Documentarian, college professor John Reilly dies at 74

John Reilly, an award-winning video documentary maker, former adjunct professor at Southampton College and an instructor at Suffolk County Community College, has died at a hospice in Florida.

Reilly, 74, had gone south last winter and entered a hospice in Palm Beach Gardens when his health began declining. He recently suffered a stroke and died on July 28.

Reilly taught at Southampton College until the campus was closed in 2005 by Long Island University. He and his second wife, artist Lauren Chambers, were living in SoHo and in Hampton Bays while he taught there, and they became full-time residents of Hampton Bays when the campus was closed.

Reilly, who was born in Jersey City, earned his bachelor's degree at Seton Hall University and a master's from New York University, where he attended film school.

Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton), who was provost at Southampton College when Reilly taught there, recalled him as "a wonderful colleague and, from his students' perspective, he was an absolutely inspiring teacher."

Karl Grossman, an East End writer and professor of journalism at SUNY Old Westbury, called Reilly "a giant" in pioneering video documentaries with "keen intelligence and a passion for social justice."

Reilly's work includes several videos that were shown on PBS. His "Waiting for Beckett" was the only U.S. documentary made with the cooperation of Nobel Prize-winning playwright Samuel Beckett, who penned "Waiting for Godot."

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The film, released in 1993, won several awards and was selected to be a feature presentation at the American Film Institute Festival that year. It took Reilly five years to make the documentary, the only known video showing the reclusive Beckett at work.

Reilly was a co-founder of Global Village, a group in Manhattan that pioneered video documentaries before cable television became widely available. He and his first wife, Julie Gustafson, were co-directors.

In addition to his wife, survivors include a son, Lars Reilly, and a daughter, Maire Gustafson, both of Cape Cod.

The family is planning a memorial service.