Friends, family gather in Riverhead to remember 'Tepee Ted' Strickroth

When Tony Valderrama was 8 years old, he remembers a soft-spoken man with a gray beard and warm smile visiting his school to teach lessons and tell stories about Native American culture.

He raised the wooden poles of a tepee and draped a buffalo skin over a circle of children gathered inside, passing animal bones, drums or a talking stick around.

“I was in awe,” Valderrama, 41, of East Moriches recalled Saturday. “He inspired me from that day on.”

The man was Ted Strickroth, of Riverhead, who left a mark on generations of Long Island children as “Tepee Ted” through his nonprofit Wilderness Traveling Museum. Strickroth, who died of cancer at 75 in March, was memorialized during a celebration of his life at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead on Saturday.

With his tepee set up beneath rustling white oak trees, his legacy was remembered by about 75 family members, friends, educators and former students who gathered to say goodbye.

“He kept kids mesmerized,” said his nephew, Joseph Gennarelli, 54, of Holbrook, who also said his uncle was a talented yogi and chef. “I didn’t realize how many lives he’s touched.”

Strickroth was born Nov. 8, 1948, in Queens and later graduated from Huntington High School.

He served for four years in the Marine Corps in the 1970s and after returning to civilian life, worked as a carpenter and found an affinity for Native American culture. In 1990, he formed a nonprofit to provide a hands-on learning experience with Native American and natural history, bringing his programs to thousands of students at schools, libraries and summer camps.

“He had a reverence for nature,” said Helen Mecagni, of Baiting Hollow, who met Strickroth in the late 1980s. She was a wildlife rehabilitator, Strickroth was collecting specimens of raccoons, birds, foxes and deer.

“If one of my animals would pass away, he would make a taxidermy or use the skulls in an educational and very respectful way,” Mecagni, 65, recalled.

For some, Strickroth imparted wisdom that changed the course of their lives.

Valderrama said he was a “man of wonder” who inspired him to research his Taíno roots, an indigenous Caribbean culture, and later study art at the college now known as LIU Post.

Saturday’s celebration also marked a “passing of the pine cone,” as Valderrama announced he will continue Strickroth’s legacy by teaching educational programs and taking over his wilderness week camps at Downs Farm Preserve in Cutchogue.

Valderrama plans to meet with town leaders in Southold to ultimately create a memorial for Strickroth at the preserve that will safeguard his collection of artifacts.

Some of Strickroth’s belongings were displayed near his tepee and attendees were encouraged to take something to remember him by.

Scott Menzies, 63, of Huntington, admired a hand-beaded suede pouch and small carved totem Strickroth painted. He will place both in his camper in memory of Strickroth, whom he met camping at Indian Island years ago. 

A CD copy of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” were chosen by 16-year-old Sophia Taylor, of Manhattan, a former wilderness camper and later, camp counselor who led archery classes for Strickroth’s program.

Both, she said, symbolize their “philosophically intertwined” friendship, bonding over music and deep conversations about the meaning of life.

“It feels like a part of him … something I can take forward into the rest of my life so I never really lose this camp, this place and the people I met here,” Taylor said.