Former longtime Shelter Island Supervisor James D. Dougherty, whose passion for preserving open space informed his many years of leadership here, died Saturday. He was 86.
A native of Baldwin, Dougherty had a home here since 1976. He and his wife, Nancy Decker Dougherty, moved to the Island full-time in 2001 to their distinctive 1852 house on a hilltop with Coecles Harbor views.
Doughtery served six two-year terms as Town Supervisor from 2008 through 2017.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, he attended Columbia Law School and Harvard Business School’s advanced management program. He served two years of active duty in Europe as LTJG of the US Naval Reserve.
Dougherty practiced law for 20 years before joining Supermarkets General Corporation — Pathmark Supermarkets, where he became company president in 1987.
Over his many years as supervisor, he maintained a focus on preserving the Island’s unique environment while shepherding the Town through challenging fiscal times. In 2012 he announced that he was undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Prior to becoming supervisor, he served on the Shelter Island Comprehensive Plan Committee (1992 to 1994) and was chairman of the South Fork/Shelter Island Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (1992 to 1995). He was a founding board member and chairman of the Peconic Baykeeper (1998 to 2002). And he was a board member of the NY League of Conservation Voters (1995 to 1998).
He served as a volunteer on short-term assignments for Project Hope-State Department in Riga, Latvia, and for the International Executive Service Corps. in Siberia and in Cairo.
His wife died in 2013. Last year, Jim completed the mission of publishing a biography about a member of Hitler’s Nazi elite that she’d begun before the onset of Alzheimer’s. It took nine years of dogged work to overcome skeptics in the publishing business, Dougherty said at the time, “But I knew what I had.”
Supervisor Gerry Siller called for a moment of silence to honor Dougherty at Tuesday’s Town Board work session
Siller recalled with gratitude that when he was ill and facing medical treatments, Doughtery loaned him the use of his NYC apartment. Later, as in Dougherty’s case, Siller’s wife also was ill and died during his tenure as supervisor.
“I’ll always remember Jim sitting up on Tut’s Hill with Nancy and how he took care of her. I always admired that. As fate would have it, I was in the same position with Roni,” Siller said.
“He was an inspiration for me to do the same. I’ll leave it for other people to speak of him as a supervisor. I’ll speak of him as a man. I really did admire him.”
The family will receive friends on Wednesday, August 23, from 4 to 6 PM at the Shelter Island Community Center.
The Shelter Island Funeral Home is assisting the family.
