Obituaries

Daniel Ryan Shields Sr., who had been a painting contractor, an East Hampton Town Parks Department employee, and an Amagansett Fire Department captain, died on Dec. 27 at Southampton Hospital of congestive heart failure and complications of the disease.

Dianne d’Etreillis Roussel, who was an artist and designer from a young age and through Roussel Art Conservation, a family firm, worked on Ronald Reagan’s official White House Christmas ornament and many sculptures at Lincoln Center and Rockefeller Center, died on Dec. 25 at Haven Hospice in New York City of complications of lung cancer.

A graveside service was held at Oak Grove Cemetery in Amagansett on Saturday for Edna Mae Steckowski, 86, who died on Dec. 28 at her Miankoma Lane, Amagansett, home, which she and her husband built in 1950.

Irving Schiffman, a former textile executive and a summer resident of East Hampton for more than 50 years, died at his Manhattan residence on Dec. 15 of congestive heart disease.

Matthew Henry Yuska of Accabonac Road in East Hampton died of pneumonia on Dec. 22 at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook

Andrzej Wasilewicz was an actor, writer, director, producer, and musician, but he also was a political activist who fought for democracy in Poland.

Bernard A. Barnes, a longtime teacher and art director in the Newburgh City, N.Y., School District who spent summers on Gardiner Drive in Amagansett for more than 50 years, died of cardiopulmonary arrest on Dec. 16 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Margaret Negro, who lived in Springs and wintered in Port St. Lucie Fla., died on Dec. 14 at her house in Florida. She was 92 and had recently been in declining health.

Rae Burgess, who was 96, died on Monday at Southampton Hospital.

Allene Talmage, a teacher at the Springs School for more than 20 years who was known for her dedication to children, the natural world, and the Springs community, died at the age of 93 at Southampton Hospital on Nov. 17.

Cecilia Coleman, who spent summers in Montauk from the 1960s until recently, died on Dec. 10 at Astor Terrace, the rehabilitation unit of the Odd Fellow Home nursing facility in Green Bay.

David Lee, who had owned a jewelry store in Sag Harbor and was active in many facets of the Sag Harbor and East Hampton communities, died on Nov. 29 at the Southampton Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.

Herbert Knoblach, a Montauk resident who was a pioneer in mako shark fishing and had worked at Hither Hills State Park and the Montauk Marine Basin, died at home on Friday of the complications of diabetes.

Marian Ford Pryce, a retired nurse anesthetist who started spending summers in Sag Harbor in 1936 and lived in the Chatfield’s Hill neighborhood, died on Nov. 15 at Stony Brook University Hospital at the age of 82 following a stroke.

The Star has received word of the death of Phebe M. Smith, an East Hampton native who was a descendent of the Dominy family of furniture and clock-makers. Mrs. Smith died on Sept. 25 at Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyo., having come down with an infection four days before. She was 91 years old.

Born here on Aug. 22, 1925, she was one of two children of Carl F. Mason and the former Phebe Dominy. She graduated from East Hampton High School and later received laboratory training to become a nurse during World War II, which ended before she received her degree.

Cheryl Merser, an author of books on topics such as gardening and cooking, as well as a sought-after ghost writer, died of cancer at home in Sag Harbor on Dec. 6. She was 65 and had been ill for five years.

Devon R. Parent, who graduated from East Hampton High School with the class of 2003, died at home on Friday at the age of 31.

A memorial service for Marian Ford Pryce of Sag Harbor will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Bridgehampton.

Frank Bradbury Hollenbeck, 84, a prolific architect who also was an artist and singer, died at his Springs house last Thursday with his wife at his side.

Herbert A. Nixon Jr., who lived in East Hampton for about 35 years and worked for the town’s Highway Department for more than 18, died of heart failure on Dec. 7 at Southampton Hospital.

James Elsworth Lowe, a longtime radio personality, composer, and recording artist who lived his later years in East Hampton, died on Dec. 12 at home after a long illness.

Nursing was Janice Blair Whalen’s “true calling,” her husband, Richard Whalen, said, and she was “immensely proud” to have become a certified nurse’s aide in New York State, having previously worked in that capacity for seven years with the United States Veterans Administration in California.

Jean F. Lester, who worked for more than 30 years for the East Hampton School District, died on Dec. 6 at home in Springs.

Kenneth Stewart Freese, a carpenter who had been a quarterback on the East Hampton High School football team and also lettered in track and tennis, died in East Hampton on Nov. 30 at the age of 56.

Sybil Rose Gurka of East Hampton died on Dec. 7 of complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.

Carol Mary Mercer, an award-winning garden designer who had been a dancer in Broadway plays as a youth, died at her East Hampton home on Nov. 19. She was 92 years old and had congestive heart failure.

Donald Mendres, who owned Hampton Teak in Wainscott and lived on Kettle Hole Road in Montauk for 15 years, died at home on Nov. 15, apparently of a heart attack. He was 72 and had been ill for about six months.

Rhoda H. Bation, who came to know East Hampton several decades ago when her son Matthew S. Dienstag was living here, and who retired here in 1999, died in her sleep on Friday at his house in Rock Stream, N.Y., in the Finger Lakes region. She was 79.

Visiting hours for Janice Whalen of Amagansett will be held on Sunday from 2 to 4 and from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral service will be held on Monday at 10 a.m. at the Amagansett Presbyterian Church.

Ms. Whalen, the wife of Richard Whalen, was a certified nurse aide. She died on Monday at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, where she was being treated for symptoms of schizophrenia. She was 43. An obituary will appear in a future issue. 

Jan Joseph Kalas, an architect who split his time between Brooklyn and East Hampton for many years and continued to keep a sailboat here, died on Oct. 31 after being struck by a car in Long Beach on his way to work. He was 70. 

Mr. Kalas practiced architecture for 40 years, 20 of them at the engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti, where he was a senior vice president. The firm said he was “known for his problem-solving ability and eye for detail.” Colleagues described him as quick-witted and full of energy.