Alan Ellsworth Hildreth Jr., a native of Southampton, died at his home in San Antonio, Texas, on December 19, after a brief illness. He had recently celebrated his 89th birthday.
Mr. Hildreth was born in Southampton on December 6, 1926, to Alan E. Hildreth Sr. and Mary Mills McLeod Hildreth. He graduated from Southampton High School in 1944. As a youth, he worked summers at Hildreth’s Department Store. After earning a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston in 1951, he worked at the Western Union Laboratory in Water Mill until it closed in 1965. He worked for Eastman Kodak for a year and then returned to Western Union in Washington D.C., retiring from that company in 1981. He then joined the Mitre Corporation where he worked for 10 years, three of which were spent in West Germany working with the U.S. Army.
Survivors said he was a born engineer and loved “playing with his toys.” He tinkered with vacuum tubes in the basement of his family home, built an oscilloscope in high school and a hi-fi radio in the early days of his marriage. As technology advanced and vacuum tubes were supplanted with transistors, his knowledge kept pace. He wrote computer programs and learned cryptology. In retirement, he lent his expertise to many friends and organizations in need of help with their hardware.
Mr. Hildreth was a life elder in the Presbyterian Church USA. He served on boards and committees at various times in the First Presbyterian Church of Southampton, the Falls Church (Virginia) Presbyterian Church, and the University Presbyterian Church in San Antonio.
Music also played an important part in his life. He enjoyed singing in the Bridgehampton Oratorio Society and listening to symphonic music, especially Mozart. He loved to travel throughout the United States and Europe. But family was his greatest joy, survivors said.
Mr. Hildreth is survived by his wife of 63 years, Joan Perine Hildreth; a sister, Camilla H. Cesarini of Bay Shore; a brother, Charles Lewis Hildreth of Connecticut; daughters, Jane H. Newman of California, Ann H. Mar of Texas, Susan H. Shook of Kentucky; and grandchildren, Carolyn Naranjo, Mary Newman, Marcos Mar, November Preston, Sara Mar, James Newman; and great-grandson, Malcolm Naranjo.
on Jun 2, 2016