U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current
Florence Evanthea Clark
Florence Evanthea Clark, a longtime Shelter Island summer resident, died at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York on September 26, 2003. Most recently, she had been living in Clare Bridge Cottage, Ithaca, New York.
Mrs. Clark's life spanned the better part of the last century. Born March 8, 1916 in Harlem, New York to Maria Zuvekas and Spyros Tsucalas, she attended the New York City school system and completed two years at Hunter College before taking work to help support her family in the Great Depression.
She met August Clark, her husband of 62 years, in the Inwood section of Manhattan, and was married on November 30, 1941. Their honeymoon in Cuba was cut short by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and they returned to live out the war years in New York.
She became acquainted with Shelter Island through a family friend (the late Florence Nichols), staying first at the Peconic Lodge in 1942, then at Chiaramonte's cabins until 1954, when she and her husband purchased their current home on Smith Street from Bill Payne. Since then, she spent nearly every summer on Shelter Island.
An avid cook, she loved children, the arts and progressive causes in general. "Her great sense of humor, strength of heart and willingness to forgive," said her children, were a great source of inspiration and stayed with her even through the long fight with Alzheimer's disease that ended her life.
She is survived by her husband, August C. Clark, of Ithaca; two of her children, Dean and Ted Clark, both of Ithaca; her daughter in-law Susan Jones of Ithaca; her grandchildren Phoebe and Eleanor Clark, and her brother Harry Tsucalas of Shelter Island. She was predeceased by her brother Ted Tsucalas.
Services will be held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Shelter Island, Sunday, October 5 at 2 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to the Alzheimer's Association (http://www.alz.org), 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1700, Chicago, Illinois 60601-7633.
Shirley Hunt Neurohr Schumacher
Shirley Hunt Neurohr Schumacher, formerly of Shelter Island, died on Tuesday, August 22, 2000 at her home in Stuart, Florida. She was 82.
A member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church and a volunteer at Martin Memorial Hospital South, both in Port Salerno, Florida, Mrs. Schumacher was born in Brooklyn, New York. With her husband, the late Richard Schumacher Jr., she moved from Shelter Island to Stuart seven years ago. She was predeceased by a brother, George F.C. Neurohr.
Mrs. Schumacher is survived by three sons, Richard Schumacher III of Millbrook, New York, Robert H. Schumacher of Mountain View, California and William N. Schumacher of Key Largo, Florida; daughter Jane S. Hammond of Colorado Springs, Colorado; 13 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and brother Dr. Ferdinand G. Neurohr Jr. of Homosassa Springs, Florida.
A memorial service was held on August 23, 2000 at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Port Salerno. Inurnment will follow the 10 a.m. service on October 1, 2000 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Shelter Island.
Donations in Mrs. Shumacher's memory may be made to St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Shelter Island, or to the Hospice of Martin and St. Lucie, Inc., 2030 SE Ocean Blvd., Stuart, Florida 34996
Thomas C. Oliver
Thomas C. Oliver Jr., a long-time resident of Shelter Island, died September 9, 2001. He was the son of Thomas Clifford Oliver and Catherine (Hill) Oliver and was born on February 14, 1919 in Austin, Texas. By the time he reached six years old, the family relocated to Shelter Island and Jackson Heights, Queens.
As a young man, sailing was one of his great interests and he often competed on Dering Harbor in Shelter Island Yacht Club events.
Mr. Oliver continued his formal schooling at The Choate School. From there he went on to study chemical engineering at Yale University. During this period, war had broken out in Europe and Mr. Oliver interrupted his college education to enlist in the U.S. Army in October of 1940. In August of 1941, he transferred to the U.S. Army Air Corps, 5th Bomb Group, 72nd squadron. Mr. Oliver was trained as a gunner and a radio operator. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Oliver saw action in the South Pacific, flying in B-17 Ds and Es from Espirito Santo and Guadalcanal. He returned stateside in April of 1943 and married Helen Steffen on June 19, 1943. He was a radio instructor for the remainder of the war and was discharged as a Tech Sargent, earning an Air Medal, A/P Theater Medal with two Bronze Stars with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Distinguished Unit Badge, among others.
Mr. Oliver resumed his education, and earned an electrical engineering degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1948. He started his career with Westinghouse Corporation, assuming positions of increasing responsibility as a sales engineer, until he joined Data Master Division of American Chain and Cable in 1962 as the sales engineer responsible for the eastern U.S.
Mr. Oliver retired in 1976 to spend all of his time with his wife at their Ram Island home. From there he enjoyed sailing, golf, reading and operating his HAM radio equipment. He was licensed by the FCC as "Expert with Special Privileges."
Mr. Oliver was a member of American Legion Post 281, the Gardiner's Bay Country Club, ARRL (the Amateur Radio Relay League) and the 5th Bombardment Group Association.
Mr. Oliver is survived by Helen Steffen Oliver (his wife of 58 years); two daughters, Catherine Oliver Taylor of Peace Dale, Rhode Island, and Steffenie Oliver Kirkpatrick of Downingtown, Pennsylvania; and a sister, Elizabeth Oliver Palmer, of Rocky River, Ohio. In addition, Mr. Oliver leaves two granddaughters, Islay Taylor and Fiona Kirkpatrick.
A burial service to celebrate the life of Mr. Oliver will be held at a later date. The family requests that any expressions of sympathy take the form of donations to the Shelter Island Public Library.
Helen Steffen Oliver
Helen Steffen Oliver died peacefully in her sleep during an afternoon nap on Sunday, December 7, 2003, at her beloved home on Ram Island. She was 84 years old.
Mrs. Oliver was born Helen Elizabeth Steffen on July 23, 1919 in College Point, Queens, the daughter of Dr. Walter C. A. Steffen and Catherine McDougall Steffen.
Mrs. Oliver's father was a noted Queens pediatrician who had a deep love for the water. The Steffen family had many happy times cruising the Long Island, New England, and Canadian coasts on their boat, Triton V, when Mrs. Oliver was young. It was during one of their family voyages that they became acquainted with Shelter Island and fell in love with Coecles Harbor and their favorite anchorage off Ram Island.
When Charles Hamilton developed Ram Island Estates in the late 1920s, Mrs. Oliver's father was first in line, purchasing several adjacent lots on Pomp's (also known as Pompey's) Point, Ram Island. The family's summer cottage there, constructed in 1929, was one of the first residences on Ram Island and includes a trademark Ram Island cobble fireplace.
Mrs. Oliver attended school in College Point and graduated from Horace Mann School in Riverdale. She went on to study art at Bennington College, graduating with a B.A. in 1941. It was during a summer break from college in 1940 that she met her future husband, Thomas C. Oliver Jr., on Shelter Island, where his family had a summer home in the Heights and where he was an accomplished sailor from a young age. After graduation from college, Mrs. Oliver was employed at the Grumman facility in Bethpage, first as a riveter and later as a draftsman utilizing her artistic talent.
Mr. and Mrs. Oliver were married on June 19, 1943 at her parents' home on Ram Island while he was on a short leave from the Air Force. The couple spent many months living at various Air Force facilities throughout the West, including Rapid City, South Dakota; Oklahoma Ciy, Oklahoma; and Dalhart, Texas. Mrs. Oliver was employed as an assistant to the sheriff (a female) while the couple lived in Dalhart.
When Mr. Oliver was posted to the Pacific, Mrs. Oliver returned to New York and lived on Shelter Island and in Queens. In the post-war years, Mrs. Oliver was employed as a draftsman at a commercial lighting design firm in New York, where she assisted in the design of lights for the Holland Tunnel, among other projects.
In 1950, the Olivers made their permanent home in Port Washington. Mrs. Oliver was very active for many years in the Girls Scouts and at her daughters' schools, where she was well known and appreciated for her creativity and generosity.
Shelter Island continued to stand at the heart of their life and the family spent many weekends and weeks on the Island visiting with both the Steffens on Ram and the Olivers in the Heights. Mr. and Mrs. Oliver loved to sail and carried on the family tradition of cruising the New England coast in their sailboat. They made friends in many ports and became very dear to the members of the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club on the Connecticut River. The Olivers retired to Shelter Island in 1974, becoming year-round residents.
Mrs. Oliver is best remembered on the Island for her many years as an active member of the Garden Club of Shelter Island, which she joined as a young woman along with her mother, Mrs. Catherine Steffen. Mrs. Oliver was an immediate champion at the annual flower shows, where she gave free rein to her considerable artistic talent and her love for flowers and nature. In addition to serving as club president for many years, she was mentor and instructor for the Junior Garden Club and there have been more than a few Shelter Island children who learned the rudiments of flower arranging from her instruction.
Mrs. Oliver remained active in the Garden Club until her death, and although suffering from partial blindness and deafness in recent years, she continued to attend and contribute to various Garden Club meetings and workshops.
On October 25, she was honored along with the late Mrs. Kay Newman at the dedication of a bench in their names in the Garden Club's wildflower garden in Mashomack for her many years of teaching and fostering an appreciation of Shelter Island's native wildflowers. But in recent years, there is no question that she was most known and beloved for her outrageous and imaginative hats, created for numerous Garden Club occasions including the annual luncheon.
Mrs. Oliver is survived by two daughters, Catherine Taylor of Peace Dale, Rhode Island, and Steffenie Kirkpatrick of Downingtown, Pennsylvania; two granddaughters, Islay Taylor and Fiona Kirkpatrick; and two nieces, Elizabeth Curtin of Shelter Island and Susan DiNola of Ballston Lake, New York.
She was predeceased in 2001 by her husband of 58 years, Thomas C. Oliver Jr., and in 1991 by her sister, Catherine Steffen Lumbra, herself a longtime resident of Shelter Island.
Mrs. Oliver was remembered by family and many friends in a memorial service officiated by the Reverend Steve Crowson of St. Mary's at the Shelter Island Funeral Home on December 13. Her ashes will be interred alongside those of her husband in the Emily French Memorial Cemetery in a private ceremony at a later date.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Shelter Island Public Library, Box 2016, Shelter Island, New York 11964, for the purchase of additional audio books for their collection.
Robert W. McClean
Robert W. McClean, 82, a former longtime resident of Shelter Island, died on August 17, 2002 at his home in Brunswick, Georgia.
He was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on November 17, 1920 and immigrated to New York with his family in 1924. After a brief career as a child model, he went to work in the defense industry and then for many years was a tavern owner in New York City.
Mr. McClean was very active in the West Side Democratic Club, particularly during the tenure of Congressman William F. Ryan. He was also a devoted Mason, most recently a member of the Peconic Lodge FAAM in Greenport, New York.
He and his family relocated to Shelter Island as full time residents in 1973. Thereafter, Mr. McClean worked at North Ferry and the Pridwin Hotel and was active in Island politics. However, he was known primarily as a doting father who attended all the school-related events of his children.
He is survived by his wife, Lenore J. McClean, and his children, Anne-Marie McClean, Sharman McClean, Tara McClean and Marshall McClean and three grandchildren. Memorial services were held on August 23, 2002 in Port Jefferson, New York.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Burn Unit, Stony Brook University Hospital, Stony Brook, New York 11794-7441.
David Herbert Otis Lawson
David Herbert Otis Lawson, 67, son of the late Justice H. Otis and Ida Neil Dickerson and the late Dr. George and Gladys Lawson, died of cancer in his home in Alexandria, Virginia on August 17, 2002.
Dr. Lawson was a clinical psychologist, a civil rights advocate and the retired director of the Northern Virginia Training Center, a 200-bed state residential facility for the developmentally disabled.
During his 28-year tenure as head of the Training Center, from 1972 until 2000, Dr. Lawson instituted a patient advocacy program for clients that was credited with providing dignity and independence for people with difficulty understanding or responding. It was widely copied and Dr. Lawson was often consulted as an expert in the management of state facilities.
In 1963, he was a deputy director of the Peace Corps. From the early 1970s until his death, he had a private practice in clinical psychology in Alexandria. He served as president of the Association of Public Developmental Disabilities Administrators, a national organization, from 1984 to 1986.
Dr. Lawson was a civil rights activist in the 1960s, picketing against discrimination of African Americans, and in 1970 he managed the successful campaign of Ira Robinson, the first African American to run for the Alexandria city council since Reconstruction.
A 1958 graduate of Dartmouth College, he received a doctorate from George Washington University in clinical psychology in 1968.
Dr. Lawson is survived by his wife of 43 years, former Alexandria city manager Vola Therrell Lawson; two sons, David and Peter; adopted son McArthur Myers; three sisters, Kathryn Dickerson Reinhardt, Jane Dickerson Fowler and Jean Dickerson; two brothers, Neil Dickerson and Ted Dickerson; two grandchildren, Rachel and David Lawson, five nephews, Clifford Springer, Arthur Springer, Eric Springer, Larry Dickerson and Matt Fowler; and two nieces, Lynn Greatsinger and Barb Degnan.
Helen Mahler-Mack
Helen Mahler-Mack, 98, died at home on Shelter Island on September 1, 2002. Her daughter, Helen Anne Mack, and nieces, Nan Cano and Margaret Genova, were in attendance.
Mrs. Mack was born in Hempstead, New York on April 14, 1904 and spent her entire life in the New York City area. She and her husband, Joseph, built their home in Silver Beach in 1957 and moved to the Island full time in 1984. When her husband died in 1989, the couple had been married for 53 years.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Mack had a great affinity for house design and construction and built their two homes in East Rockaway, New York.
Mrs. Mack worked as a secretary for several publishing houses and had a lifelong love of books and reading. She spoke very enthusiastically about her experiences and fondly remembered having known Christopher Morley and Sinclair Lewis. She also met John F. Kennedy while he was in the process of writing While England Slept. She noted that he was busy eating an ice cream cone while he met with the editor.
Mrs. Mack also had a deep affection for "all things Irish." Her mother, Margaret, was born in Carrickmacross, Ireland, and in the early 1950s the Macks adopted their Dublin-born daughter, Helen Anne.
She is survived by her daughter and her sister, Anna DePaola, as well as by many loved nieces and nephews and a multitude of great and great-great nieces and nephews. Five siblings predeceased her.
The wake was held at the Grattan-DeFriest funeral home on September 3, 2002. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated by Father Charles Dougherty on September 4, 2002.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that donations in Mrs. Mack's name be made either to the Shelter Island Ambulance Corps, Our Lady of the Isle Outreach Council or East End Hospice.
Jane Marie Miller
Jane Marie Miller of Shelter Island and Florida died on Monday, September 2, 2002 at Flushing Hospital. She was 73 years old.
Mrs. Miller was born in Williston Park, New York to Marie Amelia (nee Vogel) and Walter H. MacGeorge on September 9, 1928. Her husband, L. Kenneth Miller, died on September 2, 1981.
Mrs. Miller graduated from Mineola High School and St. Luke's School of Nursing. She spent every summer through her childhood working at her grandparent's boarding house, the Menantic Grove House. After she was married in 1957, she ran it for two years.
An avid cook and golfer, Ms. Miller belonged to Gardiner's Bay Country Club and Goat Hill. She was involved with Mashomack for many years, was a member of the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church and worked as a registered nurse at Eastern Long Island Hospital for 30 years.
Surviving are three children: Tracy Lee Miller of Shelter Island and Robert Wallis Miller and Scott Bradley Miller of Florida; a brother, Donald MacGeorge and grandchildren, David Miller, Joshua Miller, Jennifer Miller, Tara Miller and Bradley Miller all of Florida, and many nieces and nephews. Ms. Miller was predeceased by her sister, Suzanne Margaret Clark of Shelter Island.
A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday, September 5 at 5:30 p.m. at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church. Interment is private.
