Hinchey visitation, services next week
Former congressman’s burial will be private
Services for former U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, who died this week at age 79, will be held next Wednesday in Saugerties, according to obituary information provided by the funeral home.
Calling hours will be 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Seamon-Wilsey Funeral Home, corner of John and Lafayette streets in Saugerties. The funeral procession will form at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday at Seamon-Wilsey and travel to St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 915 Route 212, Saugerties, where a Mass of Christian Burial will be offered starting at 10 a.m.
Burial will be private.
Hinchey, who served in the state Assembly from 1975 through 1992 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 until retiring at the end of 2012, died Wednesday afternoon at his home in Saugerties after battling frontotemporal degeneration, a rare and terminal neurological disorder.
Hinchey’s family announced the diagnosis in June but said he had been living with the condition for some time already.
By early 2011, Hinchey had been diagnosed with colon cancer and had had at least two surgeries.
Hinchey was born Oct. 27, 1938, in New York City and was raised in Manhattan and Saugerties.
After graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. Navy and, after being honorably discharged, worked as a laborer for several years in a Hudson Valley cement plant before attending college.
Hinchey earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1968 and a master’s degree in education in 1970, both from SUNY New Paltz.
He worked his way through college as a toll collector for the New York State Thruway Authority.
During his years in the state Legislature and Congress, Hinchey devoted much of his work to environmental issues, including the chemical contamination at Love Canal, PCB contamination in the Hudson River and the potential impacts of hydrofracking. He also was instrumental in creating the Hudson River Valley Greenway, to protect and preserve land along the river, and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, which he described as building on the Greenway legislation and giving the area more access to federal money.
Hinchey is survived by his wife, Ilene Marder; their daughter, Michelle; and two sons from his first marriage, Reese and Josef.
Michelle Hinchey posted on Facebook shortly after her father’s passing: “Thank you, Dad, for teaching me how to have immense strength in the face of adversity and the audacity to never back down from something you believe in, that humor is always a winning strategy, that the best choice isn’t necessarily the popular choice, and to always fight with courage.
“Thank you for teaching me how to wink with both eyes, for encouraging my funny faces at dinner, even if Mom disapproved, for inspiring a love of the outdoors with long hikes in our backyard, and for your constant quest for knowledge, teaching me there’s always more to learn.
“Thank you for instilling an unwavering love for the Yankees and for showing me that I really do like Elvis. And thank you for always insisting that chocolate chip cookies were an acceptable dinner choice. To say I’ve been lucky would be an understatement.”
Hinchey’s first wife, Erika, died this past March, long after they divorced. He later was married to Marder and then Allison Lee before marrying Marder again in October 2013, after his retirement.
A full obituary for Hinchey will appear in the Sunday Freeman.