William P. Rayner, a watercolorist and travel writer who was the editorial business manager of Condé Nast for 30 years, died in New York City on Jan. 22 at the age of 88. His death was attributed to cardiac arrest, although it has been reported that this was precipitated by an injury that had come during an anniversary trip to France with his wife, Katharine Johnson Rayner.

Mr. Rayner, who was known to friends as Billy, lived on West End Road, near Georgica Pond, in a house of celebrated beauty called Woody House. Together with his wife, he split his time between Woody House and the Upper East Side, wintering in Palm Beach, Fla. Regardless of where he was, his friends said, Mr. Rayner painted every day. His watercolors were exhibited at various galleries, most recently in November at the Chinese Porcelain Company in Manhattan. 

His other beloved occupation was travel. On many trips with his wife, and for his work, he saw the world, visiting such far-flung countries as Bhutan, Syria, Libya, China, Egypt, Cambodia, India, and Russia. 

“I started traveling extensively when I was around 30 years old,” he told The East Hampton Star in 2013, “both for Condé Nast and on my own account.” His memories of these voyages were published that year in a two-book set, “Notes and Sketches: Travel Journals of William P. Rayner.” 

In a 2001 article in the Palm Beach Daily News, when his paintings were in a Florida exhibition, he explained that he had, at first, begun to paint because it was a more accurate way of memory-keeping than simply taking diary notes. “I could remember things I’d seen more accurately,” he said. “I could almost smell the things by looking at the paintings.” 

After Mr. Rayner’s death, Edwina Sandys, a British artist and sculptor, extolled his virtues as an artist, telling The Palm Beach Daily News, “He was a very good artist. Watercolor is a most difficult medium. You’ve got to be brave and fluid, which he was.”

Mr. Rayner also wrote a book of essays, “Wise Women: Singular Lives that Helped Shape our Century,” which was published in 1983. 

He was born to Emily and Archibald Rayner on Feb. 21, 1929, in Washington, D.C., and was educated at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., and the University of Virginia.

He grew up surrounded by art. His mother was a social figure in Palm Beach from the 1940s to 1960s, as well as a director of the Worth Avenue Gallery there. The woman he married, Katharine Rayner, is the daughter of Anne Cox Chambers, who is listed as one of Forbes magazine’s 500 wealthiest Americans. His aunt was Betty Parsons, a New York art dealer with whom he spent many summers on the East End and through whom he met leading artists such as Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. It was Parsons who introduced him to the idea of keeping a visual diary. (“Her diaries were strictly painting,” he told The Star. “At first, mine were watercolor-driven; then I began to make notes — I was a writer, after all — and then started to paste things in.”)

The Rayners’ garden at Woody House, which is nestled among the ocean dunes at Georgica Pond, was described as a magical oasis by Vogue magazine in 2016. Architectural Digest, last year, said that the loveliness of the house, peppered with exotic antiques and textiles from the couple’s travels, had reached “near-mythical stature.”

On the South Fork, Mr. Rayner will be remembered as a champion of good causes. He was the president of the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons for 10 years and on the board of the Parrish Art Museum. He also was a member of the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Henry Street Settlement in New York City and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Audrey Gruss, a friend and Southampton resident, said Mr. Rayner always was “a joy to be around. He had a great sense of humor, but always in a gentle way and at no one’s expense.” 

A funeral service was held last Thursday at St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan.

After a successful career as a telecommunications sales executive, Maurice Eugene Curran retired to the South Fork, where he had summered as a child, and took up beekeeping. 

He was “passionate about doing his part” to help “the planet heal,” wrote his girlfriend, Bridget Brosseau, and he understood the importance of honeybees in that equation. 

“His love for beekeeping expanded, and he placed hives on many friends’ properties,” sharing his knowledge with all these “intern beekeepers,” Ms. Brosseau said. He had considered selling the honey and had hoped to take a teaching hive with plexiglass windows to schools, as well. 

“He was also a connoisseur of teas from around the world and loved to match his different honey harvests with different teas,” Ms. Brosseau said.

Mr. Curran died in his sleep on Dec. 21 in Westchester County. The cause has not been determined. He was 60. 

Known as Moe, he had been an entrepreneur from his early years. Among his many endeavors was working as a seafood broker between New York City and the East End, but at Cortel Business Systems, a telecommunications company in New York City, he had a career. He created a new division at Cortel for which he recruited recent college graduates, teaching them how to succeed in the New York City business world. What began with just four employees grew to include some two dozen. 

Mr. Curran married Virginia Best on April 21, 1995. The couple brought up their four children in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., where Mr. Curran served on the Pocantico Hills School Board from 2007 to 2010. Robert Balog, the president of the school board during Mr. Curran’s tenure, described him as “clear and forceful in his commitment to make the school better.” Another former board president, John Conrad, described him as “sincere, intelligent, principled, straightforward, and, most of all, courageous.”

Mr. Curran had a quick wit, “a great sense of humor, and an infectious smile,” Ms. Brosseau wrote. He was “well read and was known for his kind nature, always looking for a chance to help others when an opportunity was presented.” 

He loved waterskiing, snowboarding, riding his bicycle, and cruising on his many Harley-Davidson motorcycles, among other outdoor activities. He enjoyed cooking healthy meals, with fish and East End bay scallops among his favorite ingredients. 

Mr. Curran was born in New York City on Jan. 8, 1957, to Maurice and Barbara Curran. He grew up in Inwood in Nassau County and spent summers in Wainscott as a boy. His fond memories of the area drew him back after his divorce. He and Ms. Brosseau lived in Springs. 

In addition to Ms. Brosseau, he is survived by his children, Maurice Clark Curran and Kayla Curran of New York City and Tyler Curran and Patrick Curran of Westchester County, and by his mother, who lives in Florida. He leaves two sisters, Kim Curran of Westchester County and Kate Curran of Florida, a brother, Matthew Curran of Florida, and a grandson. 

A funeral was held at Emanuel Lutheran Church in Pleasantville, N.Y., on Dec. 30. His ashes will be buried at Wainscott Cemetery alongside those of his father and two sisters who died before him, Bess and Jamie. 

A memorial celebration will be held in the summer at the beach in Wainscott.

Christopher Louis Russo, who was the East Hampton Town highway superintendent for 18 years and had been chief of the Amagansett Fire Department and a founder of its ambulance company, died of congestive heart failure at home in Amagansett on Jan. 31, a few days before his 76th birthday. 

Mr. Russo’s family said his reputation for honesty and doing what was right helped him become East Hampton Town’s top vote-getter, wining election as highway superintendent nine times.

He had first come to the South Fork from New Jersey with his family, who summered in Amagansett. As a boy, he learned to sail at the Devon Yacht Club and to garden with his grandfather. He became a full-time resident after marrying and changing careers, leaving a position with ARA Slater, later Aramark, a firm that provided services to the hospitality industry as well as public institutions, and starting Hampton Landscaping.

As a private contractor, he specialized in snow removal, with responsibility for state and county roads as well as East Hampton Airport, and he was a speaker at an international conference on snow. Fishing replaced sailing as an avocation, along with gardening and cooking.

Tony Bullock, who was town supervisor during some of Mr. Russo’s tenure as highway superintendent, remembered him fondly when learning of his death. “Chris clearly loved the job. He could operate any piece of equipment in the yard as well as or better than any member of his team. He dreamed of heavy snow and hurricanes so he could work around the clock. He had a bumper sticker on his pickup that said ‘Think Snow.’ His tough exterior masked his core sense of generosity and kindness. The tuna will sleep a little easier, but we will miss him a lot,” Mr. Bullock said.

He was born on Feb. 5, 1942, and grew up in Upper Montclair, N.J. He attended Montclair Academy and Lakemont Academy in Glen Falls, N.Y., where, as a senior, he was honored as a Harvard Scholar. He majored in hotel ­ administration at Cornell University.

He and Diane D. Klinger were married in 1967 and settled in Amagansett. Fishing, in Gardiner’s Bay and offshore at Montauk, often on his boat Sea Beaste, became the norm, along with weekly trips for tuna as well as clamming and oystering regardless of the weather. He continued to cultivate a large garden, giving away cucumbers and other crops, and was known for producing gourmet meals.

Bullmastiffs were an integral part of Mr. Russo’s life. He received his first dog from David Rockefeller and had a 10-month-old bullmastiff puppy at the time of his death. Memorial donations were suggested to the American Bullmastiff Association, c/o Virginia Rowland, P.O. Box 300, Templeton, Mass. 01468.

Visiting hours will be held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, with a memorial service on Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in East Hampton.

Mr. Russo is survived by his wife of 50 years and eight nieces and nephews.

With his golden retriever almost always at his side on daily walks from his East Hampton law office, William J. Fleming might have seemed every bit the country lawyer, said his law partner, Trevor Darrell. But with Mr. Fleming you got much more than met the eye. 

“He put forward that he was just an average guy, and yet his intellect was anything but average,” Mr. Darrell said. He was “one of the most well-read people I’d ever met,” and “one of the brightest minds I knew.” He read several newspapers cover to cover each day and always had three or four books going at once.

Mr. Fleming, who was known as Bill, died on Jan. 11 of heart failure. He was 69 and is survived by his wife, the former Abigail Jackson, and a daughter, Catharine, 20. 

A lawyer with a practice in East Hampton since 1980, he was also the host of “The East End Show” on LTV for 31 years. It was the public access channel’s longest-running show, enlivened by the host’s affable personality, wide-ranging interests, and genuine respect for his guests. He also headed up LTV’s annual Election Night coverage, keeping viewers up to date as polls closed in East Hampton and Southampton. 

Over the years, Mr. Fleming interviewed politicians, journalists, sports fans, historians, writers, activists, artists, winemakers, and clergy members, beginning each live Thursday evening show with a reading of The East Hampton Star’s headlines that day and “Newsday’s best guess of the weather.” 

“Government, politics, books, movies, you never quite knew what was going to come up,” said Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., a longtime friend and frequent LTV guest. The two had many common interests, among them Big East basketball. “Bill was the only guy who would take you to the Museum of Modern Art” before going to a game, Mr. Thiele said. “He had this streak of the renaissance man.”  

Mr. Fleming could expound on a range of subjects from the law to baseball to the Civil War, from Italian red wines to politics to the environment. “Talking to Bill Fleming was one of the joys of any day,” Mr. Thiele said.

Though he had no cellphone and did not keep a computer on his desk, Mr. Fleming was especially good at keeping up with friends old and new. “He was a letter writer,” his wife said. “He’d call people.”

Mr. Fleming was born in Queens on July 28, 1948, to the former Anne Thoet and William Fleming II. His mother was paralyzed from polio from the time of his birth. Mr. Fleming, the younger of two sons, was deeply devoted to her, according to his brother, Herbert Fleming of Charleston, S.C., and cared for her throughout her life “with exuberance.” 

He grew up in Garden City, attending Chaminade High School and then Garden City High School, where he played football and basketball. He went on to George Washington University and Adelphi University before being drafted into the Army and serving two years in Korea. A talented athlete, he was an alternate on the United States Olympic handball team while attending Adelphi and while serving in the Army. 

After returning from service overseas, he moved to Oregon, where he worked until entering the College of Law at Willamette University in Salem, Ore. 

He opened his own law practice in East Hampton above the Old Post Office Cinema on Newtown Lane. In his early years here, his wife recalled, he lived in a cottage without plumbing on a friend’s property and often showered at the Coast Guard Station at Georgica Beach. 

He advertised his practice as a “general practice of law” but came to specialize in transactional work, land use, and estate planning and was also known for his work with charitable organizations. 

He and Abigail Jackson were married on Sept. 28, 1985, in East Hampton, the day after Hurricane Gloria made landfall on Long Island. 

Travel was important to Mr. Fleming and became a big part of the couple’s life together. After their daughter was born, in 1997, he dreamed of putting her in school in Europe and taking a year off to travel there, she said. “Travel fed his soul.” 

He researched all their trips in hardcover Michelin Guides, calling hotels and restaurants directly to inquire about the best room or table before finally looking up photos with his wife on the internet. He took pleasure, too, in planning trips — even weddings and honeymoons — for family and friends, all without the aid of the internet. 

Ireland, the birthplace of both sets of his grandparents, became a favorite destination. Spain — Barcelona in particular — France, and recently Austria also topped his list. He loved and supported National Parks, especially Yellowstone in Wyoming, and enjoyed exploring them and hiking them with friends and family.

As a history buff with a special interest in the Civil War and World War II, he loved Normandy and had taken his daughter to Gettysburg and other significant Civil War sites across the South. His series of golden retrievers were all named after Civil War generals, with the last, Oli, being named for the Civil War poet Oliver Wendell Holmes.

His daughter, Catharine, an accomplished pianist, vocalist, athlete, and student, was “his pride and joy,” his family said. He coached her Little League softball team for many years and cheered her on in volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, and tennis. “One of his brightest moments recently was attending a December St. John’s basketball game where Catharine (for the second time) sang the national anthem,” a friend, Randi Dickson, wrote. 

Mr. Fleming believed that people should donate at least 10 percent of their income to charity, according to his family, and in keeping with that philosophy, he served on the boards of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival and the East Hampton Historical Society, and supported the Nature Conservancy, the Wounded Warrior Project, and a host of other organizations. 

He was instrumental in convincing the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to donate 10 oceanfront acres in Montauk to the Nature Conservancy. “Bill was able to use his considerable skills as a lawyer and his great personal warmth and charisma to get the [foundation’s] board and other players to agree to the donation,” wrote Sara Davison, a friend and the former director of the conservancy’s Long Island chapter. 

He also helped out each year at a large fund-raiser for the Nature Conservancy’s Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island, marshaling a team of fellow volunteers. “He worked his way up to section leader, which he preferred to call ‘head waiter,’ a position he was very proud of,” Ms. Davison said. “Bill had a love of tradition and continuity, so you could count on him to commit to something for the long haul.” 

He was “deeply caring and generous to the whole community,” said Bill Nagel of East Hampton, a friend since high school in Garden City. Mr. Fleming, Mr. Nagel said, “was committed to civil rights for all and helpful to anyone in need.” 

On a more personal level, Mr. Nagel recalled, he was quick to share life’s pleasures with friends, hosting dinners with his wife, Sunday Ping-Pong sessions in his basement, and securing and sharing tickets to watch the Mets, U.S. Open tennis, the Big East, and St. John’s basketball.

Mr. Fleming, a lifelong Democrat, ran unsuccessfully for Suffolk County legislator in 1981 and for East Hampton Town trustee. He was a major contributor to local and national Democratic candidates’ campaigns and hosted many political fund-raisers with his wife at their house in Wainscott. 

In 2007, Mr. Darrell, then a young lawyer just leaving the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, joined Mr. Fleming’s practice to form Fleming and Darrell. “He was my mentor,” Mr. Darrell said. 

“He loved people,” Mr. Thiele said, “and because of that, people loved him back.” 

In addition to his wife, daughter, and brother, Mr. Fleming is survived by many nieces and nephews. His mother died in December of 2016 and his father died in 2000. 

A memorial service is planned for the spring.

The family has suggested donations to the Long Island chapter of the Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 5125, East Hampton 11937; the Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York 10011 or irishrep.org; the Thomas Moran Trust, 101 Main Street, East Hampton 11937; Yellowstone National Park at yellowstone.org, or a charity of choice. 

A service for Miriam Oxenhorn of Sag Harbor, who died on Jan. 21 at the age of 81, will be held today at 11 a.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. Burial will follow at Green River Cemetery in Springs. An obituary will appear in a future issue.

Services are to be announced by the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton for Christopher L. Russo, a former East Hampton Town highway superintendent who died at home in Amagansett yesterday at age 75. 

Mr. Russo became highway superintendent in 1990 and served in that elected post for 18 years.

Details about his funeral arrangements and an obituary for him will appear in a future issue.

An obituary in last week’s paper for William J. Fleming omitted the organizations to which his family had suggested donations. They are: the Long Island chapter of the Nature Conservancy, P.O. Box 5125, East Hampton 11937; the Irish Repertory Theatre, 132 West 22nd Street, New York 10011 or irishrep.org; the Thomas Moran Trust, 101 Main Street, East Hampton 11937; Yellowstone National Park at yellowstone.org, or a charity of choice.

In 1957, as a young woman of 19, Mary Rooney immigrated to the United States, where she settled in New York City and enjoyed everything it had to offer, her family said, while returning home to western Ireland during the summer.  Ms. Conaty died on Sunday at the Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue, having being admitted a week earlier. 

She was born on June 20, 1938, in County Leitrim to James and Anne Rooney and attended Mercy College, a Catholic girls secondary school in Sligo, Ireland. She worked at various secretarial jobs in New York City, including at Met Life, an insurance company, where  she met Terence C. Conaty. They were married on May 25, 1963, and had five children.

Ms. Conaty, her husband, and their young children moved to Ronkonkoma in 1972, and later to Babylon. Her husband was a high school teacher and she worked as a caretaker of preschool children and the elderly.  In 1994, after their children had left for college or entered the workplace, the couple moved to East Hampton.

Family was always important to Ms. Conaty, as was traveling. Although she and her husband, who survives, traveled extensively, through Europe, Hawaii, and Asia, her favorite place to spend summers was with her family in Ireland. She made many friends in East Hampton and could be found most mornings with them and her neighbors of 20 or more years  at the Golden Pear Cafe on Newtown Lane in the village where they convened for coffee.

Ms. Conaty was an active member of the East Hampton Irish-American Club as well as Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, for which she volunteered. Her family said she adored her grandchildren and spent much of her time “caring for and spoiling them.”

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her children: Carmel Conaty of Severna Park, Md., Tricia Conaty of San Diego,  Siobhan Conaty of Wynnewood, Pa., Terence Conaty of Nashville,  and Kieran Conaty of Edgewater, Md.  Her siblings, Terence Rooney and Kathleen Egan of Sligo, Seamus Rooney of Fairfield, Conn., Anne O’Brien of Eastbourne, U.K., and Michael Rooney of Wappingers Falls, N.Y.,  also survive, as do six grandchildren and dozens of nieces and nephews. 

Visiting hours are to be held today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton, with a funeral Mass at Most Holy Trinity Church at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, followed by burial at the church cemetery.

The family has suggested memorial donations to the Angel Fuel Fund, Most Holy Trinity Church, 57 Buell Lane, East Hampton 11937.

Melvin Tublin, who had a house in Springs for over 40 years, died at home in Brooklyn on Jan. 13. He was 90. 

He was born to Benjamin Tublin and the former Rose Low on Sept. 23, 1927, in Brooklyn. He grew up there, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point in 1949. 

While at the academy, he served as a merchant marine on ships in waters around the world. After graduation, he became an officer on the S.S. Robin Kettering, a cargo ship sailing in the waters off South and East Africa. He also served as a captain in the United States Naval Reserve for 30 years.

The sea was one of two passions in his professional life: the law was the other. In 1953, he graduated from Georgetown Law School and four years later co-founded the law firm of Poles, Tublin, Patestides & Stratakis, now known as Poles, Tublin, Stratakis & Gonzalez. In doing so, he managed to merge his two passions. On the law firm’s web site, it proclaims a 60-year commitment to “its handling of admiralty cases, ship finance transactions,” and international transactions and litigation. Besides owning an office building in Manhattan’s financial district, the firm also has a strong working relationship with a law firm in Piraeus, Greece, to help facilitate its various international maritime activities. 

Mr. Tublin, along with the three founding members of the firm, John Poles, Michael Patestides and Chris Stratakis, were more than just partners. They remained close friends throughout their lives. 

In 1966, he married the former Eileen Wells. Six years later, the couple bought their house on Water Hole Road, keeping it until 2014.

Throughout his life, Mr. Tublin remained was active at his alma mater. “He was president of the Merchant Marine Academy’s alumni association from 1957 until 1961, and a member of its board of directors, and served as an adjunct professor,” his family wrote. He received the Meritorious Alumni Service Award in 1964, Outstanding Professional Achievement Award in 1984, Kings Pointer of the Year in 1986, and the Distinguished Service Award in 1997. 

He served on the congressman’s selection committee for Kings Point appointees and was appointed to the school’s academic advisory board. He was also an organizer and financial supporter of the Kings Point Sailing Program. In November, Mr. Tublin was inducted into the Merchant Marine Academy Hall of Distinguished Graduates. 

He was a dedicated fisherman, sailor, gardener, and storyteller. Besides his wife, who still lives in Brooklyn, he is survived by two daughters, Sharon Tublin of Brooklyn and Pamela Tublin Cook of Miami, and by his siblings, Rita Blinderman of Levittown and Seymor Tublin of Hawaii. 

A service in his honor was held at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point on Jan. 18, after which he was buried at Calverton National Cemetery.

Donations have been suggested to the United States Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association and Foundation, 300 Steamboat Road, Kings Point, N.Y. 11024.

George Knoblach of Montauk, an accomplished photographer and pioneering spearfisherman, died on Jan. 24 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. He was 92. 

He served in the Navy during World War II and honed his photographic skills while overseas. After his discharge, he contracted polio and was paralyzed and confined for a time to an iron lung. 

“His recovery was slow until his mother decided that water, and swimming, might be therapeutic. She was right,” Russell Drumm wrote in a 2015 article in The East Hampton Star. Mr. Knoblach regained his strength and full mobility. He became an expert swimmer and diver, “a fish,” according to Martin Pedersen, a longtime friend and fellow spearfisherman.

Early in his photography career, Mr. Knoblach was an assistant to James and Kathryn Abbe and worked with Fernand Fonssagrives and Howell T. Conant Sr., who was known for his portraits of Grace Kelly. In the late 1950s, Mr. Knoblach worked as an industrial and underwater photographer for the Collins Submarine Pipeline Company, a job that took him around the world and for which he developed new underwater photographic techniques and equipment. 

Toward the end of his career he was an instructor at Pratt Institute. Former students continued to visit him long after he had retired, his friends said.

Mr. Knoblach was a member of the Long Island Dolphins spearfishing club and, according to the 2015 Star article, “usually ended the season as ‘high hook,’ or high spear in this case.” 

Mr. Knoblach was born on July 9, 1925, in Queens to George Knoblach and the former Mary Ann Schneider. He began coming to Montauk as a child and settled there full time after his retirement. 

As his health deteriorated, he was cared for by a large group of friends, including Patrick and Geraldine Forde, Paul and Carolyn Henneforth, Joseph and Lori Gerardiello, and Arna and Mr. Pedersen. 

His brothers, Herbert and Jack Knoblach, died before him. He is survived by three nieces. 

Mr. Knoblach was cremated. His ashes will be spread during a private gathering on the beach in the spring.