U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current
Beverly Weber Luntey
Beverly Weber Luntey died on August 14, 2000. She was born and grew up in Spokane, Washington and graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism, after which she worked as a reporter for the Spokane Chronicle. She also did graduate work at Northwestern University and wrote a column for the Chronicle for 20 years.
She and her husband mover to New York in 1948. For many years Mrs. Luntey was social secretary for Mrs. William S. (Babe) Paley. Later, she filled the same post for Mrs. Fosberg, another of the famous Cushing sisters.
The Lunteys' Shelter Island home is on Quaker Path.
Mrs. Luntey has been active in the community, serving as president of the North Shore Branch of the American Association of University Women, and as a member of the Sands Point Garden Club and Plandome Women's Club, and an elder of the Roslyn Presbyterian Church. She was an active participant in women's golf at the Sands Point Golf Club. She served on the board of Helen Keller Services for the Blind and was co-chairman of the Operating Committee. She participated for many years on the Student Loan Committee for Port Washington. She has been a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, Gardiner's Bay Country Club, and Shelter Island's Union Chapel for nearly 20 years. She was also a member of the Fiscal Advisory Committee for the Village Club of Sands Point.
She is survived by her husband, Eugene H. Luntey, and her son Kirk of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. The funeral service will be private, with a memorial service planned for September, 2000. She wanted and had flowers in her lifetime. Donations in her honor can be made to the Beverly and Eugene Luntey Scholarship Fund, Office of the President, LIU, 700 Northern Boulevard, Brookville, New York 11548.
Helen Lorraine Wroble
Helen Lorraine Wroble of Shelter Island and Johnstown, New York passed away after a short illness in Nashville, Tennessee on August 7, 2001. She was born in Dunkirk, New York on February 15, 1915 to Dorothy and Philip LaTona.
A talented portrait artist and impressionist painter, her work had been displayed at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Being a close friend of Victor D'Amico, she spent summers at "The Barge," his art institute in Amagansett.
She met her husband, Jack, while attending Fredonia College. They both played violin in the college orchestra before pursuing careers in teaching music and art. She and her husband moved to the Island in 1937 when he was hired as a music teacher for the Shelter Island School.
After a number of years, Jack and Helen and their first two children moved upstate. They would eventually complete their family with two more children and return to their Shelter Island home every summer.
Helen enjoyed Quaker meetings on the Island and playing scrabble, rummy and bingo with family and friends. Her round table in her kitchen on Smith Street was a gathering place for open discussions.
She was predeceased by her husband, the former Shelter Island swimming instructor, Jack Wroble; and her son, Kurt Wroble, of Fresno, California. The oldest of eight children, she is survived by her sister, Billie Jones, and brothers Tracy and Peter LaTona, who reside in Florida. She leaves three children: Karen Spencer of Shelter Island, Kim Wroble of Florida and Kirsten Damphier of Nashville, Tennessee. "Gramma Wroble" was very special to her 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for the fall with burial at the Presbyterian Church. An immediate family service was held in Nashville on August 9, 2001.
Albert W. Springer
Albert W. Springer, 77, died on Sunday, August 12, at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. A funeral was held on Wednesday, August 15; a private burial is scheduled for Thursday, August 16.
The Albert W. Springer Memorial Scholarship for a graduating Shelter Island student has been established by the family. Those wishing to make a contribution may do so by contacting Arthur Springer, P.O. Box 393, Shelter Island, NY, 19964.
Nancy Hansel Armstrong
Nancy Hansel Armstrong, a long-time resident of Shelter Island Heights, died Friday, August 9, 2002 in her home surrounded by her loved ones. She was 75.
Born and raised in Cranford, New Jersey, she summered on Shelter Island as a child with her parents, Kathryn Denman and Charles Francis Hansel, and her siblings, J. P. Hansel, Elsie Slauson and Charles (Cap) Hansel.
Nancy enjoyed sailing, tennis, gardening, kayaking, cooking and spoiling her grandchildren. She was an avid reader, sketched and loved listening to music. She was also known for her beautiful calligraphy and her generous donation of time and talents to St. Mary's Episcopal Church.
She enjoyed the company of her many lifelong friends on Shelter Island and in New Jersey.
She was predeceased by her husband Frederick Arthur Armstrong and her oldest daughter Judith Denman Armstrong. She is survived by five children: Chris Armstrong of Center Moriches; Frances Arnold of Falls Church, Virginia; Sep Thieringer of Liberty Corner, New Jersey; Michael Armstrong of Cocoa Beach, Florida; and Peter Armstrong of Carlsbad, California.
In addition, she has seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, 13 nieces and nephews and dozens of great nieces and nephews.
A memorial service was held Sunday, August 11, 2002 at St. Mary's Church, officiated by the Reverend Stephen Crowson. Funeral services on Wednesday were private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to East End Hospice, Sloan Kettering or St. Mary's Episcopal Church.
Gardiner Hulse
Gardiner Hulse, 96, died in the early morning hours of August 3, 2002 at his home on Silver Beach.
Mr. Hulse, a 45-year resident of Shelter Island, was born in Bellport, New York. Known by his family and friends as Brick, he held the distinction of being the oldest living member of the Bellport Fire Department. He spoke of Bellport history often and loved to recount the early days of the village.
He was an avid fisherman who loved boating and living near the water.
Mr. Hulse was predeceased on July 15, 2002 by his wife of 72 years, Hazel Hulse. His daughter Barbara Heavener, granddaughter Penny Heavener and grandson Lee Hulse also predeceased him.
He is survived by his son Gardiner "Pete" Hulse and daughter-in-law Dorothy of Shelter Island, five grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, several nieces and one nephew.
Funeral arrangements were entrusted to Lucia and Orlando Funeral Home in Patchogue. A private family service was held at the funeral home and interment was in Woodland Cemetery in Bellport.
Thomas S. Lord
A memorial service will be held for Tom Lord, past president of the Gardiner's Bay Country Club, on Saturday, August 16 at 3:30 p.m. at the club. Mr. Lord died in March. The public is welcome to attend the service.
Jean K. Hawley
Jean K. Hawley of Southold died at Eastern Long Island Hospital on July 21. She was 94.
Ms. Hawley was born in Virginia on Feb. 11, 1907, to Harry and Adele (Corner) Kimball. She lived on Shelter Island for 22 years before moving to Southold nine years ago. Ms. Hawley was a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Shelter Island. She was active in the American Red Cross as a volunteer at the blood banks in New York City and prior to that in Virginia. She was also a volunteer at San Simeon by the Sound nursing home.
She was predeceased by her husband, Frank, in 1990. Arrangements were handled by DeFriest Funeral Home in Southold.
Philip E. Rollhaus Jr.
Shelter Island homeowner Philip Edward Rollhaus Jr., the founder and chairman of Quixote Corporation, which led the development of a number of successful highway safety products as well as the production of the first CD music disc and CD-ROM in the United States, died of cancer on July 28 in Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 66.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Scarsdale, New York, he graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He then served aboard two U.S. Navy ships as the chief engineering officer, leaving the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant. Living in Paris in 1960, he started the literary magazine, Parnassus Review, as well as the first coin-operated laundry in Paris, which helped to support the magazine.
After moving to Chicago in the late 1960s, he founded the Quixote Corporation in 1969, a publicly owned developer and manufacturer of highway safety equipment and other highway products for saving lives and relieving congestion on the highways. Quixote's line of patented highway crash cushions are sold in 43 countries and have saved an estimated 40,000 lives in the U.S. and around the world since they were first introduced 30 years ago.
Quixote Corporation is also known for having produced the first CD music disc and the first CD-ROM in the United States in the early 1980s through a wholly owned subsidiary, Disc Manufacturing, Inc., which was sold in 1996. An inventor who held several patents, Mr. Rollhaus was proud of the company's two mottoes -- "Working With Ideas Making Ideas Work" and "Saving Lives by Design."
Mr. Leslie Jezuit, president of Quixote Corporation, said of Mr. Rollhaus, "Always a vigorous enthusiast for new ideas, he loved inspiring and working with others to make novel concepts come alive as innovative products within an entrepreneurial environment. We shall miss him deeply."
He was a founding shareholder and, for a number of years, also a director of two other Chicago-based companies, the Keller Graduate School of Management and DeVry, Inc.
His marriage to Jacqueline Merrill of Aspen, Colorado in 1965 ended in a divorce in 1975. They had two children. In 1983, he married Barbara Walker of Park Ridge, Illinois.
Mr. Rollhaus served as a trustee of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and was the founding chairman of the Starlight Foundation of Chicago, which grants wishes to critically, chronically and terminally ill children. In addition he served as a trustee of the Institute of Psychoanalysis in Chicago and as a director of the Gastro-Intestinal Research Foundation, the Alliance Francaise de Chicago and the Chicago Capital Fund. More recently he served on the board of directors of the Institute of International Education of Chicago, and of the Wilson Council of The Woodrow Wilson Center, the Meridian International Center and the American Business Conference, all of Washington, D.C.
He was the recipient of the "High-Technology in Illinois Man of the Year" award (1986), the "Entrepreneur of the Year in Illinois" award (1987), the B'nai B'rith International "Corporate Achievement Award" (1990), the "Entrepreneur of the Year" award at the Westergaard Conference (1994) and the "Distinguished Alumnus Award," Wesleyan University (1996).
Mr. Rollhaus was involved in many civic and charitable activities in Chicago as well as Palm Beach, Florida and Shelter Island.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; a daughter, Natalie (Matthew) Burton of Los Angeles; a son Ned (Catherine) of San Francisco; and a sister, Barbara (Warren) Quimby of Albany, New York.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Shelter Island Friends Meeting, Post Office Box 520, Shelter Island, New York 11964.
John Navickas
John Navickas of Boynton Beach, Florida passed away on Sunday, July 28, 2002. He was 88 years old.
Mr. Navickas worked for the New York City Transit Authority for many years. He and his wife owned a home on Bowditch Road and vacationed there for almost 40 years.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Edna; daughters Jayne of Bound Brook, New Jersey and Judy of Boynton Beach; grandson Ronald Treichel of Downey, California; niece Barbara Reeves of Shelter Island; and a nephew, Robert Hopkins of Cutchogue.
The family received friends on Tuesday, July 30 in Boynton Beach and on Wednesday, July 31 at the Shelter Island Funeral Home. The funeral was held at the funeral home on Thursday with the burial immediately following at the Shelter Island Cemetery.
Eileen M. Speeches
Eileen Marie Speeches of Baldwin Road, a wife and a mother of three, passed away surrounded by her devoted family on August 3, 2003 at Eastern Long Island Hospital after a brief illness. She was 69.
Born at home in Williston Park on January 9, 1934 to Robert and Anne O' Brien Neville, Eileen grew up in Mineola and attended Mineola High.
Eileen first came to Shelter Island in the early 1950s to spend weekends with her best friend Suzanne Clark, who would remain her best friend for more than 50 years. Suzanne's father operated the Menantic Grove House, a bed and breakfast.
It was there, through Sue's then-boyfriend Bob, on an arranged blind date, that Eileen met her future husband Paul, a true harelegger from Shelter Island. They were married in Williston Park on June 5, 1955 and made their home on Shelter Island.
Gifted in the field of accounting and with a quick knack for numbers and problem solving, she soon found herself working in the Valley National Bank, which is now the Bank of New York.
Eileen very much enjoyed the banking business on the Island, particularly the personal service and advice she gave to her customers and friends. She was instrumental in the computerization of the bank in the late 1970s and was very involved in implementing a mortgage department, a new service of the bank at the time. Because of her dedication, Eileen was named manager, a position she was very proud of.
Even after her retirement in the late 1980s, she continued to handle the accounting for many homebound Shelter Islanders. She truly loved helping people and would frequently bake and bring along her famous Irish soda bread, her son Tom remembered.
Eileen was a member of the Fire Department Auxiliary for many years. She loved the Island's beaches, was an avid reader and enjoyed solving puzzles.
Eileen loved people and entertaining at her home. It would not be unusual on any given night to find the house filled with family, friends and anyone who may have been alone to share a good meal, drink and many laughs. There was always room for one more in Eileen's kitchen.
Eileen is survived by her husband Paul of 48 years; their children Kathleen Sullivan, Thomas Paul Speeches and Debra Speeches; her grandchildren Brandi, Hap, Catherine and Emma Bowditch and Tanya and Jeremy Schmid, all of Shelter Island.
In addition, she is survived by two sisters, Theresa Donnelly of Long Beach and Letitia Newman of Florida, and two brothers, Frank Neville of Hicksville and Robert Neville of Babylon, and numerous nieces and nephews. A brother, Gene Neville of Upper Brookville, predeceased her.
The burial service at Our Lady of the Isle Roman Catholic Church was concelebrated on Wednesday morning, August 6, by the Reverend Charles Dougherty, C.P. and the Reverend Chris Cleary, C.P. Interment followed at the Speeches' family plot at Our Lady of the Isle Cemetery.
The family requests that donations in the memory of Eileen be made to the Shelter Island Red Cross Ambulance Fund.
