen A. Emmons, a Marine Corps veteran and member of the East Hampton Town Disabilities Committee who led the charge to gain free access for the disabled to county parks and to Turtle Cove in Montauk, died last Thursday of cancer at his home on Hoppin Avenue in Montauk. He was 77.
In 2003, Mr. Emmons and Dean Kirshner of East Hampton sued the town after a fence was erected to block a small dirt road from Montauk Highway to Turtle Cove, a popular fishing spot just west of the Montauk Point Lighthouse. Mr. Emmons argued that the fence was a violation of the federal Americans With Disabilities Act. The town eventually settled with the two plaintiffs for an undisclosed sum.
“He’d get something in his head and wouldn’t let it go,” said Jack Yee, a fellow surfcaster who worked with Mr. Emmons when he lobbied the county government for free access to county parks.
He was born in Brooklyn on Dec. 8, 1931, a son of Stephen Emmons and the former Margaret Newell. He grew up in Baldwin and graduated from Valley Stream High School with the class of 1951. Before joining the Marine Corps, he worked summers as a lifeguard at Point Lookout.
In 1956, after serving a stint as a marine aboard the U.S.S. Midway, he married the former Marylou Hirsch, who survives. He also leaves his brother, Robert Emmons of Hampton Bays, sons, Stephen Emmons of Chesterland, Ohio, and Richard Emmons of Massapequa, as well as daughters, Patricia Fritz of Islip Terrace and Jean Clark of Massapequa Park. Seven grandchildren survive. His son, Donald Emmons, predeceased him.
Mr. Emmons was a member of the Teamsters Union and for many years was the coordinator of trucking at the World Trade Center. He retired in 1980 and moved to Montauk to live in the house he and his sons had built after purchasing a lot on Hoppin Avenue in 1975.
Mr. Emmons belonged to the St. Rose of Lima church of Massapequa. A memorial service was held at the church on Monday with Father Ken Zach officiating. Burial followed at Calverton National Cemetery. Memorial contributions were suggested for East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
John Pitches, 96
Alison Ledda described her father as sweet, the type of man who always had a smile for everyone and engaged people he met with his sense of humor and Scottish accent. John (Jack) Pitches always had a twinkle in his eye, as a niece recently put it, Ms. Ledda said. “Everybody really liked Jack. People gravitated toward him.”
Mr. Pitches, who stayed with both his children in East Hampton, died at Southampton Hospital on April 9. He was 96, and had been in declining health for a number of years.
Exactly how many years he had been coming to the East End isn’t exactly known, Ms. Ledda said, but she remembers her father and mother taking her to family gatherings at an aunt and uncle’s house in Montauk when she was quite young.
Mr. Pitches was born in Glasgow on June 16, 1912, to James Pitches and the former Sarah Sutherland. He was the second oldest of six children. When he was 15 or 16, after completing high school, he boarded a ship for America with at least one of his brothers. At some point his entire family settled in Yonkers. Soon after arriving in this country, his father died and Mr. Pitches helped his mother with the task of raising his four younger siblings.
Mr. Pitches first worked for a printing company in New York City, and then as a foreman for the Alexander Smith Carpet Company in Yonkers. After being stationed with the Army in Panama during World War II, he returned there. In 1954, he began work at I.B.M. as a technician working with microchips. “He liked his career. It was a good job for a man without a lot of schooling,” his daughter said.
As a young and rather handsome athlete, she said, he played soccer for German men’s clubs in Yonkers. “He was a great soccer player, quite the athlete.” He also played the bagpipes, as he had in Scotland.
Mr. Pitches met Eleanor Rust, and they were married in 1950. They moved to Hillside Lake in Dutchess County, N.Y., to raise their family.
When he retired in 1974, the couple split their time between a summer house on Oakview Highway in East Hampton and the Florida Keys, where he walked miles, mostly on the beaches. “He loved Key West and Montauk most of all,” said his son, Douglas R. Pitches of East Hampton.
He also loved to golf, a passion he shared with his wife, and early on they became members of the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett. He had also been a member of the Friends of Erin, and enjoyed investing in the stock market during his free time.
About seven years ago, Mr. Pitches moved in with his daughter on Three Mile Harbor Road in Springs. When he was healthier, he was known to have “a 5 o’clock cocktail” at local bars, where he enjoyed socializing. In recent years, he spent time at the East Hampton Senior Citizens Center.
In addition to his son and daughter, he is survived by a brother, Sidney Pitches of Kentucky, and a sister, Betty Blackmar of Westchester County, N.Y., and Montauk. Five grandchildren also survive. His wife died before him, as did two brothers and a sister.
Mr. Pitches was buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton on April 13. The family has suggested donations to the Springs Ambulance Company, 79 Fort Pond Boulevard, Springs, or the East Hampton Ambulance Association, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937.
Patricia Pauline Flach
Patricia Pauline Flach, an active member of the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society who volunteered at its Bargain Box shop and helped to organize the annual summer fair, died in Beverly Hills, Calif., on April 22. She was 77, and had been ill with Alzheimer’s disease for a number of years.
Mrs. Flach and her husband, Richard J. Flach, who predeceased her, bought a house on David’s Lane in East Hampton in the early 1970s, and began spending summers and holidays there. They moved here permanently in the mid-1990s, spending their summers in Boca Raton, Fla. After her husband died in July of 2000, Mrs. Flach moved to the Sunrise Assisted Living facility in Beverly Hills.
In East Hampton, Mrs. Flach could often be found in the fields behind her house, picking berries, and on daily walks to Main Beach. She was a good cook and entertainer, and often hosted dinners and holiday events. A tea drinker, she displayed her collection of teapots throughout the house.
Mrs. Flach also enjoyed reading, golfing, going to the movies, and traveling to new and exciting locations. Her heritage was mainly German, but her maternal grandfather was from County Cork, and one of her favorite places to visit was Ireland. She also had cruised down the Nile and through the glaciers of Alaska, and went on an African safari with a friend, Dorothy Knowles.
Born in New Milford, Conn., on Feb. 12, 1932, she was the daughter of Fredrick and Kathleen Flaton. After graduating from New Milford High School, she moved to East Hampton, where she met her future husband, a native here. They were married on Sept. 13, 1952.
The couple had three children whom they raised in Avon, Conn. Mrs. Flach was a devoted wife and mother, and, according to her family, “the quintessential homemaker.”
She is survived by her two sons, Kevin Flach of New York City and Jeff Flach of Beverly Hills, and a daughter, Tracey Flach of Skaneateles, N.Y. A brother, David Flaton, and one grandson also survive.
A wake will take place at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton tonight, with visiting hours from 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral service will be held at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton tomorrow at 9:30 a.m., followed by burial at the church cemetery, and a reception at the Hedges Inn in East Hampton.
The family has suggested memorial donations to the Ladies Village Improvement Society, 95 Main Street, East Hampton 11937, or to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 North Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago 60601-7633.
Stefania Jaroszewicz
Stefania Jaroszewicz, who was born in Minsk, Russia, on April 23, 1911, and had worked at the Bulova factory in Sag Harbor assembling watchcases, died on Monday at her daughter Jean King’s house in Sagaponack, where she had lived for nine years. She was 98 and had been in declining health since about Christmas, Ms. King said.
A daughter of Wincenty Lazarewicz and the former Stefania Gorecka, she grew up on a farm in Minsk, where she lived through World Wars I and II. She was one of seven siblings, all of whom died before her, as did her husband. Her mother died when she was 5.
Ms. King described Mrs. Jaroszewicz’s long life. Her mother, she said, was a woman of deep faith, who worked as a midwife in a hospital before the German occupation of Russia during World War II. On one occasion, a group of Stalinists lined up the hospital staff, and asked them whether they believed in God. The rest of the group answered that they did not, but Mrs. Jaroszewicz said, “I believe; I cannot deny it.”
The Stalinist interrogator pushed on. “How can you say this? Have you seen God?” To which Mrs. Jaroszewicz replied, “No, but I have not seen Stalin, either.”
The questioner pointed to a photo of Stalin on a hospital wall. Mrs. Jaroszewicz was unimpressed. “I have pictures of Jesus, too,” she said. For reasons that were unknown, she escaped punishment for her outspokenness.
The Second World War was a time of great difficulty for her and her husband, Edward Jaroszewicz. They were forced to work for the Germans, which put them at risk of death at the hands of Russian partisans.
As the occupiers retreated, Mrs. Jaroszewicz and her husband went with them, fearing for their lives if they stayed behind. Their daughter, then a very small child, was hidden under a pillow as gunfire raged around them.
They spent seven years in Germany, working on farms. There, her daughter said, they saw inmates from concentration camps brought out to cut wood and do other tasks.
During the British, and later the American occupation, many Russian refugees were put in camps.
“People got a choice to return to their own homeland; we did not decide to go. There was nothing left,” Ms. King said. The family had its bags packed and was ready to emigrate to Australia, but at the last minute a quarantine went into effect.
With time, a sponsor was found in Newark, and the family was permitted to leave for the United States. Upon arrival, however, their sponsor did not appear. Officials cast about for somewhere to send them.
The family ended up spending the summer of 1951 in Mattituck as farm laborers. After the season’s end, with no further work there imminent, they heard of possible factory jobs in Sag Harbor and headed there.
Life in Sag Harbor was difficult at the beginning, Ms. King said. The language barrier was a big challenge, and Mr. Jaroszewicz, who had been traumatized by experiences during the war, was largely unable to work. Her mother became the chief breadwinner.
Mrs. Jaroszewicz did piecework at Bulova, turning out as many watchcases as she could to earn extra money. Eventually, she was able to afford a house on William Street, where the couple raised Ms. King and two other children, Stan Jaroszewicz, now of Holly Hill, Fla., and Francesca Laracuente of Houston.
Aside from her job, “her main life was to take care of us. She didn’t really have time for anything else,” Ms. King said. “She was the rock.”
Mrs. Jaroszewicz retired when she was 62 and the Bulova plant was on its way to closing for good. Her husband died in 1982, and, a short time later, Mrs. Jaroszewicz moved in with Ms. King at a house on Brick Kiln Road that had a mother-daughter apartment. They later moved to Ranch Court in Sagaponack.
Mrs. Jaroszewicz was a regular at Mass at St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor, going with her daughter as often as four times a week, until ill health interfered.
In addition to her children, five grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and three nieces and nephews survive.
A Mass will be said for her today at 10:30 a.m. at St. Andrew’s, with burial at the church cemetery.
Her family has suggested memorial contributions to the church, 122 Division Street, Sag Harbor 11963, or to East End Hospice, Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
Medina Marasca, 97
Medina Mary Marasca died at home on Wireless Road in East Hampton on Monday. She was 97 years old. A prayer service will be held at 8 p.m. tonight at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A Mass will be held tomorrow at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church at 11:30 a.m., followed by burial in the church cemetery. A full obituary will appear in a future issue.