Jack Dowling (center), with Diane Romano & Michael Adams at July 20, 2013 SAGE event at Windy Hill, Jack Dowling memorial, Polly, Peter & Jossie Dowling, Polly Dowling & Peter with Jack's ashes
On September 19, friends, neighbors, and family of the late Jack Dowling (October 1, 1931-February 24, 2021) gathered on the deck of the home of Joyce Yaeger and Danielle Burenstein, across from Jack’s house, Windy Hill, to remember the painter and writer, a man of many parts, as it emerged from the speakers’ stories about him.
Dowling family members present were Jack’s younger brother Peter, spouse Polly, and their daughter, “Jack’s favorite niece” Jossie (Jocelyn). Jack left his house to Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and Peter read a statement from SAGE, which called Jack one of SAGE’s “most generous donors,” and said that “Jack’s relationship with SAGE was long and deep” and that he had made “a special gift” toward housing that SAGE established. Peter called Jack “my best friend” and brought along a bottle of his ashes to be spread on his property. Jossie spoke of the many gifts her uncle had given her, chosen with the artist’s eye.
Joyce talked about Jack’s writing and her own, which they shared with each other, and Danielle called Jack “a man of grace.” Carl Luss read Jack’s reminiscences about Cherry Grove from the 1950 and ’60s, including staying at the Silver Slipper, later known as Carousel Guest House, on Holly Walk, and having a chance sexual encounter on the beach with a man who had come there on foot from distant Davis Park. Todd Erickson, who rented a room at Windy Hill, offered memories of living there, including of Jack’s wonderful garden, and of their shared love of Nature and the woods. Robert, from the east end of Bayview Walk, and I talked separately about Jack’s history as a partner with Colt Studios, creator of gay male erotica in the 1970s.
Diane Romano spoke about her first fight with Jack, after a trying Miss Fire Island weekend, which led to their subsequent friendship. Jack Ruolo shared that Jack and the late Michael Guerrette were the first people he met in Cherry Grove. Judy Hester told of driving Jack to his first serious surgery on his eye—it was not to be subjected to jostling—so of course it was a bumpy road. Don Hester also spoke. Mike Pinto recalled a trip to the Fire Island Lighthouse with Jack—one would not be allowed inside barefoot, which Jack was.
The memorial concluded with the assembled raising their glasses in a toast to Jack, whom we sorely miss.
Photographer Koitz has been chronicling the gay people and events of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines for more than a decade and a half in work that has appeared in newspapers and been displayed in art shows. Koitz’s clear and sensitive photos find a dramatic setting in a new art book entitled “Gay Fire Island: It’s Good to Be Us,” with foreword by Patrick ...
