U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-Current
William J. Berrigan
Retired New York City policeman William J. Berrigan of Manhasset and Shelter Island passed away after a brief illness at North Shore Community Hospital on April 22, 2003.
Born in New York City, he attended St. Paul the Apostle School and graduated from Xavier Academy and Fordham University. A veteran of World War II, he served in Europe with the 7th Armored Infantry Battalion.
Mr. Berrigan, who had a home on Shelter Island for many years, rose to the rank of lieutenant with the New York City Police Department. He retired as acting captain of the 52nd Precinct. He taught at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and was proud to say that Dennis Dillon, the Nassau County district attorney, who remained his life-long friend, was one of his students.
The husband of the late Eileen Gilbert Berrigan, he is survived by his daughter Serie Morton, son-in-law George and grandsons Gil and Liam. The funeral mass was celebrated at St. Mary's in Manhasset followed by burial at Our Lady of the Isle Cemetery on Shelter Island.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Caring Hands Foundation, Church of St. Mary, 1300 Northern Boulevard, Manhasset, New York.
Johnnie Piccozzi
Johnnie Piccozzi passed away on April 24, 2002 in Miami Springs, Florida. He was 90 years old.
Mr. Piccozzi, one of nine brothers and sisters, was born to Angelo and Prudenza Piccozzi on October 26, 1911, in a one-room house in Arshamomaque outside Greenport. He attended school in a one-room schoolhouse and, growing up, worked in the Greenport brickyards. During the season, he dug clams and dredged scallops -- for five cents a gallon, his nephew, Angelo Piccozzi of Shelter Island, remembers hearing.
He also learned ballroom, tap and ballet in Greenport and in the 1930s, he left the East End for a career on Broadway as a choreographer and dancer. He studied dance with Ray Bolger and appeared in a number of Broadway hits, including "On Your Toes," and "Babe in Arms."
World War II interrupted his dancing career when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served from 1942 to 1945 as a signal corpsman.
In the 1950s, he married, moved to a home on the Island on Winthrop Road and opened a grocery store where the Island Food Centre is now. The grocery store was only open in the summer and during the rest of the year, the shelves were moved, and the space converted to a dance studio where Johnnie taught Island young people tap and ballet. During the 17 years he ran the studio, he probably "taught dance to just about everyone on the East End and Shelter Island," his nephew said.
During this time he also raised money for polio victims and the search for a cure by organizing "Polio Shows," which featured local talent from his dance studio.
And then there was his golf career. He learned to play golf locally and then became a PGA teaching pro and a lifetime member of the PGA, with a golfing resume that spanned several decades. From 1965 to 1990, he was head pro at Island's End Country Club on the North Fork but during the winters, he headed south where he was the assistant head pro at the Doral Country Club in Miami for 27 years. He was also affiliated as an instructor with the Jimmy Ballard Golf School, headquartered in Miami.
Johnnie Piccozzi was one of 50 Islanders who took out bonds to restore the Dering Harbor Golf Course, where lima beans had been planted on the fairways during WW II as part of the war effort. The old course on a new layout became the Gardiner's Bay Country Club. He played there too, of course, and was club champion in the 1950s. He only had one hole-in-one, his daughter Sharon Brown remembered, but among his many golfing awards, was one for "Shooting your age at 79" -- "not too shabby," she said he would say.
He was still playing golf this past January, Sharon said.
As much as Johnnie Piccozzi loved to play golf, he also loved to fish and clam -- and to cook up the results. His nephew remembers a typical Piccozzi response to the question: "How long does it take to cook that striped bass in your pasta sauce?" "Oh, about nine holes," he would reply.
Mr. Piccozzi is survived by his sister, Edith Carbone of Venice, Florida; his children, Jay (Winchester, Massachusetts), Sharon Brown (Lusby, Maryland), Michael (Miami, Florida), Amy D'Agrosa (St. Louis, Missouri) and Chris (St. Louis, Missouri); 10 grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and his dearest friend, Ena.
Mr. Piccozzi was many things to many people: a "good person," his son Michael said -- a "trailblazer" and a "true Renaissance man," said his nephew, Angelo. He "lived life to its fullest for 90 years," was how Sharon Brown summed up the many impressions of her father.
A memorial service was held at St. Agnes Parish on May 4, 2002 at 10 a.m. and at Island's End Golf Course. In lieu of flowers, his family has requested that donations be made in his name to the Vitas Hospice Charitable Fund, 100 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 1500, Miami, Florida 33131.
Zira DeFries, M.D.
Dr. Zira DeFries, a resident of Shelter Island and Palm Beach, Florida, died at her home in Palm Beach on March 28, 2002 after fighting cancer for a year. She was 84.
A prominent practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Manhattan for nearly 50 years, Dr. DeFries maintained a practice in Southold from 1993 to 1998. Throughout much of her career, as director of mental health services at Barnard College from 1964 to 1989, she focused on the needs of college women. But on the East End she treated geriatric patients primarily. "This was very important, very fulfilling work," she told a writer for The New York Times in an interview last year. She retired only because of the "tremendous frustration," she said, of having to wrestle with managed care to provide good care for her patients.
Dr. DeFries was married to Dr. Aaron Kellner, founder of the New York Blood Center, who died in 1992. They bought their house on Bootleggers Alley on Shelter Island in 1953. In later life, husband and wife both became avid runners. Although Dr. DeFries stopped jogging -- and competing in the annual 10K race -- in her late 70s, she was a familiar sight throughout Silver Beach and West Neck as she fast-walked four to five miles daily until she became ill in 2001.
Zira DeFries was born in New York City on November 23, 1917. She graduated from Hunter College in 1938 and attended New York Medical College, receiving her MD in 1942. She met her husband, a pathologist, over a corpse. They were married in 1942. Dr. DeFries was the first woman intern to serve at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and then only, she was told, because the draft had depleted the pool of available male doctors. During World War II, she worked as a general practitioner in rural Massachusetts where her patients sometimes paid her in chickens and baked goods in lieu of the $2 fee for office visits and $3 for house calls.
After the war, she returned to New York and trained first in neurology, then in psychiatry, at Columbia University. She received training as a psychoanalyst at the William Alanson White Institute. In the late 1940s she helped establish the Epilepsy Center at Presbyterian Hospital. In the late 1950s and early 1960s her research on the effects of foster care on disturbed children served as an early warning of the defects in the foster care system. Her 25-year experience at Barnard, begun during the upheavals of the women's movement, the Columbia student rebellion, the Vietnam protests and the sexual revolution, led to prolific research on the sexuality of young women and the treatment of depression in college students. She was on the clinical faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University from 1956 to 1994.
Dr. DeFries wrote and published professional books and journals and wrote short stories, humor, essays and poetry. Her last published work, an essay about retirement titled "Identity Matters," appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998. Her last unpublished work, written shortly before her death, extolled the benefits of hospice care.
Dr. DeFries is survived by her sons David Kellner, of Manhattan; William Kellner, of Cortlandt Manor, New York; and Dr. Charles Kellner of Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She is also survived by her brother Myron DeFries of Falls Church, Virginia and by grandchildren Daniel, Sarah and David Kellner.
The family will announce plans for a memorial gathering to be held on Shelter Island within the next few months.
Gail Fokine
Former Shelter Island resident Gail Fokine died after a long illness on April 1, 2003 at her home in Shaftsbury, Vermont, where she had moved from Shelter Island in June, 2002.
The daughter of the late Daniel and Dorothy (Venus) Kearns, Mrs. Fokine was born in Bronxville, New York on February 18, 1953 and educated in the Yonkers, New York public schools.
She was married to John Fokine in Yonkers on August 3, 1980. Mrs. Fokine operated a copying service called Island Blueprint on Shelter Island. Her last employment was as a pharmacy technician at Cerr Drugs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where she had moved after living on Shelter Island from 1988 to 1993. She returned to the Island in 1995 before her move to Vermont last year with her husband.
"She was a loving and caring person who touched the hearts and lives of all who knew her," her friend Naeme Clark of Shelter Island said.
She was a member of the East End Church of Christ in East Hampton. Survivors in addition to her husband include a sister, Donna Jones of Tinton Falls, New Jersey and her very close friend, Naeme Clark.
Private services were to be held at the convenience of the family.
Memorial donations may be made to the East End Church of Christ, P.O. Box 1187, East Hampton, New York 11937.
Helen Piersol Price,
a longtime former resident who worked as a real estate agent at her husband Gregory F. Price's real estate brokerage and also ran Cackle Hill chicken farm with her family, died at the Mediplex of Southbury nursing facility after a brief illness on Saturday, April 11, 2003. She left Shelter Island in 1995 to live in Southbury, Connecticut.
Born in Philadelphia on August 11, 1909 to George Morris Piersol and Helen Delano Piersol, who had a summer home here, Mrs. Price began coming to Shelter Island as a child. She was a physical education teacher for many years in Philadelphia schools before coming to Shelter Island with her husband, whom she had met on the Island. She enjoyed sailing and tennis and was a longtime member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club.
Among her survivors are her brother George Morris Piersol Jr. of Shelter Island and Anne P. Collins of Southbury, Connecticut as well as several nephews and nieces.
Services will be held this summer on Shelter Island. Memorial donations can be made to the Shelter Island Historical Society. The Munson Lovetere Funeral Home of North Southbury, Connecticut is in charge of the arrangements.
Tamara Ruth Glassberg
Tamara Ruth Glassberg, a long-time Shelter Island resident who danced with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and later danced on Broadway in the Lerner and Lowe musical "Paint Your Wagon," died on Saturday, March 24, 2001 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she and her husband Jerry were spending the winter.
She was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania on September 12, 1930 to Freida and Herbert Chapman. While living in Fosteria, Ohio, her family traveled to Toledo for her to take ballet lessons with Marie Bollinger of the Bach Conservatory. She became one of the prize pupils at the conservatory.
At the age of 10, she was entered into the National Ballet Competition run by the American School of Ballet. Tamara was one of the finalists and won a ballet scholarship. The judges for the competition were George Balanchine and Alexandria Danilova.
Her family was advised to further her dancing career. At the age of 14, she moved to New York City and boarded with a surrogate family. Tamara attended the Professional Children's School and took extensive ballet training. While taking ballet classes, she was noticed by one of the principals of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and requested to audition for this world-famous ballet company. At the age of 18, she was chosen by the Ballet Russe and danced with them for two years.
During this time, she took a day trip to the beach, at Long Beach, Long Island. It was there that Tamara met her future husband, Jerry Glassberg, who was a lifeguard there. It was love at first sight. They went on to have a storybook relationship and were lovingly married for 47 years.
James Mitchell, who was to be the star of the new musical, "Paint Your Wagon," recommended her to the choreographer of the show, Agnes de Mille. While dancing in the show, she and a few of the principal dancers were photographed by the famous dance photographer, Carl Van Vechten. Her picture is included in a book by McMullen Publishing Company, The Dance Photography of Carl Van Vechten." This book contains his most notable photographs from a group of over 5,000 pictures.
Tamara taught ballet in the Island Park school systems for nine years. Her classes were immensely popular and she choreographed full ballets for her students.
Tamara and Jerry have had a house on Shelter Island for 25 years. In 1985, they retired and moved to Shelter Island permanently. They joined the Gardiner's Bay Country Club and she became an active member on the golf committee and an enthusiastic player. Tamara was also a fine tennis player and had many tennis friends. She was an ardent board member of the League of Women Voters. One of Tamara's great loves was the organization of The Friends of Music. She was a long-standing member of its board.
During the year 2000, Tamara was invited to attend a tribute in Toledo for her first dance teacher, Marie Bollinger, to commemorate 60 years of teaching and devotion to ballet. It would have been a notable reunion as Tamara was the first Sugar Plum Fairy in the "Nutcracker Suite" as it was performed over 60 years ago in Toledo. Unfortunately, she was ill and unable to attend. PBS ran a special program on this occasion and Tamara was included in the presentation.
She had a fantastic zest for life and was always cheerful and upbeat. Tamara had a terminal illness for 18 months and never complained. Even then, she was always thinking of her family and many friends. Part of her nature was to always help and take care of those who were ill and in need, without taking any credit for it.
Tamara is survived by her husband, Jerry Glassberg; her daughter, Leslie Harris; and her son, Neil Glassberg and his two children.
Funeral services were held at Yardley and Pinto Funeral Home in Sag Harbor on March 27. There was an overflow crowd of mourners.
Tamara's burial at the Oakland Cemetery in Sag Harbor produced an incredible coincidence. She was buried between George Balanchine and Alexandria Danilova. She danced with Danilova in the Ballet Russe, and they were, of course, the judges of the American School of Ballet Scholarship Competition over 60 years ago.
Marjorie Behringer
Marjorie Behringer of Shelter Island passed away on Tuesday, April 3, 2001 at Eastern Long Island Hospital after a brief illness.
Born in England on January 5, 1923, she moved to Shelter Island in 1981 to marry George F. Behringer of Shelter Island, whom she had met during the war when he was in England with the Eighth Air Force. They had renewed their relationship with a letter correspondence after Mr. Behringer's first wife died. The future Mrs. Behringer was divorced.
Mr. Behringer died in September, 1997. Mrs. Behringer is survived by three daughters, all of whom live in England: Maralyn Phillips, Terez Jarrett-Smith and Donna Turner; a sister Louise and sister-in-law Anna and six grandchildren: Sharon and Robert Clark; Steve and Sophie Turner and Christopher and Andrew Jarett-Smith.
A memorial service was held at her home on Shelter Island on Thursday, April 5.
Charles F. Huschle III
Charles F. Huschle III, 73, of Vero Beach, Florida died April 8, 2001 at Indian River Memorial Hospital after a prolonged illness.
Mr. Huschle was born February 5, 1928 in Jamaica, New York, and moved to Vero Beach in 1987 after residing in Manhattan, New York. He had owned Imaginative Packaging Limited in New York.
He was founder of the Dering Harbor Junior Yacht Club on Shelter Island and a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club. Mr. Huschle was also a member of The University Club in Manhattan, the Association of American Retired Persons and Boat USA. He attended Catholic University in Washington DC and graduated from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. He was a member of the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Vero Beach.
Mr. Huschle is survived by his sons, Charles F. Huschle IV of Boston, Massachusetts and Ian M. Huschle of New York City; his daughter, Grace Huschle Delobel of Claret, France; his sister Dolores Weems of Vero Beach, and his brother, David V. Huschle of Shelter Island. Mr. Huschle is also survived by seven grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 a.m., Monday, April 16 at Holy Cross Catholic Church, Vero Beach. A memorial mass will be held for Mr. Huschle on Shelter Island at a later date.
In lieu of flowers friends may make contributions to Sum-Up Inc. of Indian River County, PO Box 6819, Vero Beach, Florida 32961, in memory of Mr. Huschle.
Strunk Funeral Homes of Vero Beach is in charge of local arrangements.
Robert H. Runkel
Robert H. Runkel of Shelter Island died on December 18, 2001 at University Hospital in Stony Brook. He was 79 years old.
Mr. Runkel was born in West New York, New Jersey on April 21, 1922 to August C. and Maude (Nute) Runkel. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II instructing military personnel in the use of radar landing equipment.
Following his discharge from service, he began a long career as a hand-engraver of jewelry. Described by his family as a true artisan, he was involved in engraving the sword given to the Emperor of Japan at the end of World War II, to the trophies presented at the Hamptons Classic. His specialty was family crests.
Bob was an avid outdoorsman and a boating enthusiast. "He devoted his life to his family," said family members.
He and his wife, Rosemary, have been residents of Shelter Island for the past 30 years. Formerly of Huntington Station, they became full-time residents 22 years ago.
Surviving is his wife, Rosemary C. (nee Smith); a son, Gregg of Florida, a daughter, Jackie Brewer of Shelter Island, a sister, Margaret Tremper of East Hanover, New Jersey and five grandchildren, Jason, Jodie and Robert Brewer and Nicole and Todd Runkel.
The family received friends at the Shelter Island Funeral Home on Thursday, December 20. Funeral services were conducted there on Friday, December 21 by Reverend William Grimbol. Interment, with military honors, was at Calverton National Cemetery.
Those wishing to remember Robert and his family in a special way can make donations to the Shelter Island Red Cross Ambulance.
Greta C. Simons
Greta C. Simons of Shelter Island died at San Simeon by the Sound Nursing Home on Monday, December 17, 2001 at the age of 89. She had been a resident there since 1999.
Mrs. Simons was born in Finland on September 8, 1912 to Charles and Ida (Brandt) Carlson. For many years, she was a maid in private homes on Shelter Island.
Predeceased by her husband, Stephen, in 1979, she leaves a son, Stephen, and many friends on Shelter Island.
Visiting hours were held Wednesday at the Shelter Island Funeral Home. Funeral services were held December 19 in the chapel by Father Steve Crowson of St. Mary's Episcopal Church. Interment will be in St. Mary's Churchyard
Sue Clark
Sue Clark of Smith Street died on New Year's Eve, 2001 from natural causes. A funeral service will be held at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church today at 3 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church, the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary or the Shelter Island Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary.
