Dimitri Sinkel

LUNENBURG: Dimitri Sinkel, 77, died on Friday, November 25th in his home in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. Born in Dinkelsbuhl, Germany, to a mother who walked over four miles to the nearest hospital for his delivery, as a refugee in the midst of World War II, Dimitri learned from his first days to power through any and all circumstances and to rarely complain. (Unless, of course, he was talking about professional tennis players having to challenge their own line calls… or when the typical contestants on Jeopardy were preempted by a teen tournament). Dimitri grew up in Westbury on Long Island where he played stick ball, hopped on planes at the local air field, and took up track and cross country, specifically to earn the letter jacket that would make him “oh so cool” on the W. Tresper Clark High School campus. (However, he was also a member of the Mathletes…). That foray into running spanned over sixty years, during which he completed two marathons, countless 5ks and 10ks, and logged his mileage daily, all the way to his final jog in August 2022. Through rain, snow, heat, and cancer…he ran. In 1980, he bought and moved onto a Hunter 36 sailboat, affectionately named Sea Puppy. While he eventually paired Sea Puppy with a “land home” on the shore of Long Island Sound, he remained at one with the ocean for the rest of his days, whether sailing, sunbathing in Florida, or preparing his traditional New Year’s Eve lobsters…he was a man with saltwater in his veins. However, when work relocated his family to Marietta, Georgia, he quickly found another true love in tennis. He had a tennis serve he was proud of and an anecdote he loved: agreeing to be a mid-90’s tennis captain if – and only if – the team committed to using email. He was on the forefront of high speed internet and HDTV and enjoyed many NFL games from the spectacular home theater he built with his own hands in his basement in Lunenburg. It was there that he and Iris hosted Super Bowl parties, building on a tradition they’d formed of cooking and entertaining. Dimitri was a chef with an array of talents, and family and friends remember his dedication to homemade pasta on Sundays. Dimitri graduated from City College of New York (while working full time) with a degree in Civil Engineering. He spent ten years working for the Port Authority of New York in the 1970’s, where he met his best friend of over 50 years, Martin Appel, and aided our country’s civil defense during the Vietnam era. His career took twists and turns (some literal, which he experienced from a prop plane over a banana field working for Chiquita), and he ultimately landed in supply chain management, a profession that fit like a glove. He enjoyed his job so much that he never voluntarily retired and only begrudgingly stopped working when he went into hospice care…and even then…let’s face it, he took a few calls. Dimitri is survived by his beloved wife, Iris, whom he credited with giving him the spiritual life and belief in a higher power that meant more to him than the other past times he cherished combined. He described Iris, even in his final days, as his “childhood sweetheart.” As a couple, they embodied a force that only got stronger with time. Dimitri is also survived by his daughter, Catherine, whom he made feel like the jewel in his crown, while helping to make her every dream (whim) come true and epitomizing what it is to be somebody’s hero. He loved her husband, Seth, with whom he agreed on almost everything (he forgave Seth for not being a sports fan), and in recent years, Dimitri especially treasured his greatest gifts: his grandchildren, Alexander and Elisabeth. Tom Petty said, “the waiting is the hardest part” but for Dimitri, it was leaving those kids. Dimitri is also survived by Iris’s daughters: Helen, her husband, Jason, and their children, Nina and Nathaniel, as well as Ginny, her husband, Brad, and their daughters, Louisa and Emma. He loved them all so very much. Dimitri is also survived by his older brother, Kiril, his younger sister, Victoria, and his niece (and goddaughter), Natasha, and nephews, Nikolai and Andrei, as well as each of their families. He enjoyed spending time with all of them, as he did with family members overseas, all of whom meant a great deal to him. He is preceded in death by his parents, Lydia and Anatol, and the grandmother who helped raise him, Valentine. Dimitri made friends everywhere he went, whether striking up a conversation in the checkout aisle or building deep seated relationships that lasted a lifetime. He said in his final days that he truly loved his life, a sentiment that came through in everything he did and in the way he treated people around him. He was happy; he was at peace, and he clung to the wisdom he gleaned from others. One of the teachings he particularly hung onto in recent times originated from Horatio Spafford, “When peace like a river attendeth my way; when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou has taught me to say. It is well. It is well, with my soul.” And as he would say in church, “and so it is.” In lieu of flowers, Dimitri would have been touched with donations to any of the following organizations: the USTA Foundation, serving youth; Angels Answers, providing food and clothing to people of Massachusetts, or Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dimitri's Funeral Service was recorded and is available to view at the following link: https://my.gather.app/remember/dimitri-sinkel

Tributes

Dimitri Sinkel

March 1, 1945 - November 25, 2022