In describing Brian Pope, it would be hard to put it better than his fraternity brother Michael R. Hoff did in a letter to the editor in last week’s East Hampton Star: “He was many things to many people: historian, teacher, Lighthouse staffer, gadfly, fraternity brother, and — to anyone who read the Letters pages of The Star over the past decade — a reliable, necessary, and sometimes magnificent pain in the ass.”
Mr. Pope died at home in Montauk on June 17. He was 76. While he had had medical challenges in the past, he was in good health and his death was unexpected, his daughter, Allison Pope, said.
A history teacher in the Rocky Point School District for 34 years until his retirement in 2004, his “students were his passion,” his daughter wrote. “He would leave for summers to go to Europe, to tour concentration camps and learn from other educators, to ensure that his students properly understood the magnitude of the past and what it meant for the future.”
Even years after his retirement, former students would remember him as their favorite teacher, Ms. Pope said. “He was the teacher who tutored the pregnant ninth grader when that was taboo. He was the teacher who had his entire club visit a homebound student twice weekly because he needed socialization and friends, and he knew what the students in his club would get out of it too.”
Brian Anthony Pope was born in the United Kingdom on Sept. 25, 1949, to Edward Mora Pope, who was in the United States Air Force, and the former Mary Harper, who was from Ireland. He grew up in West London and at various Air Force bases in Europe and the U.S. He remained connected to his high school friends throughout his life and would meet weekly via Zoom with his college fraternity brothers.
He served in the Air Force himself from 1969 to 1971, and on June 2, 1972, he married Lynn Pope. They lived in Port Jefferson Station until 1989 and then in Mount Sinai until 1997. They were divorced in 1999, but remained close and saw each other often. She survives. Their daughter also lives in Mount Sinai.
Mr. Pope earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the State University at Albany and held three master’s degrees from Stony Brook University.
He was not only a lifelong teacher “in and out of the classroom, but also a lifelong learner,” his daughter said. He was a voracious reader, often in the middle of several books at the same time. History, biographies, and autobiographies were favorites. He also enjoyed reading about and listening to music, from Motown and Darlene Love to the Beach Boys, Pearl Jam, and Bruce Springsteen. “He went to all the shows, too.”
Mr. Pope was a sailor and sailboat racer. “He, my mom, and I would go sailing most days every summer,” his daughter recalled. “If there was no wind, it didn’t matter. We sat. And waited. We weren’t turning on the motor, that wasn’t the purpose.”
“He was an amazing storyteller and writer,” Ms. Pope said.
“His real voice is best preserved in his letters to this paper, written with a clarity, a fury, and a dark comic precision his targets did not enjoy,” his fraternity brother Mr. Hoff wrote. Bitingly critical of the Trump administration, his letters were “a public record of his own plainspoken, historically literate, barely contained outrage voice of what was happening to the country he loved.”
An example from Aug. 22, 2025: “I was happy to see that National Guard soldiers were being sent to areas of Washington, D.C. I had assumed that they would be assigned to the three most crime-ridden areas in the city: the White House, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. I was disappointed!”
Mr. Hoff recalled Mr. Pope’s generosity, and how he often picked up the bar tab for friends and never left less than $20 for the bartender. “He always felt if you were not giving waitstaff your utmost respect, and at least a 50 to 100-percent tip, you were doing it wrong,” his daughter said. “It was never about what means you had (or didn’t have), for my dad it was about what you were willing to give and do for others.”
After retirement, Mr. Pope became involved in the Montauk Historical Society and the Montauk Lighthouse, which it oversees. He served on the society’s executive board, on its Lighthouse committee, as the site manager, and as the chairman of the Lighthouse music committee. He had also worked at the Montauk Library, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, and briefly for The Star, assisting with its archives.
Mr. Pope was buried in a private ceremony at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk. A celebration of his life will be held at the Lighthouse at a future date. His family has suggested contributions in his memory to the Montauk Lighthouse, online at montaukhistoricalsociety.org.
