Raised in East Hampton, Eleanor (Elly) Osborne left to attend Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y., in 1950. While there she meet Ilmar Carl Ratsep, who was attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in that city, and they married after she graduated in June 1954.
Her husband’s work as a nuclear engineer took them to Mount Lebanon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, where they raised their three children. While there, Ms. Ratsep earned a master’s degree in library science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
It wasn’t until her husband’s retirement in 1988 that they returned to East Hampton, where she became president of the East Hampton Library Board from May 1991 to May 1998, during which time she established a capital campaign committee that raised $3.6 million for the library’s expansion.
She was a member of the Lost Tribe of Accabonac, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, and the East Hampton Ramblers. She volunteered as a driver for Meals on Wheels for many years, both here and in Pennsylvania, and she took part in the Choral Society of the Hamptons.
A golfer, she learned and played at the Maidstone Club. While in Pennsylvania, she and her husband were members of the Laurel Valley Country Club in Ligonier and the Latrobe Country Club, where Arnold Palmer’s father had been head pro and greenskeeper. After returning here, the Ratseps golfed at the South Fork Country Club in Amagansett and the Sag Harbor Golf Course.
She grew up swimming at Main Beach and Three Mile Harbor. A hiker, sailor, and skier, she was on the ski patrol at Laurel Mountain in Pennsylvania and was a member of the race committee at the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett.
Ms. Ratsep died in East Hampton on Jan. 17 at the age of 93. Born in Southampton on March 25, 1931, to Nelson C. Osborne and the former Eleanor Florence Clark, she graduated from East Hampton High School.
Interested in genealogy, she was a member of the East Hampton Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, an associate member of the Chief Taughannock Chapter of the D.A.R., and a member of the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America.
She was a lifetime member of the East Hampton Presbyterian Church, and also studied under the American theologian R.C. Sproul of the Ligonier Ministries and attended the Ovid Federated Church near her home in that village in Seneca County upstate.
Ms. Ratsep is survived by her children, Linda Osborne Ratsep Fellers of Ovid and Thomas Osborne Ratsep and Rudolph Carl Ratsep of East Hampton. A brother, Robert Clark Osborne, a son-in-law, Kenny Fellers, and 12 nieces and nephews also survive. Her husband died in 1998.
A funeral service will be held at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church tomorrow at 11 a.m., officiated by the church’s Rev. Jon D. Rodriguez and the Rev. J. Robert Mellgard of the Ovid Federated Church.
After a casket burial at Cedar Lawn Cemetery here, a reception will be held at the Session House of the Presbyterian Church, where Ms. Ratsep recalled roller-skating in the basement as a girl.
The family recommends donations to the Springs Community Library, 1 Parsons Place, East Hampton 11937, or East Hampton Meals on Wheels, 33 Newtown Lane, Suite 205, East Hampton.
