In Memoriam

Arthur P. Dodge

Arthur Dodge died on September 11, 2020.

We learned of his death on September 12 from C. MacNeil (“Neil”) Mitchell ’64, who reported:

I am sad to report the death of our classmate, Arthur P. Dodge (Yale ’64). Arthur died peacefully on this September 11th at his home in East Hampton, NY from complications of COVID-19. Arthur had been a successful stockbroker in the Southampton Office of Merrill Lynch, and was an avid and accomplished golfer at the Maidstone Club in East Hampton. Arthur is survived by his wife of 52 years, Maria Dolecka and his daughter, Cornelia.

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Obituary

The East Hampton Star

September 24, 2020

Arthur P. Dodge of East Hampton and Crystal River, Fla., a descendant of a 1661 English buyer of Block Island, died of complications of Covid-19 at home here on Sept. 11. He was 78 and had been in declining health since a bout with the virus earlier this year.

Mr. Dodge, who, among other distinctions, was a son of a survivor of the Titanic, Washington Dodge, loved rock 'n' roll and made an onstage appearance in 2002 with the band Supertramp in Hyde Park, London, as a prop, "the man under the umbrella." His wife, Maria Nina Dolecka, wrote that he "knew all the background singers' words to any doo-wop song" and that his favorite group was the Rolling Stones.

He was a lifelong golfer who belonged to the Maidstone Club and the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club. He had five holes in one, with two in one year, at those venues as well as at Bethpage Black. He continued to play even after his first stroke, in 2002, often saying, "I hit that one really well," his wife wrote.

Mr. Dodge was also "an auto racing enthusiast," his wife said. He raced his green 1961 Mini Cooper S at legendary tracks like the Bridgehampton Race Circuit, Lime Rock in Connecticut, and Watkins Glen upstate.

Arthur Parrish Dodge was born in Manhattan on Feb. 10, 1942, to the former Helen Manning Brown and Washington Dodge. He grew up there, attending the Buckley School, and graduated from Choate in Connecticut, after which he continued his studies at Yale, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a master's degree, also in economics.

He began his career at PepsiCo, then became a stockbroker in the mid-1970s, working for various firms including Paine Webber, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and UBS.

Mr. Dodge spent summers in Amagansett with his parents, sailing in Gardiner's Bay at the Devon Yacht Club, where, his wife wrote, "one of his formative experiences, when he was about 12 years old, was spending an afternoon playing with a dolphin."

He was a descendant of Trustrum (or Tristram) Dodge, one of the original 17 buyers of Block Island, and also of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Mr. Dodge was married first to Marie-Therese Duryea of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., known in the family as "the wife-in-law," and they had a daughter, Cornelia Therese Dodge of Jacksonville, Fla. They both survive.

He married Ms. Dolecka, originally of Bristol, England, with whom he had worked, on Oct. 3, 1970; she survives. They moved here full time in the early 1980s, after which he became active in the community as a member of the Rotary Club, a trustee of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center (called the East Hampton Day Care Center at the time), and treasurer of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee.

As well as his wife, ex-wife, and daughter, two grandsons, Michael Dodge Pagano of Washington, Mich., and Daley Dodge Pagano of East Hampton, survive, as do four nephews, one niece, and several cousins.

Mr. Dodge had three half brothers and a half sister from his parents' previous marriages: Herbert Hale and Helen Kinnan Holmes of Manhattan from his mother's side, and Jonathan Dodge of Eugene, Ore., and Kent Dodge of North Carolina, all of whom died before him.

He was always positive, said Ms. Dolecka, and "well known for his idiosyncratic dry wit and tenacious determination. He had many and varied friendships, and often said that, like humorist Will Rogers, he had never met a man he didn't like."

Mr. Dodge was cremated. The dispersal of his ashes is to be decided later.