Obituaries

When he was a senior in college, Edwin Collins decided he wanted to take a solo bicycle trip across the United States. He prepared by taking training rides on the East End that started and ended at his parents’ house in Montauk, and he often rode home after midnight, after his dishwashing shift at Gosman’s Dock restaurant. The journey ultimately took him from Portland, Ore., to Beacon Hill in Boston, where he pedaled up to his sister’s apartment and was greeted by cheers from his family.

A graveside service for Samuel Joffe of Water Mill was to be held on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at 2 p.m. at Temple Adas Israel’s Chevra Kodetia cemetery in Sag Harbor. Mr. Joffe, who was 97, died at home on Monday. A World War II veteran, he was well known as a baker and pastry chef in East Hampton for many years. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Margaret Brubaker, a former East Hampton Star staff member, died on Nov. 16 at Foulkeways-at-Gwynedd in Gwynned, Pa. She was 84 and had been in declining health.

Joanna Semel Rose, a philanthropist, collector, and publisher who for decades lived in the 1905 Joseph Greenleaf Thorp-designed house at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton Village, died at her residence in Manhattan on Saturday. She was 90.

Linda Larsen German, a fashion and design professional, a onetime executive with the Liz Claiborne company, and a former resident of Water Mill, died of Alzheimer’s disease on Nov. 9 in Mount Vernon, N.Y. She was 70.

Myrna Bell Syvertsen, who was known as Mimi, died at home on East Lake Drive in Montauk on Nov. 7. She was 80 and had been in declining health for the past year.

Nakia Rahsaan Mabry, whose passion was working on trucks and cars, died on Nov. 7 in East Hampton. He was 45.

Robert Edwin Schenck was an Army veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division during the Korean War, and later went on to a long career in park design, river studies, and facilities management. Mr. Schenck, formerly of East Hampton, died on Oct. 27 at home in Cary, N.C., with his wife and family by his side. He was 90.

Visiting hours and funeral arrangements have been announced for Zbigniew (Ziggy) Lutrzykowski, an employee of the Bridgehampton School for the last 10 years. He died on Saturday at the age of 48.

A memorial service for Grace Elizabeth Price, a former librarian at the East Hampton Library who had since moved to Brewster, Mass., will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Harwichport, Mass.

Heidi Limonius, a co-owner of Buckley’s Flower Shop and Garden Center in East Hampton Village for nearly 60 years, died at home in East Hampton on Nov. 3. She was 83 and had been ill with Alzheimer’s disease.

Joseph John Kristopowitz Jr., a native of Wainscott, settled upstate after attending the Central City Business Institute in Syracuse and loved the auto racing scene there. He died at home in Liverpool, N.Y., on Oct. 22 at the age of 72.

Linda Holmes of East Hampton died at home on Hand’s Creek Road on Oct. 7. The cause was lung cancer, which was first diagnosed three years ago and returned after a period of remission. She was 77.

Sidney B. Silverman, a longtime resident of Amagansett, died at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Nov. 4. A trial lawyer for many years, none of his cases satisfied him more than representing the East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association in its victory over the General Electric Company.

Jimmy O'Mara of Amagansett died of pancreatic cancer at home last Thursday with his daughter by his side. He was 83.

Minna Kotkin, a lawyer and professor of law who lived in Brooklyn and on Red Dirt Road in Springs, died on Sept. 30.

Duane C. Dauch, who had a long career in the insurance field, worked at the East Hampton Post Office for a few years, and was a founding board member of the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter, died on Sept. 24.

A memorial service for Kate Crosby, who had lived in East Hampton for many years, will be held on Friday, Oct. 29, at 2 p.m. at the Maidstone Park pavilion in Springs. Ms. Crosby died on Oct. 17 in Barrington, R.I.

“My mom touched a lot of people,” said Marjorie Elizabeth Gosman's son Bryan Gosman. Ms. Gosman died at home in Montauk on Sept. 30.

Sheila Mary Clancy will be remembered, her family said, as a caring mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and aunt to her five children, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, one sister, and 37 nieces and nephews.

Willard A. Mahar, a former heavy equipment operator for the Bistrian Gravel Corporation, died of cancer at home in Amagansett on Friday. The Amagansett native was 91 and had been ill for about two years.

William Pickens III, a retired corporate executive and former national director of the N.A.A.C.P., who eventually ran the consulting firm Bill Pickens Associates, died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Sept. 27. He was 85.

Zach Cohen, a Springs resident who became a dedicated, unelected participant in East Hampton Town government, died on Oct. 7 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 72 and had been ill with glioblastoma for over two years.

A graveside service for Linda Holmes of East Hampton will be held on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Cedar Lawn Cemetery here. Ms. Holmes, who was 77, died last Thursday. An obituary will appear at a later date.

Kevin John Keane of East Hampton, an educator who worked for many years with deaf and hearing-impaired students, died of complications of multiple myeloma on Sept. 27 at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 74.

Zachary Cohen of Springs died last Thursday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 72. A gathering to celebrate his life is planned for Oct. 24 at Duck Creek Farm in Springs.

Chet Lane, an advertising executive, died of colon cancer on Monday at home in Amagansett. He was 87 and had been ill for four years. 

Funeral services for Philip G. Spitzer of Springs, who died on Tuesday, will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral home in East Hampton on Sunday at noon. The family has requested that all attendees be vaccinated. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Gloria Elizabeth Williams, formerly of Bridgehampton, was famous for her homemade rolls, baked beans, lemon meringue pies, coconut pies, and Hawaiian cakes. A devout Christian from an early age and a "natural-born caregiver for many children of the community," according to her family, Mrs. Williams died at her home in Barco, N.C., on Sept. 11, with family members by her side. She was 81 and had had cancer.

Helena Marie Gaviola, who had lived in Montauk for many years, died on Monday at home in Stuart, Fla., where she had lived since 2014. She was 89 and had been ill with cancer for eight years.