ROCKPORT – Stephen Hinrichs, 92, died peacefully Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010, with his family by his side after a brief illness. He was born March 7, 1918, in South Orange, N.J., son of Louis Ernest and Vera McEnery Hinrichs. He graduated from Exeter in 1936 and from Yale University in 1940. During World War II, he served as an infantry platoon leader through three campaigns in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge. In 1945, he married his first wife, Nancy Chapman, an Army nurse. After earning a Master of Arts degree in history from Harvard University, he taught history for two years at North Shore Country Day School, Winnetka, Ill., and at John Burroughs School, St. Louis, for 15 years. In 1963, he was named headmaster of the Harley School, Rochester, N.Y., and in 1977 became executive director of the New York State Association of Independent Schools. He also served as director of Alamoosook Island Camp in Orland from 1955 to 1968. In 1985 he married the former Grace Eames of Bangor, and they moved to Rockport in 1995. He was a dedicated educator and father who believed in young people learning to think for themselves. Friends have described him as “a Renaissance man.” During his teaching years, he coached golf and football, and was a familiar figure on the Samoset golf course into his 90s. He designed and built a summer house and later built a solar-heated home overlooking Canandaigua Lake, N.Y. He was a sailor who spent many summers on his yawl in Penobscot Bay, and in 1982, as the celestial navigator, he helped sail a friend’s 42-foot sailboat across the Atlantic. He was also a writer and author of essays, newsletters, memoirs and letters. He is survived by his wife, Grace; three daughters and a son, Victoria Silks and her husband, Robert Santacroce, of Santa Fe, N.M., Kate Hinrichs and her partner, Kenneth Culbert, of Boothbay, Deborah Hinrichs and her husband, Booth Dyess, of Reston, Va., and Christian Hinrichs and his wife, Mary, of Oregon House, Calif.; his grandson, Christopher Santacroce; and a daughter by marriage, Rebecca Bernen Lake of Arlington, Va., and her two children, Virya and Indranila Nowakowski. At his request, there will be no service. His ashes are to be spread on the waters of Penobscot Bay. Those wishing to make a donation in his memory are asked to consider The Education Fund of the American Solar Energy Society, ASES, 2400 Central Ave., Suite A, Boulder, CO 80301-2843 or www.ases.org. His family has set up a Web site where messages, memories and photos can be shared and where the full obituary can be found: stephen-hinrichs.forevermissed.com.
STEPHEN HINRICHS
