Obituaries

Janet Carolyn Mundus, who was a fixture in Montauk for many years, died at home on Sunday. She was 88.

Mrs. Mundus was fun-loving and a hard worker with a keen intellect, her family said, and had been married to Frank Mundus, the celebrated shark fisherman.

Nancy Paula Jensen-Norris, an East Hampton native who served for 28 years as a nurse at Southampton Hospital, died on June 21 in Gray, Me. She was 74 and had ovarian cancer for the last five years.

Paul Schiavoni, a member of a large Sag Harbor family and a former member of the Sag Harbor School Board, died at his home on North Haven on June 26. A painting and wallpaper contractor who retired two years ago, he had A.L.S., a neurodegenerative condition known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for three years. He was 74.

Sandra Steinlauf, a former Montauk columnist for The East Hampton Star, died on May 27 in Boca Raton, Fla., at the age of 73. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three and a half years ago.

After graduating from Brooklyn College in 1962, she married Bernard Steinlauf, and the couple moved to Montauk, where, for 15 years, they owned the Takamatzia Motel. Ms. Steinlauf was president of the Montauk PTA, where she implemented a screening program for amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye.

Franco Stephen Denaro, a chef, caterer, and food stylist who lived on Joshua Edwards Court in East Hampton, died on May 28 at Southampton Hospital. Mr. Denaro, who was 61, had a heart attack at the Ross School, where he worked as a chef.

He was a talented gardener and fisherman, said his son, Stephen Denaro of East Hampton. “He was a good guy, an honorable guy,” he said.

Howard T. Rosen, a New Jersey attorney who often took the month of August off to spend with his family on Sandpiper Lane in Amagansett, died at the age of 86 on May 23 in Naples, Fla. He had been in constant, low-level pain since knee replacement surgery eight years ago, his son Jim Rosen said.

Julian Norman Koenig, a renowned advertising copywriter who nevertheless described himself as just “a writer of short sentences,” died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on June 12. He was 93 and had suffered what was believed to be a stroke about a week before.

Kenneth B. Frankl, an Amagansett resident who in the course of his legal career was a corporate attorney, a New York City assistant district attorney, and a private practitioner, died at home on June 16. He was 90, and had Parkinson’s disease for many years, and had a stroke in 2005.

Mr. Frankl was passionate about music and played the piano for hours daily, almost until the end of his life, his family said. He loved Shakespeare, bridge, football, and politics, along with his family and the Amagansett community.

Paul Joseph Honorowski, a well-known carver of waterfowl and decoys, died at his Windmill Village apartment in East Hampton on Friday night. He was chronically ill, and had been under medical supervision for some time. He was 59.

Born on Aug. 14, 1954, in Southampton, to Stanley John Honorowski, a sculptor, and the former Genevieve Victoria Lapatowicz, he grew up in East Hampton and graduated from East Hampton High School. He was said to have loved surfing in his youth.

Richard Cummings, a prolific writer and scholar, died of prostate cancer on June 18 in Southampton. He was 76.

As a young man, Mr. Cummings was an associate at a Manhattan law firm, Whitman Breed Abbott & Morgan, and at the United States Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C. He later taught at law schools in the West Indies and Ethiopia.

Robert E. Costello, a pioneering producer of classic ’50s television shows who later won a Peabody Award for the PBS series “The Adams Chronicles” and two Emmys for ABC’s daytime serial “Ryan’s Hope,” died of a heart attack on May 30 at his summer house in Amagansett’s Beach Hampton neighborhood. He was 93 and had been diagnosed many years before with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

    A memorial service for Annamae Bennett, who died in November at the age of 78, will be held at the American Legion Hall in Amagansett on June 28 from noon to 3 p.m. Ms. Bennett lived on Neck Path in Springs.

Frederick C. Filasky, the onetime owner of an East Hampton bed and breakfast called the Plover’s Nest, died at Southampton Hospital on May 29 of congestive heart failure. He was 75, and had been ill for some time.

    Kenneth Richard Frankl, who served as the vice president and general counsel of RKO General until 1984, died at home in Amagansett on Monday. He was 90. His memorial will be held at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton Village at 3 p.m. on June 29.    An obituary for him will appear in a future edition of The East Hampton Star.

Kyu Bong Cho, who moved from Korea to Springs at age 18 and attended East Hampton High School, died of a stroke on May 12 in Alexandria, Va. He was 61.

Mr. Cho came to the United States to live with his sister, Myong A. Cho Miller, and her husband, Mickey Miller, a bayman. One of his first jobs was helping Mr. Miller lift his fish traps early in the morning.

The Star has received word of the death of James Alan Ruthenberg, who grew up in East Hampton and Bohemia, on April 24 in Roanoke, Va., of cancer. He was 54 and had been living in Roanoke for the last 20 years.

“He was kind and generous,” said his mother, Alison Pidgeon of Sweetwater, Tenn., “and well liked by everyone he met.”

Jerry Dillon, who grew up in East Hampton and graduated from East Hampton High School with the class of 1955, died in Columbus, Ohio, on May 25. He was 76 and had a long history of pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure.

Mary Ellen Wilcox, who worked as a teacher and guidance counselor for 32 years upstate, died at home on Round Pond Lane in Sag Harbor on Monday after what was described as a long illness. She was 66.

Soon after moving to Sag Harbor 20 years ago, Ms. Wilcox became a volunteer at the Sag Harbor Community Food Pantry, which enriched her life. According to Ann Wallingford, her life partner of 33 years, she would say, “I come home with so much more than I gave.”

Richard G. Ehrlich, the owner of the Clam Bar on Napeague since 1980, died at home in Southold on Saturday of pancreatic cancer. He was 73, and had been ill for one month.

Known to his friends as Dick, he was born on June 10, 1940, in White Plains, N.Y., to Jacob Ehrlich and the former Mary Gates. Mr. Ehrlich graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. Fascinated by the world of stamp-collecting, he became a professional philatelist, traveling the world, successfully buying and selling stamp collections.

Robert L. Carter,  a proud veteran who marched in Sag Harbor’s parades whenever he could, died on Memorial Day at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook, where he had lived for nearly a year. He was 82 and had Alzheimer’s disease.

Steven Harry Scheuer, who pioneered the previewing of television programs in newspaper columns and books and helped create the academic field of ­tele­vision history, died on June 1 in New York City of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

A funeral for Richard G. Ehrlich, the founder and owner of the Clam Bar restaurant on Napeague who died on Saturday of pancreatic cancer, will be at 1 p.m. Friday at the First Presbyterian Church on Main Road in Southold. Mr. Ehrlich, who was 73, lived in Southold and Jensen Beach, Fla.

Berta Jimenez, who emigrated from Guatemala 25 years ago and saw her children achieve the American dream of success, died at home on Accabonac Road in East Hampton on May 20. She was 98 years old, and had been diagnosed with metastasized bone cancer one month earlier.

Mrs. Jimenez witnessed two world wars and one revolution, welcomed in a century, and, despite having only an elementary education, embraced the computer era, often using Skype to keep in touch with her family. “She was absolutely extraordinary,” said her daughter Marta Nilon of Manhattan.

A graveside memorial for John Haessler will be held on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Cedar Street in East Hampton. Mr. Haessler, who was from East Hampton and owned the Seafood Shop in Wainscott for many years, died on Feb. 21.

A memorial gathering for Phyllis and Richard Madan will be held on Saturday. Friends have been invited to stop by and share stories or have a glass of Champagne at 46 Maple Lane in East Hampton from 4 to 8 p.m.

The Madans retired to their vacation house here in 1991. Both became active with the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, Mr. Madan serving for a time as its co-chairman. His wife died on Nov. 13, 2013; he died on Jan. 23.

George Balasses, who ran Balasses House Antiques in Amagansett with his late wife, Teda Balasses, for over half a century, died at home on Fresh Pond Lane in that hamlet on Tuesday at the age of 97. He had suffered from dementia in the last years of his life.

Jeraldine D. Coyle, a former clerk in the East Hampton Town Assessor’s and Town Clerk’s offices, died of cancer in Naples, Fla., on Saturday. She was 74.

Her family’s roots in East Hampton dated back to the 1800s, according to her daughter, Karin Beaver Julin, with whom she lived in Nebraska for a time after retiring from her job here. She moved to Florida in 2010.

Manfred Sobotka, a retired aeronautics and electrical engineer who lived on Round Pond Lane in Sag Harbor for 41 years, died of heart failure on May 4 at Southampton Hospital. He was 84 and had been ill for several years, his family said.

Margaret Ann Paxton, who was called Midge, died of pneumonia in Alexandria, Va., on Sunday. She was 69 and had persevered against an autoimmune disorder for many years.

Ms. Paxton and her husband, the folksinger Tom Paxton, who were married in 1963, were part of the early folk scene in Greenwich Village. Over the years, they traveled extensively as she supported his performing career and they took part in civil rights and antiwar demonstrations.

The Ross School in East Hampton has announced services for Franco Denaro, a cook at the school for 12 years who died on Wednesday.