Ex-Lindenhurst teacher Ed Gunthorpe dies

When he wasn't spending time with his family, Ed Gunthorpe could be found at the pond at Southward Ho Country Club.

Or, more literally, in it.

Gunthorpe - a longtime club member and golf aficionado who also served as a World War II paratrooper and later as a physical education teacher - often would wade in for sport, collecting golf balls that would-be Arnold Palmers sunk into the water, said Muriel Gunthorpe, his wife of 64 years.

"He'd always come back with buckets of golf balls," which he would give out to "anybody who played golf," she said Sunday.

Edward Gunthorpe, of Bay Shore, died last Tuesday of natural causes. He was 90.

Gunthorpe was born on May 21, 1920, in Malverne, and he grew up in Brooklyn and California before being drafted into the U.S. Army three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Muriel Gunthorpe said.

He was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne division and served overseas, his wife said. He also participated in the Battle of the Bulge, she said.

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After the war, Gunthorpe finished his high school education at night, then enrolled at St. Lawrence University in upstate Canton with the help of the GI Bill. His dream was to become a physical education teacher, Muriel Gunthorpe said.

"He was into fitness long before there was a fad to fitness," she said.

Gunthorpe played on the men's hockey team at St. Lawrence, and was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, his wife said.

Gunthorpe also earned a master's degree from New York University before becoming a physical education teacher at Lindenhurst High School in 1952.

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Affectionately known at the school as "Gunny," he started Lindenhurst's varsity golf team before retiring in 1977, Muriel Gunthorpe said.

"He would always try to encourage everybody in any athletic endeavor at all," she said.

In his retirement, Gunthorpe enjoyed golfing and sailing. And while he traveled the world with his wife, "he was the biggest booster of the South Shore of Long Island," Muriel Gunthorpe said. "He felt there was no place in the world any nicer."

In addition to his wife, Gunthorpe is survived by daughters Margaret Nusser of Brooklyn, Helen Gunthorpe of San Francisco, and Diane Crigler and Elizabeth Gunthorpe, both of Marietta, Ga.

Gunthorpe's body was cremated. A memorial service and interment will be held at Long Island National Cemetery in the spring.