Upbeat, folksy melodies played over the speakers and a loop of family photos was projected across a large screen above the stage, as guests walked in to LTV Studios in Wainscott Sunday afternoon to commemorate the life and legacy of Larry Penny, a naturalist, teacher, environmentalist, writer, and longtime director of the town’s Natural Resources Department, who died in December at the age of 89.
Printed selections from “Nature Notes,” Mr. Penny’s East Hampton Star column for four decades, were pinned up on a display board in one corner, and the room’s perimeter was lined with tables from the local environmental organizations sponsoring the celebration.
Representatives stood by the tables to answer questions, in the tradition of Mr. Penny, whom friends and former colleagues remembered as an invaluable “open resource” for information about the natural world. Lisa Liquori, a former director of the Planning Department, took the stage to introduce a group of virtual attendees, among them Mr. Penny’s wife, Julie Penny, who’d come up with the original vision for the day’s celebration.
A succession of speakers followed, including Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, who began by quoting the 19th-century naturalist Henry David Thoreau: “Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.”
“I think about that when I think about someone like Larry,” Mr. DeLuca said. “From researcher to educator, to government official to, you know, guy you meet on the trail — every time you met Larry he was planting a seed, and all of us have probably had some experience with that.”
Similar themes ran through the tributes. Ed Johann, the president of the Third House Nature Center in Montauk, said that “if you had an interest, Larry would join you in that walk.”
“There’s a certain elitism sometimes, in the environmental movement, that we have to shun and stay away from,” Mr. Johann added.
“We have to all be open to saying, if you want to learn about it, meet me tomorrow. We’ll go for a walk in the woods.”
Ms. Liquori recalled working with Mr. Penny during what she called the “reign of terror” in the early 1980s, when the town board voted to abolish the Planning Department, leaving major tracts of land — including Barcelona Neck, the Grace Estate, and Hither Woods — vulnerable to development. That action inspired the “sophisticated, multifaceted, and coordinated efforts” of local environmentalists and organizations, she said, and Mr. Penny’s input throughout the process had been “essential,” both in preserving the lands and addressing the many related issues that would come up over the years.
State Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, on behalf of County Legislator Ann Welker, presented the Penny family with posthumous proclamations recognizing Mr. Penny’s work. “Larry Penny was one of the great giants in environmental conservation out here on the East End, and there are so many of you in the room today who worked with him,” he said. “Some of the pieces of property that you named, they’re going to be wild forever.”
Ann Nowak, a friend and neighbor of Larry and Julie Penny, spoke of Mr. Penny’s less-often-seen romantic side. She recounted the story of the couple’s first encounter, on the Long Island Rail Road in the summer of 1969. Spotting his future wife on the train, Mr. Penny said later, he was “smitten” at first sight, and wrote her a note, which he folded up and placed inside a hollowed-out avocado to hand to her.
“I never knew that note still existed until about two weeks ago, when Julie sent me a picture,” Ms. Nowak said. “All these years later, she still has it.”
A supercut of clips from “Living with Nature,” a program Mr. Penny hosted on LTV — with topics ranging from the planets, to mushrooms, to a “well-known tern-breeding area” on Hicks Island — was screened, introduced by its co-producers, Rameshwar Das and Jacqui Lofaro. “He would take us to places that you didn’t even know existed, and it was magical,” Ms. Lofaro said.
“It was the East End that you felt privileged to know.”
Mr. Penny’s son, Jim Penny, who’d flown in from California for the occasion with his sons, Matthew and Kevin, called the footage “a real treat to see,” and thanked the organizers of the event and the studio on behalf of the family. “It’s a wonderful gift for me and my boys.”
Sharing a later memory was Karilyn Jones, who called Mr. Penny a dear friend and mentor, and spoke of playing a birding game while visiting the Pennys in Noyac in December, shortly before they moved to California. “He named every bird correctly from the clues that I gave him, and he didn’t want to stop,” she said. “He might not remember what he had for breakfast that day, but he certainly knew his penguins, raptors, woodland birds — you name it.”
Others in the audience were then invited to say a few words, and many did, including the attorneys Rick Whalen and Russell Stein, who worked closely with Mr. Penny on preservation efforts. Speakers had to be cut off just before 3 p.m., when two guided hikes were scheduled to set out, one through Buckskill Woods, led by Mr. Whalen; the other through Vineyard Field in Bridgehampton, led by Dai Dayton.
A final tribute came from Terry Sullivan, who’d worked with Mr. Penny as a nature photographer, sometimes providing photographs for his “Nature Notes” columns. Mr. Sullivan, who’s also a musician, sang an excerpt from a song he is composing and ended with a traditional Irish farewell song before people set off on their hikes, passing Mr. Penny’s writings on the way out.
“It’s that time of year again,” one of his Star columns began. “Greens turn to yellows, reds, and oranges. Colorful birds flit from treetop to treetop, feeder to feeder. Gray squirrels and blue jays gather and sequester bronzy acorns. Azure skies sail overhead and morph into carmine-purple sunsets, then 7-to-7 uninterrupted black. Better to appreciate the harlequin days against a backdrop of lightless nights. Yes, it’s fall, and isn’t that grand?”