Carlo Grossman, the developer of Amagansett Square, died at home in East Hampton on May 5. Mr. Grossman, who was 90, had Parkinson’s, kidney, and cardiovascular disease.
Mr. Grossman had become familiar with the South Fork as a boy when visiting with his father and uncles, who worked together. They took him along “on gambling outings to Montauk and their second-floor year-round rental apartment on Main Street in Southampton,” where they spent occasional weekends.
By 1963, he and his first wife, Janet, had bought their first house in East Hampton, and soon left the city to raise their two children there.
“Within a year he was on a fast track to learn the real estate business and then launched his own successful brokerage company, Windward Realty, where his specialty was vacant land development and investment,” wrote his second wife, Joanna Grossman.
“From his purchase of the land and one building in the early 1970s, a major focus of his business life was the design, approval, and construction of Amagansett Square,” she said. “His vision consisted of a large open lawn and shade trees for public use surrounded by harmoniously designed retail buildings.” His son, Jonathan Grossman, who had worked with him in East Hampton, was an active partner in bringing the project to fruition and its sale in 2011.
Mr. Grossman was born in New York City on Aug. 23, 1932, to Isidore (Donald) Grossman and the former Isobel Hirschberg. He grew up in New York City and at 17 went off to Paris, sang in sidewalk cafes with his guitar, got a room on the attic floor of the Lutetia Hotel, and looked up extended family and their friends who had remained in Europe after World War II, his wife wrote. In the summer of 1950, he was called back to New York City as the draft increased during the Korean War.
“At his pre-induction physical he was evaluated to be Marine Corps material and shortly thereafter found himself on Parris Island,” his wife wrote. “Having excelled there, he volunteered for underwater demolitions. He was tagged to join the beach jumper units, which the Navy was training to evaluate potential landing sites in the South Pacific. Of his platoon at Parris Island all but a very few died at the Chosin Reservoir.”
He served four years of active duty and remained in the Marine Corps Reserve until 1960.
“His service in the Marine Corps left an indelible impact on his patriotism and character,” his wife said.
His first job after the service was working with his father in his textile business. He moved on to London and a job with Marks & Spencer, and after returning to New York reorganized a clothing manufacturer’s business.
His aesthetic sense was honed by the fine Sea Island cottons his father’s company marketed, by his uncle Sidney Janis’s gallery and “adventuresome life in art,” and his own parents’ contemporary art collecting, his wife wrote.
Mr. Grossman was close friends with many artists, whose work he supported. “He was averse to leaving any wall space at home unoccupied by either paintings, prints, his own and others’ photographs, objects, and many of the hilarious Photoshop concoctions of his friend Colt Givner,” his wife said. Floor space in their house was devoted to sculpture and to his extensive collection of old cameras. Photography was a constant pleasure for Mr. Grossman.
He married Joanna Alexander on Feb. 16, 1984. For nearly 40 years the couple spent several months each year in Australia. “There and everywhere, he had a great eye for seeing the great shot, the unexpected shot, the unusual framing of the usual shot,” she said. He spent time in Connecticut learning Cibachrome printing and brought that skill home to his own darkroom. He self-published several books as gifts for friends “and resisted all suggestions to show them publicly,” his wife said. “Photography had only to do with pleasure, and the pleasure of giving his work to friends and acquaintances.”
Mr. Grossman was “devoted to his family,” his wife said. “He had a special gift for long and loving friendships, in the United States and Australia. He was grateful for the beauty of East Hampton and grateful for the opportunity it provided for a challenging and successful professional life.”
In 1970s, Mr. Grossman was an organizer of Citizens Concerned for East Hampton, a nonpartisan group “concerned about massive developments; pollution of our air, water, and land; higher taxes, [and] overpopulation,” according to an ad it placed in The Star on Feb. 12, 1970.
Mr. Grossman is survived by his wife, his children, L. Brook Spencer and Jonathan Grossman of East Hampton, their mother, Janet Grossman of Sag Harbor, and his grandchildren, Carly Grossman of San Francisco and Zachary Grossman of Springs. He also leaves a cousin, Carroll Janis of New York City and East Hampton, and a godson, Alden Bourne of Northampton, Mass. His sister, Josie Lindau, predeceased him.
Mr. Grossman’s ashes are to be interred with Marine honors at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.
His family has suggested contributions in his name to East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach 11978.
