Walter J. McTeigue Jr., of Lenox, Mass.; Sarasota, Fla.; and formerly of Larchmont, N.Y., died peacefully at home in Lenox on June 19, at the age of 81.

Born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., McTeigue grew up in Larchmont and served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps in Japan during World War II. He graduated from Fordham University and attended Columbia School of Physicians and Surgeons. He left medical school, married, and later entered his family’s jewelry manufacturing business. He became president of McTeigue & Co., a firm founded in New York by his grandfather in 1895, and worked in the jewelry business until retirement.

In retirement, Walter learned to sail and lived on his sailboat in the Mediterranean, and later in the Caribbean, before permanently anchoring in Sarasota, Fla. Walter was an avid and accomplished gardener and portrait painter. He is survived by Catherine McTeigue, Lenox, Mass., his wife of 55 years; children Kerin O’Connor, St. Paul, Minn.; Dorothy Heinbockel, Glen Rock, N.J.; Margaret Wessel, Lenox, Mass.; Michael McTeigue, Pagosa Springs, Colo.; Walter J. McTeigue III, Great Barrington, Mass.; Katie McTeigue of Fryeburg, Maine; and 15 grandchildren.