Rosemary Kirchoff of Sag Harbor died on March 30, following surgery. She was 85.
The daughter of Rose and James McNamara, she was born and raised in New Rochelle. After completing nursing school, she obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She returned to New Rochelle where she met and married William Kirchoff, whose father built a house on the bay in the Rose’s Grove section of Southampton in the 1950s. They would spend their summers there with their four children.
After moving to Essex Fells, New Jersey, Ms. Kirchoff worked as a nurse on the burn unit of St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey, and as a private duty nurse assisting a variety of patients. During the end of her medical career, she was as a nurse analyst for the pharmaceutical company Ciba Geigy, collecting data on new drug protocol testing.
Ms. Kirchoff and her husband retired to Sag Harbor in 1994, building a home in Northampton Colony where they enjoyed time spent by the water with friends, family and their five grandchildren. She also spent time as a volunteer for the Sag Harbor Ladies Village Improvement Society, and worked helping local mothers with newborns. During the last three years, she was a joyful village ambassador working for the Chamber of Commerce at the windmill in downtown Sag Harbor.
Ms. Kirchoff is survived by four children, Eileen Kirchoff of Manhattan, Mary Kirchoff and husband Robert Paszek of Connecticut, Barbara McCarthy of Tarrytown and William Kirchoff and wife Lynda Hinkley of Sag Harbor; and five grandchildren, Caitlin Calder, Alex Radecki, Elizabeth Kirchoff, Callie Calder and Christopher Paszek.
A memorial service will be held at St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Sag Harbor on Saturday, April 16, at 10:30 a.m., followed by a gathering at the Northampton Colony Yacht Club in Sag Harbor. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the O’Connell Funeral Home in Southampton.
Memorial donations may be made to the John Jermain Memorial Library, attention Catherine Creedon, johnjermain.org.
on Apr 11, 2016