One of the four victims of Sunday’s derailment in Spuyten Duyvil was a Cold Spring resident, while a second was from Montrose.
Jim Lovell worked as a writer and a sound and lighting designer on theatrical projects and was bound for Manhattan on Sunday, where he was to work on preparing the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for its Tuesday lighting, a family friend told The Journal News.
Lovell was the husband of Nancy Montgomery, a Philipstown Councilwoman. He leaves behind four children: Brooke, a daughter, and sons Jack, Hudson and Finn.
Dave Merandy, also on the council, said he graduated Haldane with Lovell in 1973.
“I’m just numb,” Merandy said. “Richard (Shea, the town supervisor) called me. It blew my mind.”
“He was beloved,” Janet Barton, a longtime friend, said of Lovell. “He loved the Hudson River, loved windsurfing, loved his wife and kids.”
John Zuvic, a Cold Spring resident, was working on Lovell and Montgomery’s house in the Lake Valhalla neighborhood of Philipstown. The family had moved to the home in September.
“He was so happy to be here,” Zuvic said.
“When you’re growing up, your friends become your family,” Zuvic said. “He was one of the family, one of the special people in our circle of friends.”
Lovell’s son, Finn, took to Instagram and Twitter to express his grief.
“Word[s] can’t express how much my father meant to me,” he wrote on Instagram. “It’s safe to say he molded me into the man I am today. I love you and I miss you. I can’t believe your [sic] gone. This feels like an awful nightmare that I can’t wake up from. Rest easy dad. I love you.”
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