For many years, Jim Doherty viewed life through the lens of a camera, capturing the people and the times in which he lived and preserving them for posterity. He was a husband, father, friend and neighbor and maintained a passionate affection for his hometown, Amityville.

Jim Doherty died Saturday, June 29, following a short illness. He was 73 years old and a man who managed to always keep things in perspective, said his wife Gerry of 43 years.

"He was an unassuming man who didn’t like ceremony," she said. "When I would worry about some small thing, he would always tell me, ‘Gerry, no one is going to die from that."

"From my point of view, he was the best husband, father and grandfather in town," said Steve Crypts of Amityville. "A great friend and mentor who always took a wise view of life and experiences."

Crypts said that Doherty got through a lot of adversity with the early passing of his brothers, but always kept an upbeat attitude. "He was incredible," he said. "An inspiration to be around and a great guy."

"He was always there to listen to people," said his daughter Gerry Compitello. "There wasn’t a thing that we (his daughters) couldn’t tell him."

His nephew Michael Doherty gave the eulogy at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Amityville. In it, he described his uncle as a man who was incredibly unselfish, warm and caring.

"He was a terrific husband, a loving father and the world’s best Poppy," he said. "Uncle Jim spent much of his time looking through the lenses of his many cameras and making people smile. It was a wonderful gift he had, and something that came very easy for him."

Many of those photos appeared in the Amityville Record, documenting life in and around Amityville. "He was a gentleman," said Alfred James, Record publisher. "He would come into the office almost every week, sit down and we’d just talk Amityville."

Jim Doherty was born in Jamaica and raised in Nassau Shores, Massapequa. He graduated from Amityville Memorial High School and was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, where he became an electrician, but spent most of his time playing baseball and football, said his wife Gerry. Mr. Doherty played softball throughout his adult life, but it was golf that captured his time and attention as a young man. He played regularly, long before the game became a national attraction.

"He and his brothers would play every week," recalled Gerry Doherty laughing. "They would come to me and say they’d paint my house if I would let Jimmy play."

For the past two years Mr. Doherty worked at the Cedar Beach Golf Course, returning to the scene of the sport he had so loved when he was younger. And, he had recently become quite a chef, said his daughters, cooking up meals and bringing the family together in celebration.

Mr. Doherty was also a member of the Town of Babylon Planning Board, and a lifelong member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

"He loved that church and he loved Amityville," said his wife.