“A model in Paris, a secretary in Belgium, a columnist and candidate in Brooklyn, and the long-serving, unofficial mayor of Amagansett,” The Star wrote of Joan Tulp on the occasion of her 90th birthday, in August 2019.
“I’ve had an interesting life,” Mrs. Tulp allowed.
She arrived in Amagansett in 1950. “My first husband’s aunt owned a house on Indian Wells Highway,” she told The Star. “I got off the train and fell madly in love with Amagansett. For me, it was heaven on earth.”
One of the hamlet’s more civic-minded citizens, she was active with the Amagansett Citizens Advisory Committee, the East Hampton Food Pantry, the East Hampton Healthcare Center, the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society, the Amagansett Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
When the Amagansett Village Improvement Society holds its annual Summer Splash party and fund-raiser on Saturday, the night will be bittersweet, many of its members said this week. Mrs. Tulp, an AVIS board member for more than 55 years, died at home on Gansett Lane on Monday, just a few weeks shy of her 97th birthday.
Joan Patricia Warendorff was born in the Bronx on Aug. 18, 1929, to Walter P. Warendorff and the former Marion Veronica Burton. She grew up in Rockville Centre and graduated from high school there, later attending secretarial school. She lived for a time in Brooklyn, on Dean Street and Sidney Place, where she worked at the Brooklyn Friends School and wrote the “Heard on the Heights” column for the Brooklyn Heights Press. “I did one column every week, and got paid $5, which amuses me now,” she told The Star. “But it was fun.”
As a member of the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Mrs. Tulp once sought the office of female district leader, an elected position charged with an assembly district’s oversight of the county committee. Eleanor Roosevelt and Senator Herbert H. Lehman, in person, endorsed her candidacy and those of her running mates, the candidates for male district leader and assemblyman, at the Hotel Bossert, which was known as Brooklyn’s Waldorf-Astoria. “That was a big deal in those days,” she said.
She and Robert Thomas were married in 1953. They lived in Paris for three years, where Mrs. Tulp worked as a model for the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm. “Then we moved back to the Heights, and then to Antwerp,” near the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation’s European headquarters. “They looked for American secretaries,” she said, “so I got the job. I wasn’t a very good secretary, but they hired me because I was an American.”
Her first marriage ended in divorce. She and Robert J. Tulp were married in 1963. They lived in Brooklyn Heights and soon bought a house in Amagansett, spending weekends and summers here. She became a year-round resident more than 30 years ago.
In 2021, AVIS honored Mrs. Tulp with the dedication of a cherry tree and plaque at the society’s tennis courts, at the corner of Main Street and Atlantic Avenue. The plaque, at the base of the tree, says “Here is my heart’s home” (from “Noon: Amagansett Beach” by the East Hampton poet John Hall Wheelock). “In honor of Joan Warendorff Tulp who is the heart of Amagansett, AVIS board member for over half a century.”
The quote was appropriate, said Cathy Peacock of the society, “because she is the heart of this hamlet. She loves Amagansett, and she never wanted it to change. . . . She’s been the guiding light and an activist ensuring that any changes were things that benefited the community, that were a positive force. She’s also been the heart and driving force of AVIS for over half a century.”
What would the hamlet be without Mrs. Tulp’s unstinting devotion to the society? Ms. Peacock asked. “She’s an inspiration to all of us, to remember we can’t do it all, but whatever we can do, we should do. I don’t think there’s anyone in Amagansett, or even the whole environment, that isn’t a friend of Joan’s. She never has a cross word or says anything mean about anyone. . . . We love Joan, and we wish her well for another 50 years in AVIS.” The guest of honor was toasted with champagne and cookies.
In recent years, Terrebonne Productions produced “Life Stories: Joan Tulp,” a documentary written and directed by Christiane Arbesu. Ms. Arbesu told The Star that she and Mrs. Tulp became fast friends during the production. According to Terrebonne Productions, Mrs. Tulp, “with humor and heart . . . reflects on the winding path that led her to the Hamptons and the deep sense of love and belonging she found here.”
In the warmer months, Mrs. Tulp could be found by the shoreline at the Amagansett Beach Association, where the parking space closest to the sand is reserved for her. Every December, dressed up in red, white, and green, she was Mrs. Claus at AVIS’s annual Santa Claus Day, at which 100 stockings filled with goodies are distributed to children at the Amagansett Firehouse.
Last year, New York magazine published “The 95-Year-Old Mayor of Amagansett.”
Mr. Tulp died in 2008. Mrs. Tulp is survived by her four sons: Luke Thomas of Naples, Fla., Evan Thomas of Amagansett, Matthew Tulp of Raleigh, N.C., and Jamie Tulp of East Hampton. Six grandchildren survive as well.
A wake is scheduled for Aug. 13 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A service will be on Aug. 14 at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, where Mrs. Tulp was a member, at a time to be determined. Burial will follow at Cedar Lawn Cemetery in East Hampton.
Mrs. Tulp’s family has suggested memorial contributions to the Amagansett Village Improvement Society, online at keepamagansettbeautiful.com.
