In a post last month we announced that R-UTN member Frank Kondrich would be showing his bonsai chrysanthemums at the 65th Annual Long Island Chrysanthemum Show on October 26 and 27th. He competed in the “Open” division and was awarded five blue ribbons out of six entries. A retired English teacher, Frank shares more information about growing bonsai trees and chrysanthemums on the Member News page of this website.
Bruce Hunt, retired Northport High School social teacher and department chair, passed away on October 9 at the age of 86. Bruce is survived by his wife Marcia, his sons Christopher and Peter, daughter Eliza Furtado and seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Sarah.
At Northport High School Bruce was an educational innovator, designing and implementing unique classes and promoting novel teaching methods. Classes Bruce helped create are still being taught at Northport High School today.
From the early 1960’s Bruce was an active civil rights leader, serving as head of the Fair Housing Association of Huntington and chair of the Huntington Human Relations Committee. In 1965 Bruce was awarded a John Hay Fellowship at Northwestern University, which took him to Chicago for a year, during which time he traveled to Alabama to take part in the march from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1970 Bruce temporarily left Northport and moved his family to Greece, teaching at the American Community School for six years
After retiring from Northport High School in 1993, Bruce and Marcia took positions at the American Embassy School in Damascus, Syria, where they lived for the next five years. In 1998 they permanently retired, moving to Skiathos, a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. In 2014, Bruce and Marcia returned to the U.S. and settled in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, living in Grey Gull – a cottage on the water that has been in Bruce’s family for nearly a century.
Services for Bruce were private. Gifts in his memory may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union — by mail to ACLU Gift Processing Dept., 125 Broad Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10004 or online at https://www.aclu.org/ — or to a charity of your choice.
Merle Levine, retired principal of Northport High School, passed away in her sleep on September 12 at the age of 95. Predeceased by Seymour, her husband of 63 years, she is survived by her five children, Deborah, Jeffrey, David, Steven and Robert; eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Merle and Seymour retired to Greenport, where she remained active working for the rights of women, minorities and the poor. She served as founder and president of the Community Action Southold Town and was secretary of the town’s Anti-Bias Task Force. For her lifetime of social justice advocacy, she was honored in 2016 with the Helen Wright Prince Community Award from the Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force.
A memorial celebration of Merle’s life will be held Sunday, October 20th, 2-4 pm, at Peconic Landong, 1500 Brecknock Rd., Greenport, in the Community Center.
Ellen M. Schlachter, Home Economics teacher at Northport Junior High School, known to her students as Mrs. S, died on July 18, twelve days before her 81st birthday. Ellen is survived by her son James and his wife Lynn. She was predeceased by her husband, William.
Joan C. Smith, retired Northport – East Northport teacher, passed away on August 10, 2019 at 89 years of age. Joan lived in Northport and is survived by her husband Edward, her children Suzie, Cindy Latchford, Kevin (Diane), & Keith (Kathy), nine grandchildren and one great grandchild. A funeral mass was held for Joan at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Centerport, followed by a private cremation.