Obituary: John Randel Weeks V

Prepared by the Weeks and Lustig Families

John Randel “Rand” Weeks V, of Brooklyn and formerly of Stony Brook, died of cancer Nov. 16, just days short of his 60th birthday.

Rand attended Three Village schools and graduated from the Lawrence Academy in Groton, Massachusetts and Fordham University. A descendent of John Randel, the surveyor who plotted both the Manhattan grid and the Erie Canal, Rand was a musician, writer and electrician. 

Among his particular passions was the restoration of oyster reefs and oyster farming in New York Harbor and around the Island.

He leaves behind his friend Mary Gillette, also of Brooklyn; sister Ann Weeks Lustig; her husband Eric; her daughter Eleanor; and her son James along with many cousins and numerous friends from all parts of his full and varied life.

A funeral service will be held on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 11:30 a.m. at Caroline Episcopal Church in Setauket with lunch to follow. There will also be a celebration of his life and work at MacNeil Park in Queens — the site of one of the oyster reef projects on which he worked — on April 7, 2024, at noon.