Richard Ellis Lynn had already retired from a career as a successful insurance executive when he was accepted at Harris Manchester College at the University of Oxford in England to study Renaissance literature. When he returned to East Hampton after his studies, he published a book of his poetry, “Bottom’s Dream.”
“For the rest of his life, he would find great satisfaction in his poetry practice,” his family wrote.
Mr. Lynn, who was known as Dick, died on Aug. 14 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He was 92 and had been active until just a few weeks ago.
A sailor and kayaker, he also enjoyed skiing and hiking and was involved with the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society. He was a dedicated environmentalist and a founding treasurer of the East End Community Organic Farm, or EECO Farm, and maintained his own asparagus there.
Mr. Lynn was born in Brooklyn on July 5, 1931, to John Linsky and the former Pearl Ornstein. He enrolled in the University of Chicago at 15, graduating in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. He then joined the Navy as a flight cadet and served on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.
After his military discharge he began his insurance career with Alexander & Alexander, a brokerage firm now called Aon. He was managing director of its New York office, then vice president of its aviation division, where, his family said, “he pioneered satellite insurance.” He retired as a senior vice president in 1987.
“During his tenure he built relationships with leading U.S. and international airlines and pioneering aerospace companies, including American, Eastern, Air Canada, and El Al,” his family wrote.
Mr. Lynn and his wife, the former Roseclaire Flick, had two sons, Peter and Nicholas, and settled in Sands Point. They moved to East Hampton when he retired. She died in 1991, and several years later he went to Oxford.
There, his family said, he studied under Professor John Carey and developed the “genesis of a breakthrough interpretation” of the poet Edmund Spenser’s “March” eclogue “more than 400 years after its publishing.”
Along with publishing his own book of poems after his time at Oxford, Mr. Lynn was active in East End Shakespeare discussion groups and poetry groups at Southampton College, the East Hampton Library, and in Naples, Fla., where he spent winters in recent years.
Mr. Lynn is survived by his son Nicholas Lynn, who lives in Paris, his partner of 17 years, Suzanne Thompson of East Hampton, his daughters-in-law, Linda Lynn and Helene Lynn, and by three grandchildren, Alexandra Lynn, Sarah-Jane Lynn, and Marion Lynn. His elder son, Peter Lynn, died before him.
A service was held at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton on Saturday.
His family has suggested donations to the East Hampton Library at 159 Main Street, or Share the Harvest Farm, P.O. Box 181, East Hampton 11937, online at sharetheharvestfarm.org.
