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Longtime Amagansett resident Arthur M. Dunne died on August 22 at Southampton Hospital after a brief illness. He was 93.
Born February 5, 1916, on a dairy and tobacco farm in Enfield, Connecticut, he worked for Bigelow-Sanford Carpet Mills during the Great Depression. He was in the first peacetime national draft in 1940, and when war was declared in 1941 he was sent for training to Fort Terry, now Plum Island.
According to his family, after German saboteurs landed in Amagansett he was sent to Montauk Point to establish the radar tower there. The first year he and his men spent in tents until he got material to make barracks. He was named sergeant and had 24 men under his command. There were no officers. All of this is chronicled in Henry Osmer’s book, “Living on the Edge,” which is about the Montauk Lighthouse up to and including World War II.
When the war ended he returned to work at Bigelow. When the mill closed he was promoted to superintendent, in charge of selling the equipment. He then worked for Ensign Bickford, a company working to perfect the use of fiberglass pipe in the oil fields of Oklahoma. Not wishing to move west, he decided to go into the construction business in Amagansett, where he had summered for many years.
Mr. Dunne was featured in a June 1977 article, “The Man Who Changed Collars” by Jack Graves, published in the The East Hampton Star. He worked locally until his retirement in 1980.
A charter member of the Irish American Club of East Hampton, he was also a member of the Knights of Columbus and American Legion Post 419.
He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary Dunne of Amagansett; two daughters, Sheila and her husband William Jones of East Hampton and Susan and her husband Tom Cannon of Rochester; four grandsons, William M. Jones and his wife Valerie of Connecticut, Edmund Cannon of Alaska, Corey Cannon of California, and Colin Cannon of Massachusetts; two granddaughters, Devin Cannon of New York City and Dr. Shannon Hostetter and her husband Dr. Jesse Hostetter of Iowa.
He is also survived by three great-grandsons, Liam, Spencer and Samuel Hostetter; twin great-granddaughters, Madeleine and Phoebe Jones; and friends, Phil and Ronnie Bono of Springs. A son, Charles Dunne, predeceased him.
Viewing will be held on Friday, August 28, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Yardley & Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton. A funeral mass will be held on Saturday, August 29, at 11 a.m., at Most Holy Trinity Church in East Hampton, followed by interment in the church cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Amagansett Fire Department Ambulance Squad, PO Box 470, Amagansett, NY 11930 would be appreciated by the family.
on Aug 25, 2009