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OBITUARIES: Pinkowski, Philip

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John Pinkowski (1926 – 2015)

STUYVESANT—John W. Pinkowski, Sr., 89, of Stuyvesant died Monday, August 24, 2015 at his home.

Born February 14, 1926 in Port Jefferson, he was the son of the late John T. and Sadie (Dwoviak) Pinkowski.

Mr. Pinkowski served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a plant manager for Lane Construction in Meridan, CT, for more than 36 years. He was a 60-year member of the Stuyvesant Fire Company, a member of the Kinderhook Elks Lodge #2530 and a former member of the American Legion.

He is survived by: his wife, Helen M. (Sikoskie) Pinkowski; his children; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; nieces and nephews.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated, Friday, August 28 at 2 p.m. in St. John the Baptist Church, Route 9, Valatie with the Reverend George Fleming officiating. Burial will follow in St. Mary’s Cemetery, Stuyvesant Falls. Calling hours will be Thursday, August 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Raymond E Bond Funeral Home, 1015 Kinderhook Street, Valatie. Memorials may be made to the Stuyvesant Fire Company, P.O. Box 146, Stuyvesant 12173.

Cynthia Owen Philip (1928 – 2015)

RHINECLIFF—Cynthia Owen Philip departed from her beloved Hudson River Valley August 19, 2015. She died at her home in Rhinecliff, in her 87th year, after a brief illness. She was a writer, historian, activist, mother, and grandmother.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1928, Mrs. Philip was, as she put it, an “unreconstructed New Englander,” uniting a sensitive and sympathetic mind and a broad-ranging intellect with a firm moral sense. The subjects on which she engaged with characteristic intensity and thoroughness produced books, essays and articles, among them Imprisoned in America, (1973), a critical edition of prison communications, Robert Fulton (1985), Wilderstein and the Suckleys (2001), Rhinecliff, a Hudson River History (2008), and The World Around Me (2011), a collection of her essays. She was at work on a book about the Delano family, of which several preliminary chapters had been published as articles at the time of her death. She was a frequent contributor to “AboutTown,” a regional newspaper.

A strong belief in the importance of community and public service meant Mrs. Philip was an ardent and thoughtful activist both in national and local causes, from fracking to zoning issues.

Educated at Smith College, from which she graduated in 1950, Mrs. Philip spent a formative junior year abroad in Paris. Arriving in June 1949, her imagination and sympathies were stirred by its burgeoning intellectual life, its grey beauty, its recent suffering, and above all by the wit, elegance, gaiety and resilience of its population. She made friendships here that endured for the rest of her long and active life. She later pursued graduate studies in urban planning at the Harvard School of Design. After a hiatus, she studied comparative religion at the Union Theological Seminary and began a career as an editor and a freelance writer.

Her marriage in 1954 to Nicholas Worthington Philip of Claverack ended with his death in 1975. Except for several years in South East Asia with her husband and children, she spent her life in New York City and the Hudson River Valley.

Mrs. Philip is survived by: her two daughters, Elizabeth Philip Bonner and Maria Philip Clarke; her son, Nicholas Worthington Philip; her daughter-in-law, Cynthia; sons-in-law, William Bonner and Martin Clarke and by 12 grandchildren. She will be remembered also with deep affection by two step-grandchildren and their three children.

The funeral service was August 24 at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, followed by a reception in her home.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the New-York Historical Society and to Riverkeeper.

Arrangements are under the direction of Burnett & White Funeral Homes 91 East Market Street, Rhinebeck.

To sign the online guest book visit www.Burnett-White.com.

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