James H. O'Connell Of North Haven Dies January 1

James H. O’Connell

James H. O’Connell of North Haven died on January 1 at Southampton Hospital of pneumonia. He was 99.

Mr. O’Connell, a native of Manhattan, first came to Sag Harbor with his wife, Veronica Margaret (née Lynch), who predeceased him, and young daughter Margaret for a family vacation in 1959. They later purchased a home in North Haven and settled there permanently in 1979, a year after his retirement from Met Life, where he had a 44-year-long career as an underwriter and in marketing.

Mr. O’Connell was a gifted orator who had an extensive career in public speaking and community theater, both in New York and on Eastern Long Island. Locally, in the 1980s he appeared in, among others, productions of “Harvey” with the Spindrift Players and “Ten Little Indians” with the Maidstone Regional Theatre Company. He served as a lector at his parish, St. Andrew’s in Sag Harbor, into his early 90s.

Mr. O’Connell was a 75-year member of the Knights of Columbus, having joined the order in 1937 in Manhattan, where he served as Grand Knight of Salve Regina Council twice, once in the 1940s and once in the 1970s. Mr. O’Connell also served the Knights of Columbus as a District Deputy in Manhattan in the 1940s, and as the chairman of the Lecturer’s Bureau for the State Chapter in the early 1960s. After relocating to Sag Harbor, he transferred his membership to the Sag Harbor Council, where he was active until his death.

He is survived by two daughters, Margaret O’Connell of Forest Hills and Marie Bonkowski and her husband John of Sag Harbor; a niece, Dale Sartor of Connecticut; two nephews, Daniel and Robert O’Connell; two grandnieces, four grandnephews; two great-grandnephews and one great-grandniece.

A wake was held at Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in Sag Harbor on January 6. A funeral Mass was held on January 7 at St. Andrew’s Church, also in Sag Harbor. Memorial donations may be made to the Knights of Columbus Sag Harbor Council, P.O. Box 707, Sag Harbor, NY 11963 or St. Andrew’s Parish, 122 Division Street, Sag Harbor, NY 11963.