Albert Arthur Niggles Jr., who was known as Al, had a mechanical mind and could fix anything. "He loved to tinker with engines, bikes, farm implements, boats — anything that needed improvement or just a simple fix," his family said.
The lifelong Wainscott resident died on March 18 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of complications of throat cancer. He was 92 and had been diagnosed in January.
After a career with the New York Telephone Company, he took early retirement at the age of 55 and threw himself into other pursuits, particularly fishing off Wainscott Beach and crabbing in Georgica Pond with his best friends, Jim and Buddy McCaffrey, Harry Thomas, and Ed Slater. A beekeeper, he produced his own honey, and the fresh tomatoes from his garden were often sold from a picnic bench on the front lawn when in abundance.
"He was a voracious reader and a shy man with many quiet enjoyments who spent most free time with his family and friends," according to his family.
Born on Aug. 4, 1932, to Albert Niggles Sr. and the former Marie Costello, he grew up on Sayre's Path in Wainscott, one of four children. He attended the Wainscott School and East Hampton High School and enlisted in the Air Force.
He met his future wife, Mary Margaret Struk, at the Candy Kitchen in Bridgehampton. She died three years ago, the day after their 71th wedding anniversary.
Not long after they were married, he was posted for a year in Morocco working with the Air Force's engineer corps constructing an air base there. He had posts in Bermuda and Minnesota before returning to Wainscott, where he built the house where he raised his family and lived until his death.
He "cherished where he was from and all the beauty and simplicity a long life in Wainscott afforded his family," they wrote.
He is survived by four children, Diana Niggles Jacon of Selkirk, N.Y., Charlie Niggles of East Hampton, Doreen Niggles of Wainscott, and Debra Niggles of Plymouth, Mass., and by seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. His eldest son, Albert Daniel Niggles, known as Dan, died of throat cancer the day after him, on March 19 in Comfort, Tex.
His siblings, Helen Coady, Robert (Bobbie) Niggles, and James (Jimmy) Niggles, died before him.
