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Timothy Reutershan, son of the late Robert G. and Nanci Reutershan of East Hampton, died of heart failure in Tucson, Arizona, on February 17, 2017, and had lived in Bridgehampton and Southampton for many years.
Following graduation from East Hampton High School in 1974, and a year at Alfred State College, Mr. Reutershan traveled to South Carolina to complete a course in heavy equipment operation. A true Bonac entrepreneur, his varied business interests included a lawn service business, lobster fishing, heavy equipment operator and owner of Reutershan Firewood. Mr. Reutershan was part of the team that installed the landscaping in the Montauk business district in the early 1970s.
Mr. Reutershan had a lifelong love of history, music, art and literature, preferring to teach himself rather than sit in a classroom. As a young boy, he became an expert on the Civil War and the life of Robert E. Lee. He was passionate about country music, and survivors said, “was country when country wasn’t cool,” even trying his hand at songwriting. He was later drawn to the art and artists of the East End. As a young man, he commissioned his childhood friend and local photographer, Douglas Kuntz, to document a photographic history of all the remaining East End windmills.
He moved to Tucson three years ago.
Later in life, he become a prolific collector of historic plates, prompted by the East Hampton and Sag Harbor plates commissioned from Rowland and Marcellus by his great-uncle Maximillian Reutershan. He was a voracious reader, a trait he inherited from his mother.
Mr. Reutershan was known for his exceptionally sharp wit—never failing to send a gathered crowd into gales of laughter with jokes, tales and stories, survivors said.
A devoted pet owner, his Chinese shar-pei was something of a local celebrity in Bridgehampton for his habit of silently keeping an eye on the goings-on from his spot on the porch roof overlooking Main Street, at the building where Mr. Reutershan lived. Speaking of his dog, survivors said that Mr. Reutershan had declared, “East Hampton has its swans, Bridgehampton has Chester.”
The main parking lot in East Hampton is named for his father, who was mayor of the village in the 1960s and was killed crossing the main street in Amagansett.
Born April 14, 1956, at Southampton Hospital, Mr. Reutershan is survived by a brother, Christopher Reutershan of Maryland; sisters, Susan Garde of Florida, Cynthia Marshall of East Hampton and Kate Johnson of Bridgehampton; a niece, Danielle Marshall; and nephews, Jack Marshall, John Garde IV and Sean Garde.
A memorial service and burial of ashes will be held at Most Holy Trinity Cemetery on Saturday, May 6, at 2 p.m.
Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue Fund, arfhamptons.org.
on Apr 27, 2017