News

By Steven J. Smith

    BRINY BREEZES — If laughter is the best medicine, Terry Dugan heaped generous doses of it on friends and family throughout his life, according to his widow, Barbara.
    “It came from his Irish-ness,” she said. “I have so many pictures of him and there is not one where he is not smiling. He was just a happy-go-lucky guy. He lived life to the fullest, there’s no question about it. He would always answer the phone saying, ‘Top of the morning to ya!’ ”
    Barbara Dugan said her husband took great pride in his heritage.
    “He was so proud to be Irish and American,” she said. “And I remember him saying he wished our kids and their generation knew more about the contributions Irish-Americans made in wars such as World War II.”
    Mr. Dugan died from complications of heart disease on Oct. 1 at his Blue Point, N.Y., home. He was 78. He was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Coram, N.Y.
    Mr. Dugan was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1937, where he spent his childhood years. When he was 13 the family moved to Long Island, where he attended Seton Hall High School in Patchogue. He received a bachelor’s degree in business from St. Francis College in Brooklyn. Soon after, he and Barbara were married and started raising a family that grew to include children Kelly, Kim, Terry, Tom, Tim and Katie. His early jobs included stints with the telephone company and Pepsi-Cola, before Allstate Insurance Company hired him as a salesman around 1951.
    “He worked for Allstate for 38 years,” Barbara Dugan said. “He sold all kinds of insurance for them. He rose through the ranks to the level of senior account agent and retired in 1989.”
    The couple began visiting Florida in 1985, she added, and eventually purchased a home in Briny Breezes.
    “Terry’s mother rented at the time and she wanted her children to buy in Briny Breezes, because she just loved it,” Barbara Dugan said. “So Terry’s sisters ended up buying and then Terry and I bought a place there. Since he retired, we were there seven to eight months out of the year. We’d come down in October then go back to Long Island in May.”
    Mr. Dugan loved to golf, she added, with a special affinity for the 19th hole.
    “He was very social,” she said. “He played golf for the fun, not the score. He also loved to play cards and he really enjoyed living near the ocean. He just loved the people there. We have a wonderful circle of friends in Briny Breezes.”
    She added he was a passionate fan of the Notre Dame football team, even though he never attended the school.
    “His friends called him a ‘subway alumnus,’ because he just loved the team,” she said. “I think it’s because he was so Irish.”
    Although Mr. Dugan never served in the military, he lost a younger brother in the Vietnam War. Accordingly, he was instrumental in acquiring and installing a large flagpole in front of the Ocean Clubhouse at Briny Breezes to fly flags in honor of all fallen veterans.
    “Terry got donations from people in Briny to put up this great big flagpole,” Barbara Dugan said. “Then he used to put in the Bugle newsletter a notice inviting anybody who would like to fly a casket flag there, in honor of the memory of veterans who gave their lives for our country.”
    Over the last couple of years, Mr. Dugan’s health began to fail.
    “He had a bout with cancer, which cleared, then he came down with pneumonia,” Barbara Dugan said. “Then this past July he fell and broke his hip. He came around from that, but all along he was dealing with a weak heart.”
    Mr. Dugan is survived by his wife, two sisters, Eileen Duffy and Pat Poulos, his six children and 14 grandchildren. He was predeceased by a sister, Carol Morley.
    In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations go to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital at 5201 Blue Lagoon Dr., No. 650, Miami, FL 33126, and Brookhaven Memorial Hospice, 105 W. Main St., Patchogue, N.Y. 11772.