Obituaries

Jeanne Comey Owen, whose volunteer work on behalf of children spanned more than five decades in Vero Beach, Fla., East Hampton, and elsewhere on Long Island, died of pneumonia on June 11 in hospice care in Vero Beach. A resident of East Hampton until 1998, she was 94.

Paula Trachtman, an author, editor, teacher, and activist with a singular talent for bringing people together, died of a heart attack in her sleep on Friday, less than a week shy of her 88th birthday.

Robert Ullman, a theatrical press agent who promoted more than 150 productions, including “A Chorus Line,” which he took from development to a Pulitzer Prize, died on July 31 in Bay Shore.

A celebration of the life of Barbara Renkens Oeffner will be held on Aug. 25 at 2 p.m. at the East Hampton Methodist Church. Mrs. Oeffner, who grew up in East Hampton and graduated from high school here, died on Jan. 24. She lived in Moore Haven, Fla., but visited family here every year.

John David Hands of Springs, a commercial fisherman who worked for decades up and down the Eastern Seaboard, died on Aug. 7 at East End Hospice.

Mary Ella Reutershan Richard, a former East Hampton and Amagansett resident and community leader, died yesterday at Peconic Landing in Greenport.

Ms. Richard was politically active from the 1960s onward, including serving on the East Hampton Town Board. She was a preservation advocate and activist as well, organizing blood drives and pressing for services for the town’s older residents.

A memorial service is to be announced. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Robert Edmund Wilson III, a professional sailor and yacht broker, died of heart failure and complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder at his home in Beaufort, N.C., on July 21. The former Amagansett resident, who was 73, had been ill for three years.

In any inventory of the most influential documentary filmmakers, certain names inevitably appear: Dziga Vertov, Robert Flaherty, Marcel Ophuls, Frederick Wiseman, Michael Apted, Errol Morris, Albert and David Maysles, and the Maysles’ contemporary and onetime associate, D.A. Pennebaker.     

A funeral Mass for Daniel Otto will be said on Saturday at noon at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton.

Ines Angelica Wildner-Fox, a former teacher at the Montauk School who started the school’s English as a foreign language program and co-founded the hamlet’s food pantry, died of pulmonary fibrosis on July 17 at Hope Hospice in Lehigh Acres, Fla.     

Services will be held on Saturday for Jhony Chumi-Rodas, who died in a car crash in Flanders on Sunday night.

Barbara Curran, a retired teacher of English at Lehman College in the Bronx who helped the school found a campus in Hiroshima, died of pneumonia on July 14 at her home in Jensen Beach, Fla. The longtime summer resident of Wainscott was 85.

Brian J. King of East Hampton, a self-employed handyman who could fix almost any broken-down bicycle or lawnmower, died of cardiac arrest on Pantigo Road in East Hampton Village on July 22, while driving his truck. He was 68, and had been diagnosed with cancer three months before.

Family and friends of Audra Schutte Balcuns will gather for a celebration of her life at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on Saturday. The reception will be from 2 to 5 p.m., and those who knew her have been invited to drop in anytime, her brother, Patrick Schutte, said.

A celebration of the life of Maureen Wikane will be held on Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center in East Hampton, where she was the administrative director. Ms. Wikane, who was 71, died of pancreatic cancer on June 18.

Frederick W. Ritz, a lifelong resident of Bridgehampton who owned a tree service company and an insurance company and volunteered with the local ambulance corps, died of complications of a stroke on July 18 at Quiogue’s Kanas Center for Hospice Care. He was 85.

A celebration and remembrance of the life of Raymond Marisette that was to take place on July 21 will instead take place this Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Dock restaurant in Montauk. Mr. Marisette, who was known as Cheech, died on July 21, 2018. On Sunday his ashes will be spread on the roots of a tree that will be planted, and there will be a Budweiser toast in his honor.

George L. Kaplan, a decorated veteran and civil engineer who worked on the New York State Pavilion for the 1964 World’s Fair in Queens, died on July 7 at MorseLife senior care facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. The resident of Amagansett and West Palm Beach was 95 and had cancer.

Jarvis James Slade, a part-time resident of Middle Lane in East Hampton Village and a retired investment banker and venture investor, died yesterday at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City of complications of a stroke. He was 93.

Stephen A. Lesser, an architect who had lived in East Hampton for more than 30 years, died on July 12 at the Westhampton Care Center of complications of cerebellar ataxia and biliary cancer. He was 74 and had been ill for seven years.

Albert James Catozzi of Springs, a longtime clerk at the East Hampton Post Office, died on July 8 of complications of multiple myeloma at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

Visiting hours for Barbara Elizabeth Curran, formerly of Wainscott, who died on Sunday in Ocean Breeze, Fla., will be held at the Beecher Flook’s Funeral Home in Pleasantville, N.Y., on Tuesday from 2 to 5 p.m.

A celebration and remembrance of the life of Raymond Marisette, known as Cheech, who died on July 21, 2018, will take place on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. at the Dock restaurant in Montauk. His ashes will be spread on the roots of a tree that will be planted, and there will be a Budweiser toast in his honor.

Liliane M. Chapin, a painter who had lived in East Hampton for more than 20 years, died of heart failure on July 7 at South County Hospital in South Kingstown, R.I.

Mildred Doughty Granitz, a former director of publicity at Guild Hall, died at home in East Hampton on June 21. She was 98.

Albert J. Catozzi of East Hampton died at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital on Monday. He was 71. 

Albert S. Hedges, whose more than 50 years of active service to the Bridgehampton Fire Department also included time as captain and as a Fire District Commissioner, died on June 24 at the Peconic Bay Medical Center’s Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Riverhead, surrounded by family. He was 84 years old and had congestive heart failure.

Due to the lack of an available venue there will not be a memorial gathering for Hortense Carpentier, who died on June 17. Those who wish to pay their respects have been invited to join the family at a graveside service on Aug. 10 at 11 a.m. at Green River Cemetery.

JoAnn C. Morse of Montauk, a high school special education teacher, died of complications of heart failure last Thursday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. She was 81. 

Barbara Oeffner, an East Hampton native and a 10th-generation descendant of Nathaniel Dominy, one of the town’s early settlers renowned for his woodworking and clockmaking skills, died on Jan. 24 in Moore Haven, Fla. She was 74.