John LaRosa Jr. of Southampton and Quiogue Dies December 31

John LaRosa Jr. of Southampton, and later Quiogue, died at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center on December 31 after a long battle with kidney disease. He was 89.

An avid tennis player who spent summers on the East End for 45 years, LaRosa played at the Sandy Hollow and Southampton tennis clubs when he lived in Southampton and the Westhampton Tennis Club when he moved to Quiogue. He played until he was 88 — three years into his dialysis treatments — which his doctors said was unheard of at his age. He and his wife, Claire, split their time between their apartment in Manhattan and their home on Quiogue, where he loved spending time with his daughter and grandsons.

He was born on May 10, 1934, to John LaRosa, a foreman for the city’s highway crews, and Florence (nee Gnazzo), a homemaker and seamstress. Surrounded by his extended Italian family, he grew up in Long Island City, playing ball with classmates and swimming in the East River. He had the friends he made in first grade until the day he died.

He spent 23 years at the New York Times; he started working part-time in the classified department and eventually moved up into managerial positions in production, industrial relations, and human resources. He worked on the project to bring new technology to The Times — the change from hot type to cold type — which was revolutionary at the time. When he handled benefits for HR, he made a lot of employees very happy by enrolling them in the Times’s stock purchase plan.

He left The Times in 1982 to start a successful corporate training business, teaching business writing, public speaking, and other skills to grateful clients. He later taught as an adjunct at FIT and Baruch College — where he’d finished up his own bachelor’s degree in his 40s. He loved teaching and his students adored him, his family said.

He was predeceased by his parents; and his sister, Frances Bennetti. He is survived by his wife, Claire LaRosa; his daughter, Nicole LaRosa and son-in-law, Jonathan Steinke; his grandsons Theo and Zach Steinke; brothers-in-law Ed (Carol) and Alex Kwiatkowski; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel in Manhattan.

In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to The Rogosin Institute, 504-506 E. 74th Street, Suite 101, New York, NY 10021.