Skip Goldsmith, owned century-old Southold boating business, dies at 85

The Southold scion of a century-old boating business, Skip Goldsmith was a man who carried on traditions — whether that of his father’s marina or of being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan who would shift his alliance to the Mets rather than the hated Yankees after his team decamped for Los Angeles.

But the Goldsmith's Boat Shop was paramount, seven days a week, practically up to his death of natural causes Saturday at his home, age 85.

“One of the things he was most proud of was the business getting to a hundred years last year,” said one of his sons, Glenn Goldsmith, of Mattituck. “He’d talked about that years prior: ‘I want to be alive. I want to make it to the business being a hundred years old.’ He was looking forward to that for so long. And when we had a big celebration party for it, he was there in his glory. I compared him to a bride at a wedding,” his son said. “People were lined up to speak to him.”

“He was just a down to earth guy, salt of the earth. He really was,” said his friend of a half-century, Bill Witzke — giving the example of Skip Goldsmith’s mentoring of the 20-years-younger Witzke in the ways of the boating and marina business even though Witzke’s family owned their own in town, Albertson Marine.

“My dad knew him,” Witzke said. “They would always get together. And I’d have dinner with him once a month. We're in the same business, in the same town, but we're not competitive. There's enough [business] for everybody and there’re enough problems for everybody. So if you needed help, he'd help you, or if he needed help, I’d help him.”

“He literally poured his blood, sweat and tears into that place to make it continue,” said his son. “Not for himself but for his family, for his employees, for his community and for his customers.”

Alvah Benjamin Goldsmith Jr., nicknamed Skip as a child to differentiate him from his dad, was born Aug. 19, 1939, in Greenport to Alvah B. and Jeanette Cooper Goldsmith.

The eldest of three boys, he graduated from what was then Southold High School in 1957 with a long list of extracurriculars: varsity sports ranging from baseball and basketball to cross country and pingpong, clubs including camera, French and Latin, and such arts as band, glee club and senior play.

He received an associate degree in applied science from Mohawk Valley Technical Institute, now Mohawk Valley Community College, in 1959. He then enlisted in the Air Force, stationed at the since-closed Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire and at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, where he was promoted to airman first class.

Goldsmith then served as an Air Force mechanic at Bien Hoa Air Base in Vietnam. Discharged in 1964, he took over the boating supply and marina business begun by his father in 1923. The following year he married Elizabeth Prussner, who would spend over three decades as a Southold school district teacher before retiring.

Goldsmith was a 65-year volunteer with the Southold Fire Department, as well as a member of the American Legion Griswold-Terry-Glover Post 803 in Southold, Masonic Peconic Lodge No. 349 in Riverhead and the First Presbyterian Church of Southold.

As a father, he was “always preaching responsibility and respect and ran a tight household,” remembered Glenn Goldsmith. “He was hardworking and tried to instill that in us kids.” Yet he also was fun, Glenn Goldsmith said, with “an infectious smile and a good story and you talk to him for hours.” An avid sports fan, he took his kids to ballgames and hockey matches.

“He was a diehard Rangers fan,” said his son. “I remember when they won the [Stanley] Cup in 1994, there was a guy in the stands holding up a sign that said, 'Now I can die in peace.' And my dad said, 'I can echo those statements.' Fortunately, we got an extra 30 years or so.” 

In addition to his wife and son Glenn, he is survived by his son, Craig, of Southold, who with Glenn took over the family business; daughter, Donna Bing, of Riverhead; brothers, Allan Goldsmith, of Naples, Florida, and Bruce Goldsmith, of Southold; and three grandchildren.

A viewing will be held Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Southold, with a service the next day at 10 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Southold. Interment with military honors will follow at First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.