Sherrill Clark Webb, a teacher at East Hampton High School for 40 years, died at his home in East Hampton on September 24, with his family at his side. He was 92.
Born on October 12, 1922, he was the son of Elias Latham Webb and Edna Healy Clark. He was raised in Southampton and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, while attending the University of Buffalo. After initially training with the Army Air Corps, he transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers because there were more pilots than planes at the Air Corps. Mr. Webb was among those who landed at Normandy on D-Day. Following the war, he returned to the University of Buffalo to earn a bachelor’s degree, and went on to earn a master’s degree at New York University.
Mr. Webb started teaching industrial arts at East Hampton High School, where he also met Violet Caneega, known as “Pinky,” who started as a sixth-grade teacher in 1948. They married on September 6, 1950, and settled into a cottage on Newtown Lane. Three years later they moved to their longtime home on Meadow Way. At one point they lived a short time at a camp in North Sea, where they washed by skinny dipping in a pond because there was no running water, according to Mr. Webb’s son, Sheppard C. Webb.
In addition to teaching the only Regents-approved high school boat-building course in New York State, Mr. Webb also helped students work on automobile engines. To help with that, he once mentioned to a friend at Plitt Ford that he needed an engine to break down and repair; a few days later a 1965 425-horsepower V-8 engine was delivered to the school.
“Most of all Dad was an athlete. He played football, basketball, at 5 feet 4 inches tall, and baseball in high school, and semiprofessional hockey, without a helmet, to pay for college tuition. His proudest athletic moment was playing town league baseball for the Southampton Blue Sox. He liked to point out that he had a better batting average than Carl Yastrzemski, who played for the Bridgehampton White Eagles,” said Dr. Webb.
Mr. Webb was a member of the South Fork Country Club and the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.
In addition to his son, he is survived by a daughter-in-law, Tania Webb; three grandchildren; and siblings, Alan Fordham Webb of Virginia, Barbara Webb of North Carolina and Margaret Leihr of Southampton. He was predeceased by his wife in 1993.
Memorial donations may be made to Southampton Hospital, 240 Meeting House Lane, Southampton, NY 11968; the East Hampton Historical Society, 101 Main Street, East Hampton, NY 11937; or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.
on Oct 10, 2015