Eugene T. Horton

Visitation - Sunday September 8th, 2-4:30 & 7-9:30 p.m. at our Bayport location, 683 Montauk Hwy. Bayport, NY.

Chapel Service - 8:00 p.m. Sunday September 8th at the Funeral Home.

Private Cremation

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Bayport-Blue Point Heritage Association at Meadow Croft P.O. Box 4 Bayport, NY 11705 or Blue Point Cemetery, 23 Madison St. Blue Point, NY 11715 would be appreciated.

Local historian and LI educator, Gene Horton, 77, of Blue Point and Southold, passed away on September 1, 2019.

Born on western Long Island (a place called Brooklyn) on July 21, 1942, he was the son of the late Eugene Horton and Dorothy McLaughlin Horton.  The Horton family has long history on eastern LI’s North Fork and Gene traced his direct genealogy back to Barnabas Horton (1600-1680), one of the founders of Southold, LI, in 1640.  Gene’s family summered in Blue Point for years before moving permanently to Blue Point in 1948.

Gene was a member of the Class of 1960 at Seton Hall High School in Patchogue and then earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Providence College in Providence, RI.

Returning to LI, Gene then began his professional career teaching 7thand 8thgrade Social Studies at the East Moriches School from 1964 until his retirement in 1997.  Thanks to this electronic age, Gene was able to stay in touch on-line with his former colleagues and hundreds of his former students.

Always interested in Long Island and local history, Gene authored five books over the years about his home-town hamlet of Blue Point.  He was always fond of saying: “By preserving our past, we enrich our future.”

A world traveler, he had the distinction of visiting all seven continents and 49 of the 50 states (only Alaska is the exception).

In 1995, the Bayport-Blue Point Chamber of Commerce chose him as the Grand Marshal of its annual St. Patrick’s Parade.

Starting in 2002, Gene also started writing a monthly history column for the local community newspaper, the Bayport/Blue Point GAZETTE.

As one of the directors of the Blue Poiont Cemetery Association, Gene also did a great deal of research about that cemetery which dates back to 1866.

In 1984, Gene was elected to the Greater Patchogue Historical Society’s Hall of Fame.  He also served the community for about ten years as an elected trustee of the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library.

He was an active member of the Bayport Heritage Historical Society.  In 2015, the Local History room of the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library was named the “Gene Horton Local History Room” in his honor. He was also an honorary member of the Blue Point Fire Department.

Gene was often a guest-speaker and he gave many programs and presentations to historical societies, libraries, schools and organizations in Suffolk County.

In 2011, Gene marrried Erich Haesche of Southold and they spent their time shunting between both of their historic homes in Blue Point (built in 1876) and in Southold (built in 1653).

Besides his husband, Erich, Gene is also survived by his sister, Cathleen Horton Loper (“Kit”) and her husband, Tim and their family from Massachusetts and his brother, Geoffrrey R. Horton (Jeff) and his wife, Dee and their family from Sayville.