Charles Albert “Charlie” Styler of North Sea died following a long battle with cancer on April 13. He was 81.
He was born to Albert Jensen Styler and Claire Keen Styler.
Mr. Styler served four years in the United States Navy as a radio operator, and was aboard the first United States Navy ship, the USS Maury, to enter the Black Sea since the Yalta Conference. He was a member of the Southampton School District Board of Education, an active member of the Combined Veterans Organization and a long time member of the North Sea Community Association, Inc.
Some occupations Mr. Styler had in his lifetime included: ticket agent for Swiss Air, customer engineer for IBM, cabinetmaker, bartender, ship-to-shore radio operator for ITT, ham radio operator, master carpenter, and videographer/editor for Public Access TV for Cablevision in Riverhead.
The occupation he loved the most, his family said, was being a television videographer for the Village and Town of Southampton. Encouraged and assisted by former Southampton Village Mayor Joseph P. Romanoski Jr., the two of them started the local television station for governmental and educational programing which is now known as SeaTV. Both felt everyone should have first-hand access to governmental meetings and local events, so Mr. Styler gathered, constructed and developed what was necessary to broadcast them to his community via television.
Among the many community events he filmed were: the children’s play at the Southampton Fresh Air Home, Christmas with Santa at the Southampton Cultural Center or the Hampton Bays Fire Department or the North Sea Fire Department, the Boy Scouts of America’s Eagle Scout Awards, Our Lady of the Hamptons children’s plays, high school plays in Westhampton, the Rising Stars series at Southampton’s Cultural Center, the Southampton Village Fourth of July Parade, the Committee on Veterans Affairs Memorial Day and Veterans Day events, The Children’s School plays, the Veterans Flag Ceremony at the Hampton Bays Elementary School, graduation exercises for Southampton High School, Riverhead High School, Pierson High School and Mattituck High School, the Kiwanis police awards, the Southampton Village Fire Department muster, the Saint Patrick’s Day parades in Hampton Bays and Westhampton Beach, the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast at the Rogers Memorial Library, the Hampton Classic Horse Show, and Southampton College lectures — just to name a few. Many of these events were filmed free of charge — some even at his own expense.
He was predeceased by his parents; and his 5-year-old son, Richard. He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Virginia; his children, Lisa Milby, Katherine (Brian) Styler Feldman, Michael (Gina) Styler, John (Raquel) Styler; 11 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
His family wished to express thanks to the hospice nurses and aide who assisted them.
Funeral arrangements were entrusted to the O’Connell-Rothwell Funeral Home in Southampton. Visitation will be held on Wednesday, April 14, 2021 from 2-4 and 7-9 p.m. Interment will follow on April 15 with full U.S. Navy military honors at Southampton Cemetery.
on Apr 14, 2021