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Denis Patrick Sheahan, founder and publisher of Sheahan Communications, died on January 2, 2019, after a brief illness. Born on August 20, 1930, he was 88.
Mr. Sheahan was founder, publisher of HOUSE magazine, Business Journal, Builder & Remodeler, Hamptonite, The Nassau Lawyer and The Suffolk Lawyer, and Hospital & Health Care News. He also created and produced HOUSE/TV.
A lifelong newsman, he began his media career as a newsboy in Manhattan at age 12 when he delivered the New York World Telegram, The New York Sun, The Journal American and the New York Post.
A veteran of the Korean War, Mr. Sheahan became a copy boy for the World Telegram and completed degrees in history and English at Columbia University. He attended the Sorbonne in Paris for one year and returned to New York as a reporter for the Hudson Dispatch before landing his “dream job” as news editor for the World Telegram. After the great New York newspaper strike, he joined Fairchild Publications as aerospace and defense editor.
In 1966, Mr. Sheahan married Christine Conniff, a graduate of Marymount College in Tarrytown who did promotion artwork for The New Yorker and was an in-house graphic designer for New York Telephone. She is also a portrait artist whose work includes the chief of staff of the Army that hangs in the Pentagon. In the late 1970s Mr. Sheahan and his wife merged their talents to launch Sheahan Publications and in 1981 began House in the Hamptons published initially from their Remsenburg home. The magazine, now called HOUSE magazine, is a popular lifestyle publication focusing on design, architecture and landscaping from the Hamptons to the Gold Coast.
For many years HOUSE has covered charitable events on Long Island. Mr. Sheahan and his wife were honored by Family Counseling Service of the Hamptons for their help to the organization. He was inducted into the Long Island Builders’ Institute Hall of Fame for his decades of coverage of the industry.
An avid golfer, he was also a lover of “60 Minutes” and watched as often as possible on Sunday evenings.
Mr. Sheahan re-established the bonds between his American family and his Irish roots in Counties Kerry and Cork, Ireland.
He was predeceased by brothers, John and Kevin; and sister Mary Sweeney. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Christine Conniff Sheahan; sons, Denis Jr. and Andrew; daughter-in-law Andrea; and grandchildren, Denis Nicholas and Hana Christine Sheahan and Dimitris and George Niflis.
on Jan 8, 2019