David Allyn Webb was less than 2 years old when the Hurricane of 1938 hit Long Island. His mother often told the story of how she was holding shut the casement windows of the family’s cottage in Montauk while her husband was making his way across the flooded Napeague stretch in a farm tractor.
It might be a different kind of stretch to conclude that those stories led David to a career as a mechanical engineer and general contractor whose company’s projects included Norman Jaffe’s Gates of the Grove Synagogue in East Hampton, the Ross School, and St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Amagansett.
Mr. Webb died last Thursday after a brief illness at the Peconic Landing retirement community in Greenport. He was 87.
Born in Montauk on April 20, 1937, to Richard B. Webb and the former Emma Luckings, he grew up in that hamlet and attended the Montauk School and East Hampton High School before setting out for Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., where he received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.
While still in high school, he joined his father and brother in building their family’s beach cottage on a dune at what became Montauk’s most popular beach. Nicknamed Hi-Tide, the building is still standing.
Working as a lifeguard at the Montauk Surf Club, he met his future wife, Gail F. Barker, who was summering in Montauk while working at the Montauk Manor. They married on Sept. 12, 1959, in Greenwich, Conn., and had two sons, Dean and Glen.
After graduating from college in 1959, Mr. Webb was employed by General Motors in Saginaw, Mich., as an efficiency supervisor. After returning to Montauk in the summer of 1962, he worked as a carpenter before starting his own contracting business two years later. In 1978, he became a licensed professional engineer.
The portfolio of Webb Builders includes many residential, commercial, and public projects, as well as educational buildings and houses of worship. According to the firm’s website, the skills, eyes, and philosophies of Richard B. Webb and David Webb are being carried on by David’s own sons.
Mr. Webb served on the East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals from the late 1970s into the early ’80s. He also served on the Montauk Historical Society’s Second House Museum and Montauk Point Lighthouse preservation teams from the 2000s to the early 2020s, and volunteered for Meals on Wheels in Montauk from the 2000s to the 2010s. From the 1980s through the early ’90s he was on the Montauk Village Association celebrity cocktail party committee.
His family said he enjoyed skiing all over the world, and spent countless days on the beaches of Montauk, Amagansett, and East Hampton, clamming and partying with family and friends. He also traveled throughout North America in the family’s motor home, towing their Volkswagen Beetle.
In addition to his wife, who lives in Greenport, and sons, Dean Webb of Patchogue and Glen Webb of East Hampton, he is survived by nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Burial was at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk. A celebration of his life will take place in Montauk at a later date.
The family has suggested donations to the preservation of the Montauk Point Lighthouse, which can be made through the Montauk Historical Society at montaukhistoricalsociety.org/donate.
