Home News Local News Greenport legend honored, dubbed grand marshal at Maritime Festival

Greenport legend honored, dubbed grand marshal at Maritime Festival

SoutholdLOCAL photo by Dave Benthal.

Otto Schoenstein, a dedicated craftsman, has left a little piece of his heart in many beloved spots around Greenport.

A craftsman with a deep and abiding love of the village, Schoenstein, 84, has worked to rebuild the lantern room at Bug Lighthouse, and has worked on a long list of projects, including the village blacksmith shop and rooms in the East End Seaport Museum that depict scenes of Greenport from days gone by, according to his wife of 62 years, June.

This weekend, Schoenstein will be honored for decades of selfless dedication to the village as the grand marshal of the 2014 Greenport Maritime Festival parade on Saturday; he will also be feted at the kick-off event, the Land & Sea gala, which takes place Friday night.

And on Saturday, a film about his life will be shown from 7:30 until 9 p.m. at the Greenport cinema on Front Street; the project was filmed by Tony Butler and depicts many of the projects Schoenstein has helped bring to life over the years.

“I feels very honored,” said Schoenstein, of the accolades.

Not only has Schoenstein worked on Bug LIght, but he secured the building and worked on the structure with volunteers to bring the blacksmith shop back to its original state. In addition, his wife June said, he created a replica of the USS Holland submarine, a scene from Claudio’s, and a replica of the old Mills canvas room, at the East End Maritime Museum.

Schoenstein has also created the bell support in front of the Museum and has worked at Hallockville to construct animal sheds and another bell tower, she said. He’s dedicated time to the Railroad Museums in both Riverhead and Greenport. On the South Fork, her husband has worked at the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Hamptons, building cages.

All of the projects have been volunteer work, she said.

In Greenport, Schoenstein and the couple’s son Fred put up an opsrey nest on a pole and also built a bench for the community.

Both Shoenstein and his wife are familar faces at the Greenport Maritime Festival, where this year will mark their 14th, running the kayak derby.

Her husband, June said, put his soul into restoring Bug Light. “It’s such an important part of Greenport’s maritime history,” she said. “He was proud to be part of the team bringing it back to its original glory, many years after it was destroyed by vandals.”

Greenport symbolizes home port for the couple, Ruth added; the village was her grandparents’ home, and both her parents and her children were brought up there. Even when the Schoensteins lived briefly in St. James, they’d visit Greenport by boat, spending vacation days at the former Mitchell’s, she said. “We love it here,” she said. “Greenport is our home.”

The couple moved back to the village and have lived here for 30 of the 62 years that they’ve been married.

Looking back on the many years of Maritime Festivals, the Schoensteins agree that their favorite part is the kayak derby.

Keturah Hurst of the East End Seaport Museum & Marine Foundation wrote a blog about Schoenstein, explaining that the organization was born 25 years ago “by a tenacious group of Greenporters. This labor of love was created to rebuild the Long Beach Bar Lighthouse, or ‘Bug Light’ as it’s called around here. Among that group was Otto Schoenstein. Otto built the lantern room, and at age 84 can still recount every detail of the construction.”

The lighthouse, she said, was built in sections in Greenport and later moved to its current location by barge.

Schoenstein, Hurst said, even built the home where he and his wife live.

“At every turn, I am suitably impressed with the accomplishments of this man. When the artistic mind is housed in an active craftsman, the possibilities are endless. He has proven that fact time and time again. Where others may see devastation, Otto sees opportunity. He sees a way to bring things to life. . .He truly is a living legend. The thing about living legends is that they have so much to teach. The thing about Otto is that the lesson comes with such joyful exuberance that you really want to learn,” Hurst said.

 

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