Like many of his UpIsland peers in the 1960s and ’70s, Michael Kinney was drawn to Montauk for its waves, natural beauty, and work opportunities. Although his life’s journey took him to places including Woodstock, N.Y., Washington, D.C., Iowa, and South Carolina, he made Montauk his home, raising a family and, with his wife, Patricia Kinney, founding Montauk Printing, which the couple ran for 40 years.
Mr. Kinney, who was 73, died on Dec. 10. He had been diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer, four years earlier.
Born in Nassau County on June 1, 1952, to Michael Kinney and the former Dorothy Soehner, he grew up there with little money but a lot of support from his mother, who put herself through college while raising five children as a single parent. She was his role model, Ms. Kinney said. Most of his early summers were spent at his maternal grandmother’s cottage at Coecles Harbor, Shelter Island, where he learned to love the water.
By the late 1960s, he had discovered Montauk and surfing, and spent as much time there as he could, having bartered a full bucket of fresh mussels for space on the floor of an overcrowded tent at Montauk Shores. He hitchhiked to Woodstock, his wife said, and to Washington to protest the war in Vietnam, sleeping among many other young protesters in the bushes around the United States Capitol.
Mr. and Ms. Kinney met in Montauk in the summer of 1971. After he studied to be a motorcycle mechanic in Iowa, the couple reunited in 1973 and were married on March 15 of that year. They attended Nassau Community College and then the State University at Oswego, graduating in 1980. Mr. Kinney went on to earn a master’s degree in printmaking and photography at Clemson University in South Carolina. He taught for two years in Columbia, S.C.
They returned to Montauk in 1983, and Mr. Kinney founded the industrial arts program at the Montauk School, teaching there for three years. The couple worked together at Montauk Printing every day, and opened the company’s East Hampton location in 1987.
Ms. Kinney recalled a memorable experience at the Montauk shop, when three rabbis requested that 25 copies of a very small but 100-page prayer book be printed before the following sunrise. Mr. Kinney worked throughout the night while the rabbis, dressed in religious robes, chanted prayers as they walked around the shop. The job was completed before sunrise, and Mr. Kinney was generously thanked before rushing home to shower and go teach at the school.
He was “a most informal and perfect gentleman” with a fantastic sense of humor, his wife said, and was dedicated to the many facets required to build and maintain a family. A coach and playmate to his children and grandchildren, he was always happy to include their friends on adventures, she said.
In addition to wis wife, Mr. Kinney is survived by two children, Leah Kinney and Sean Kinney, and four grandchildren, Tobias and Louisa Dollinger, and Siena and Caiden Kinney, all of Montauk. Three siblings, Timothy, Maureen, and Patricia, also survive. A son, William Conor Kinney, and a brother, William, died before him.
Mr. Kinney’s family has suggested memorial contributions to the Montauk Food Pantry, where he was a volunteer, at P.O. Box 997, Montauk 11954 or montaukfoodpantry.org/donate; or the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, where people with Merkel cell carcinoma are cared for, at fredhutch.org or 100 Fairview Avenue North, Seattle 98109.
