Abdul Hakim (Kim) Lys died at home in Springs last Thursday, “leaving a legacy defined by determination, generosity, and deep devotion to his family and community,” his family wrote. He was 89.
Mr. Lys “was universally respected for his courtesy, honesty, and creative problem-solving,” they said.
He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Aug. 17, 1937, a date that eight years later would become Indonesia’s Independence Day. It was “a proud historical connection he recalled every year on his birthday,” his family said. His parents were Murad Lubis and Ramlah Nasution. As a boy in Jakarta, he lived through the “severe shortages and hardships of the Japanese occupation during World War II.”
He later attended a Methodist high school in Medan, Sumatra. “Driven to pursue a college education abroad, he engaged in a friendly, intense academic rivalry for top grades,” his family recalled. “While his classmate aimed for the Soviet Union, Kim was determined to reach the United States. He visited the U.S. Embassy every day for two weeks until a mentor recognized his perseverance, advised him to apply to schools in the American Northeast, and provided the $25 needed for application fees.”
He received a full scholarship to Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., and traveled on a freighter ship through the Suez Canal to Halifax, Canada, “before sailing into New York Harbor with just two suitcases.” He graduated with a degree in economics in 1962 and went on to earn an M.B.A. in retailing from New York University, supporting himself by working at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.
After graduating, he joined Stern Brothers, part of Allied Department Stores, to head its new department, the Foreign Market. Stern’s selected him to manage a new boutique store in East Hampton in 1964. “Kim quickly put down deep roots in the community, hiring local residents who became lifelong friends, joining the Rotary Club, and purchasing his very first land parcel in Springs for $600.”
By that time, he had already met “the love of his life,” Edith Joyce Bethard, through his college roommate. “When Kim asked her father for permission to marry, Joyce’s father asked them to wait while the landmark Loving v. Virginia case was pending in the U.S. Supreme Court, wanting to ensure their marriage would be fully protected under the law,” his family wrote. Following the 1967 ruling, the couple were married on Sept. 6, 1969, “embarking on a devoted 57-year partnership built on love and shared enterprise.”
The couple opened Fleur de Lys Fashions on Main Street in East Hampton in the 1970s, later expanding to Southampton. “Creative and hands-on, they built or remodeled 13 homes across East Hampton, providing rental and homeownership opportunities to many local families,” his family said.
In his later years, Mr. Lys was a bookkeeper for Wainscott Windows and Walls.
The couple’s final building project transformed a ranch house at the corner of Conklin Terrace and Newtown Lane in East Hampton Village into a two-story house that became a prime destination for Halloween trick-or-treating in the village and a family gathering place where children and grandchildren came to visit “Grammie and Bapak, the Indonesian word for a respected elder.”
“An avid sports fan, he loyally followed Penn State football, Carolina basketball, and the New York Yankees -- win or lose -- but his favorite games were always those played by his children and grandchildren. Kim and Joyce also cherished traveling the world together, taking photographs, and trying their luck at casinos wherever their adventures took them,” family said.
In recent years, the couple split their time between Springs and Morehead City, N.C.
Mrs. Lys survives, as do their children and their children’s spouses, Diana Lys and Neil Morrison of Chapel Hill, N.C., and David and Rachel Lys of Springs. Also surviving are six grandchildren, Ian David and Eva Caroline Morrison of Chapel Hill, and Brighton Jean, Brynley Katherine, Brie Elizabeth, and Brooke Joy Lys of Springs. He also leaves two nieces in Jakarta, their children, and “a wide circle of cherished friends near and far.”
The family received visitors on Tuesday at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral was held yesterday at the Presbyterian Church here, with interment at Fort Hill Cemetery in Montauk.
The family has suggested memorial contributions to a local PBS station. “Kim enjoyed PBS immensely,” they wrote, especially “ ‘animal shows’ with the dulcet tones of Sir David Attenborough, and concerts of all musical genres.”
