William L. Zaluski Jr., Water Mill farmer, dies at 81

As a farmland fixture in his home hamlet of Water Mill, William L. Zaluski Jr. had the rich East End soils ingrained in his blood—and he could not have been more proud of that, his family said this week.

Mr. Zaluski, known to many in his community by his childhood nickname, “the Colonel,” died at age 81 on August 12 at his Deerfield Road home, of heart disease following a long illness, according to his wife, Joan B. Zaluski, 79.

Though he will no longer be planting potatoes and plowing the hundreds of acres at Zaluski Farm, the lifelong farmer shared the tradition with his family, planting the seeds of a legacy among those close to him.

“We are heartened by the legacy of warmth and kindness that Bill has left us all,” Judge Edward Burke of the Southampton Town Justice Court wrote in Mr. Zaluski’s eulogy. “Whether boating at Jessups, shooting or fishing at Shinnecock, sitting at the kitchen table playing poker with the boys and girls, once again he would tell a story or make a remark that made the day a little brighter and the world a little gentler.”

He was a “true local who left us better than he found us,” the judge continued, describing his late friend’s “amazing, folksy sense of humor” and ability to “make you smile no matter what was happening.”

“Bill was truly a hometown country boy. No pretense. What you see is what you get,” the judge wrote.

Born October 19, 1928 at Foster Farm, his family’s original farm in Water Mill, Mr. Zaluski looked forward to coming home from school every day to farm, learning the ways of the fields from his father, also named William, according to his survivors.

When he was 16, Mr. Zaluski exchanged his school books for the outdoor classroom of the fields and became a full-time farmer, his wife said.

A natural outdoorsman, he also enjoyed crabbing in Mecox Bay, eeling in Peconic Bay and nearby creeks when they were frozen over in winter, and hunting ducks and geese around Shinnecock Bay, but only when he was not tending to his beloved spuds. Potatoes were the crop grown on his farm until his oldest son, also named William, took over the reins about 12 years ago and started planting vegetables and flowers. Corn, tomatoes, string beans and lettuce, as well as sunflowers, cosmos, snapdragons and zinnias could then be sold at the Zaluski farm stand on Seven Ponds Road in Water Mill, Ms. Zaluski explained.

Her husband grew particularly fond of the towering sunflowers, which his son would plant on the south side of the house so that his father could see them grow.

Mr. Zaluski had taken charge of the farm about 15 to 20 years before his father William’s death in 1987, Ms. Zaluski said, noting that she and her husband lived and worked on the farm together for 62 years. In his latter years, he continued to drive the tractors. The Zaluskis own approximately 80 acres of farmland, Ms. Zaluski said, but more than doubled their acreage by renting additional land from other farmers who have since hung up their gear.

“That was his life love,” Ms. Zaluski said of her husband’s trade. “He might have been a dedicated father, but he was a totally dedicated farmer. It was his life blood, all he ever wanted to do.”

Although he worked from dawn to dusk, he found time as a young man in his 20s to play baseball for the Larry Nims team, named after a former clothing store next door to Herrick Hardware on Main Street in Southampton Village.

Mr. Zaluski was also a parishioner at the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church on Hill Street in Southampton Village.

Predeceased by his sister, Barbara Zaluski Corwith, he is survived by his wife, Joan B. Zaluski (née Webber); a brother, Vincent R. Zaluski; four sons, William, Stephen, John and Marc; seven grandchildren, Lara Zaluski Brown, Seth Zaluski, Luke Zaluski, Michael Zaluski, Justine Zaluski, Jessica Zaluski and Skylar Wilson; and four great-grandchildren, Seamus Brown, Mick Brown, Bailey Brown and Nicholas Hill.

The family received friends on Sunday afternoon and evening at the Brockett Funeral Home in Southampton, where a parish prayer service was conducted that evening by the Rev. Msgr. Edmond Trench, who also officiated at a funeral mass Monday morning at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church. Interment followed in the church cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations to East End Hospice or the Water Mill Community Club would be appreciated by the family.