Robert Leigh Duemler of Quogue and Palm Beach, Florida, died May 4 after a short illness. He was 82.
Mr. Duemler was the son of Robert Fulton Duemler and Ruth Evans Duemler of Philadelphia, where he attended the William Penn Charter School. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and graduated second in the Columbia Law School class of 1957, where he was editor of The Columbia Law Review.
His legal career began in 1958 at Sullivan & Cromwell, where he stayed until 1966, when he left to become a partner with Casey, Lane and Mittendorf (later merging with Windels, Marx, Lane & Mittendorf). In 2010 Mr. Duemler retired and began working with private clients and he also volunteered at the state attorney’s office in West Palm Beach.
An avid sailor, in 1957 he and five shipmates crossed the North Atlantic from City Island, New York, to Gosport Hampshire, England, in a 40-foot American sloop. A top golfer, Mr. Duemler belonged to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club of Southampton, Everglades Club of Palm Beach and the Quogue Field Club. He was a former member of the Bath and Tennis and the Sailfish Clubs of Palm Beach, the Shinnecock Yacht Club of Quogue, the Stanwich Club of Greenwich and the Princeton Club in New York City.
Mr. Duemler is survived by his wife, Catherine Merrill Duemler; a daughter, Merrill Duemler Debbs and husband Robert, and their twins, Olivia and Oakley Debbs.
A memorial service will be held August 8 in Quogue.
Memorial donations may be made to the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation, 102 Old Riverhead Road, Hampton Bays, NY 11946.