Kathleen Newill, of Smithtown, retired school teacher, dies at 88

Generosity was practiced on more than Thanksgiving by retired Smithtown teacher Kathleen Newill, friends and family said. 

"When I lost a daughter six years ago, Kay was so caring, generous and loving in every way," said her closest friend, Trudy Condon, of Smithtown, using the name by which Newill went. "When my daughter was in the hospice, Kay was always there with me. And she brought flowers and food, but the main thing was prayers."

In 2022, Newill had a stroke and recovered at the assisted-living facility The Bristal at Mount Sinai. Lingering complications caused her to return there in January, and she died of cardiovascular failure on March 2. She was 88.

"She just got sick and she's with my dad now," said daughter Ellen Boyd, of Ridge. "She was given the [Catholic] rite of passage the day before she passed, and things are good."

Her daughter said her mom had been a home economics teacher who never gave short shrift to food. "She always hosted Thanksgiving," said Boyd.  "People would come in the night before, then have Thanksgiving and then stay over until the next day" at the family's four-bedroom home in Smithtown.

And her hospitality was not confined to holidays. "Oh, my kids just loved, and then my grandchildren just loved, going over to their pool," Condon recalled. "She'd always say, ‘Just come anytime. I don't have to be home. Just come.’ She had food, she had everything."

"It was sort of open to everybody," added Condon’s son, James Condon, of Forest Hills, Queens. "And if you had friends you wanted to bring, it was like the pool was open to everybody." The Newill home "was always a welcoming place. It was wonderful."

Born Kathleen Ellen Glasser in Paterson, New Jersey, on Oct. 26, 1936, she was the youngest of four daughters of William Frederick Glasser, who owned an insurance and real estate firm, and Florence M. Erwin Glasser. She was educated at the now-defunct Benedictine Academy in Paterson, going on to a bachelor of science degree in nutrition from the College of Saint Elizabeth (now Saint Elizabeth University) in what is now Morristown, New Jersey. Years later she earned a master’s in institutional management from Adelphi College (now Adelphi University) in Garden City.

She moved to Huntington and began her teaching career at what is now Kings Park High School. There she met assistant principal Arthur Bernard Newill, a widowed father of three, and they married on Nov. 7, 1964. That year they moved into their newly built home in an area of Smithtown called The Spout. Together they had daughter Ellen.

Until her retirement in 1997, Kay Newill worked throughout the Smithtown Central School District: first at Great Hollow Middle School, then at what is now Smithtown High School East and at Smithtown High School West. In addition to teaching home economics, she developed a preschool for the district, Pooh’s Playhouse. Upbeat and lighthearted, she helped organize school retirement parties and was generous in volunteerism, Trudy Condon said.

With summers off, the Newill family traveled extensively throughout the United States. After her husband’s death in 2008, Kay would make overseas trips to Paris, Jerusalem and elsewhere. An avid gardener, she also enjoyed boating, and with her husband belonged to the now-gone Kings Park Yacht Club. A Roman Catholic, she had been an active member of her parish altar society and the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. Professionally, she was a member of the American Dietetic Association, now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

In addition to Boyd, she is survived by stepson Russell Newill, of Danville, Virginia, and stepdaughter Barbara Newill, of Warrensburg ; her sister Marie Fabry, of New City; five grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Aside from her husband, two of her siblings and a stepson predeceased her.

Visitation was held March 6 and 7 at Clayton Funeral Home in Kings Park. Following a funeral March 7 at Saints Philip and James Roman Catholic Church in St. James, she was interred at Calverton National Cemetery.