Philip 'Fred' Meschutt, WWII vet dedicated to family, service, dies at 96
As a 12-year-old Boy Scout in 1938, Philip “Fred” Meschutt helped put the victims of Long Island’s worst hurricane into body bags, heralding a lifetime of service that ranged from World War II to Meals on Wheels, his family said.
“I’m the luckiest boy in Suffolk County,” he’d tell his family, supermarket shoppers and anybody who’d listen, a belief so solid that he repeated it even as dementia set in.
“He never bragged,” recalled daughter Linda Globuschutz of Smithtown. “He’d rather give to somebody than have something for himself.”
Meschutt, 96, of Dix Hills, died last Sunday, 37 years after retiring as a senior manager at New York Telephone Co., where he had worked after leaving the Navy in 1946.
Over the decades, he had volunteered for about 12 boards and nonprofits, his family said.
As president of the school board of the Half Hollow Hills school district, he oversaw its expansion, his family said. He cofounded the Dix Hills United Methodist Church and was a member of the Dix Hills Fire Department for 64 years. After retiring, he delivered food for Meals on Wheels every Friday with his wife, Evelyn, until her death in 2012.
In private acts of generosity, Meschutt regularly clipped a bunch of coupons, bought the items, then donated them to a food pantry, his daughter said. He was a lifeline, with college tips, financial advice and money to get them out of dilemmas, his family said.
Born in Hampton Bays, Meschutt was the seventh of eight children. His father, Howard, owned an insurance company. His grandfather Stephen was the Southhampton Town supervisor in the 1960s, and Meschutt Beach is named after him, his family said.
At a young age, Meschutt saw more than his share of death, said his younger sister Anne Mepham of Williamsburg, Virginia. He helped bring bodies to the local firehouse after the Island’s worst modern storm savaged the Hamptons in 1938. When he was about 15 years old, two of his triplet sisters were among four who died when a sudden storm capsized their boat on Peconic Bay.
Those tragedies underscored to Meschutt the importance of family, Mepham said. Even though he was just eight years older than her, he looked after her, teaching her how to drive and researching colleges for her, she said.
“He demonstrated leadership all his life,” Mepham said. “He was the ultimate big brother.”
After Meschutt joined the Navy during World War II, officers recognized his skills, his family said, and paid for his schooling at the University of Virginia, where he got a degree in naval sciences and met his wife.
He was an ensign aboard the Currituck, a warship used as the base for seaplanes in the Pacific Theater. His family said Meschutt was trusted enough to be the messenger between one of the fleet admirals and Gen. Douglas MacArthur and witnessed Japan sign its surrender.
For the rest of his life, Meschutt would break into a patriotic song at any time, tunes such as "Over There" and "God Bless America," said son-in-law Frank Perlman, Globuschutz’s husband.
He retained his independence well into his 80s, Perlman said. His retirement routine started with picking up the newspaper from his lawn, then getting coffee at the firehouse, his family said. “He just loved going to the firehouse every day, poking around and seeing what was going on,” Globuschutz recalled.
Meschutt took care of his wife while she had dementia, Globuschutz said, and he took steps to be independent when he realized the disease had begun nibbling at his memory.
Each day, he’d check the date on the newspaper and cross it off his calendar, which helped him keep track of any appointments. He and Evelyn ate out daily, and he would write on notecards where they ate to prevent going to the same places the next day.
“He was able to keep it together for a long time,” said Globuschutz, who, along with Mepham, survives him.
Visiting hours are Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the M.A. Connell Funeral Home in Huntington Station. A firematic service will be held Sunday at 8 p.m. at the funeral home. A brief service has been planned for Monday at 10:30 a.m. at the chapel of Washington Memorial Park in Mount Sinai.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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