1 Photo
Sidney Sims
Sidney Sims of Southampton died at his home on Sunday, April 24. He was 90.
Born in the Bronx, Mr. Sims met his wife Frances Norsic of Southampton at St. Luke’s Hospital while she was attending nursing school; they married in June 1950 and moved to Southampton in 1959. Mr. Sims was a veteran of World War II serving in the U.S. Army in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. He was a member of the American Legion, VFW, Elks, the Agawam Engine Company of the Southampton Fire Department for 31 years, and the Southampton Golf Club.
Mr. Sims worked for his father-in-law, Emil Norsic, in the family sanitation business until 1962 when he opened Sims Sanitation and was known as “The Garbologist of the Hamptons.” His first major client was Southampton College. He and several other local businessmen started the Blue Garter Club, which supported the College’s athletic teams. He really enjoyed watching his kids playing various sports and coaching his son’s baseball team, which he named The Mets.
According to survivors, although he grew up next to Yankee Stadium, Mr. Sims said that the “Yankees were getting too big for their pinstripe britches” so he switched his affiliation to the Brooklyn Dodgers. After the Dodgers left New York, he stuck to his root-for-the-little-guy attitude and became a die-hard Met fan.
During his retirement, he loved to go to Florida to spend time with his wife and their Southampton “snowbird” friends, playing golf, going to jai lai, and attending meetings for the retired firefighter organization, FIRES. During a round of golf, he saved a fellow golfer’s life by performing CPR that he learned at through Southamtpon Fire Department training.
Back in Southampton, he loved to go to Sip n’ Soda at breakfast and go play golf. Mr. Sims was most proud of his two holes-in-one and being crowned the Champion of the Last Flight, beating his friend Hilton Winters in sudden death. Mr. Sims was well-known and loved by the Southampton Community.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Frances; children, Barbara, Paul and Carl; daughters-in-law Beverly and Myra; grandchildren, Phillip Sidney Sims and Melissa Hannah; great-grandchildren, Sarah and Taylor Wike. He also leaves behind his cat, Buddy.
Visitation was held on Wednesday, April 27, at the O’Connell Funeral Home with a Southampton Fire Department firematic service and Elks Club Memorial. A funeral Mass was held on Thursday, April 28, at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church. The fire truck-led procession ended at Sacred Hearts Cemetery with full military honors burial followed by a reception at the Windmill Lane firehouse.
Memorial Donations may be made to the Human Resources of the Hamptons, 168 Hill Street, Southampton, NY 11968.
on May 3, 2011