Obituary: Captain Ronald Stanonis, Formerly of Southold, Dies at 72

Info via DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home

Captain Ronald C. Stanonis, a short time resident of Southold, died suddenly of an assumed heart attack in Amsterdam, Holland on July 6, 2015. He was 72 years old.

Ronald was born in Queens on January 20, 1943 to Charles J. and Adele M. (Emge) Stanonis.

He had previously lived in Center Moriches and maintained a residence in Brooksville, Florida.

He graduated from Walt Whitman High School in South Huntington in 1960.

He was appointed to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy as a cadet and sailed to Europe on the Coast Guard tall ship Eagle. He left the Coast Guard after two years of service.

Ronald worked his way through Queens College as a waiter, wine steward, and assistant manager in the restaurant industry.

In 1968, he received his BA in Mathematics from Queens College.

He then went to California and worked as a technician aboard two oceanographic research vessels in the far Eastern Pacific visiting Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Guam.

From 1971 to 1972 he started his teaching career as a substitute teacher in the Comsewogue School District in Port Jefferson Station.

For 26 years, Ronald was employed as a Junior High Mathematics teacher in the NYC public school system. He retired in 1996.
The sea has always been his love and passion. This culminated in his obtaining the U.S. Merchant Marine Captain’s License in 1997.

In the Gulf of Mexico, he got a position as mate aboard a supply vessel for Tidewater servicing oil rigs.

He suffered from a back injury on the oil rig which ended his sea career, but Ronald continued to travel to many different ports in the world by sea.

He is survived by his twin brother Gerry, of Southold, his brother Bob, of Mattituck and a half-sister Laura, who resides in Oslo, Norway.

The family received friends on Monday, August 10 at the DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck. Services were led by Father Patrick McNamara.