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Asa Cituk
Asa Cituk of Southampton, baptized Isadore Chituck, named for the patron saint of farmers, at St. Isadore’s Church in Riverhead, died of complications from heart disease on Friday, November 18, at the Hamptons Care Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. He was 94.
Born to John and Pauline Chituck in Cutchogue on May 14, 1917, he was the second eldest of seven children, all of which predeceased him. His parents came to the United States through Ellis Island from Poland, and neither learned to speak or read English very well. The family worked on farms on the North Shore and Schwenk’s in Sagaponack, before purchasing their own farm in Eastport where Mr. Cituk grew up.
He left school after the eighth grade to work on a duck farm in Eastport, as well as the family farm. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he went to work for the Long Island Railroad as a gandy dancer, maintaining the rails from Speonk to Montauk. He was part of the crew that dismantled the fishing village in Montauk to make way for the U.S. Navy torpedo testing facility. During this time, he spent his weekends with Howard Lisbon fishing and clamming. He quit the railroad after seven years and became a full-time bayman, working for many years with Mr. Lisbon and digging clams and scalloping into his late 80s.
In 1956, he took a job as a heavy construction laborer for the General Building Laborers Local 66. Among other projects, he helped rebuild the Amagansett School gym, construct the Leisurama homes at Culloden Point, the East Hampton Town Police station, Gurney’s Inn, Montauk Downs and the East Hampton Town Highway barn. He retired in 1981 from the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant and was recently recognized as a 50-year member of the union. He continued to work on the water, gillnetting on the weekends because fishing is what he truly loved to do.
Mr. Cituk was a member of both the Southampton Town Baymen’s Association and the Long Island Fishermen’s Association of which he was the director for many years. He met his wife, Margaret Miller (of the Springs’ Millers) on a blind date. They were married for 72 years and lived in Southampton.
In addition to Margaret, he is survived by his daughter, Mary Vorpahl of East Hampton; two granddaughters; five great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
A funeral Mass was held on Monday, November 21, at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church in Southampton. Interment followed at Sacred Hearts Cemetery in Southampton.
on Nov 29, 2011