Charles Cort Bunning passed away peacefully in hospice care in the company of his wife and daughters on April 25th at the age of 83.
Mr. Bunning was born in Rockville Centre, New York in 1938 to Dorothy Ross Bunning and John Herman Bunning. He attended Oceanside High School and received his bachelor’s degree from Dowling College. He married his beloved wife, Carol Valerie Hansen, in 1962 and they moved to Stony Brook, Long Island in 1964 where they raised their three children and were active in the Three Village community for over 50 years. Cort was in sales prior to owning and operating the Exxon service stations in St. James and Setauket. After Cort retired, he and Carol traveled, enjoyed their beach home in NC, and spent winters in The Villages, Florida, becoming full-time residents in 2019.
Cort enjoyed coaching his son’s baseball teams and was the commissioner of the Three Village youth baseball league. He was a member of the Setauket Presbyterian Church and served as a deacon. Cort was a talented craftsman, building everything from porches to decks, bookshelves to coffee tables, doll houses to toy chests. He was also a train enthusiast, spending hours building and rebuilding intricate layouts. Most of all, Cort enjoyed his family. He was the life of the family BBQ, had a quick wit, as well as a stash of corny jokes, and made a mean Old Fashioned on Christmas Eve.
Mr. Bunning was predeceased by his parents, his older brother John Ross Bunning, his younger brother Richard (Jackson) Bunning, and his son Bryan Marshall Bunning. He will be dearly missed by his wife of sixty years, Carol Bunning, his devoted daughters Karen Dubrow (Jon) and Nancy Kenny (Steve), and his grandchildren: Bryan Dubrow (Ariele), Eric Dubrow, Chris Kenny, Matthew Dubrow, and Allison Kenny.
There will be a memorial service at the First Presbyterian Church in Wildwood, FL (203 Barwick Street) on Saturday April 30th at 4:00 pm, followed by coffee and cookies in the fellowship hall. Interment will be at a later date at the Setauket Presbyterian Church on Long Island.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Cort’s memory to either Cornerstone Hospice, 601 Mariposa Way, The Villages, FL 32162; the Bryan Bunning Memorial Fund, 5 Caroline Avenue, Setauket, New York 11733; or The First Presbyterian Church of Wildwood, 203 Barwick Street, Wildwood, FL 34785.