John B. Casale Jr., a former co-owner of the Bridgehampton Tennis and Surf Club, died on April 8 at home in Manchester, Vt. He was 99.
In 1941, while studying medicine at Cornell University, where he was a member of the Phi Theta fraternity, he joined the Army, becoming a captain in the Army Medical Corps during World War II.
He had been stationed in Germany, and then assisted in postwar efforts in Romania and Austria. He received a certificate of surgery with a focus on pathology from the University of Vienna, and, in 1948, after moving to New York City, he continued his education at New York Medical College.
It was while he was a resident at Roosevelt Hospital in New York that he met the former Ann Grimshaw, whom he married in 1952. The couple moved to Bronxville, N.Y., where they raised 10 children, and where he had been a member of the Bronxville Field Club and Siwanoy Country Club. The family would spend summers in Wainscott, and winters in Peru, Vt.
For 45 years, he had a medical practice specializing in general surgery on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He had been affiliated with the former Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital and Doctors Hospital, and was an active member of the Surgical Society of the New York Medical College.
In 1987, after his marriage ended in divorce, he married the former Françoise Hertoghe de Spirlet, who survives. The couple lived here and in Manhattan, and after he retired, they split their time between Vero Beach, Fla., and Dorset, Vt., where he was a member of the Dorset Field Club. In 2016, they moved full time to Manchester.
Born on April 27, 1920, in Newark, N.J., to Dr. John B. Casale Sr. and the former Angela Modica, he grew up in Essex Fells, N.J., and graduated from the Kingsley School there.
He enjoyed music, gardening, painting, travel, tennis, golf, going to the beach, and boating. He supported several charities in Vero Beach and had volunteered for the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity. He was a member of Holy Cross Catholic Church, and the Moorings Yacht Club there, and St. Paul's Catholic Church, and the Ekwanok Golf Club in Manchester.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, John B. Casale III of Kingston, N.Y., Dr. Charles V. Casale of Cooperstown, N.Y., and Andrew E. Casale of Stuart, Fla., and six daughters, Mary E. Novak of Hunt Valley, Md., Christine A. Krouse of Arundel, Me., Dorothy M. Casale of Manchester, Vt., Donna A. Durkin of Biddeford Pool, Me., Anastasia V. Casale of Baiting Hollow, and Catherine M. Fantini of Laguna Beach, Calif. His eldest daughter, Wanda Casale, died before him. Four stepchildren, Ginette G. McCloskey of Brookfield, Conn., Marie E. Beebe of Newport, R.I., Dianne M. de Spirlet of Sarasota, Fla., and Andre F. de Spirlet of Lakewood, Colo., as well as 22 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren also survive.
Services will be held this summer in Manchester, Vt. Memorial donations are suggested to Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home at hildene.org or the Southern Vermont Art Center, P.O. Box 617 Manchester, Vt. 05254
