Joan S. Hopkins of Falmouth, mother of Beth Kramer of West Tisbury, Pam Kramer, Scott Kramer, and William Kramer, died on June 1, 2017. A full obituary will follow in another edition of the paper.
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Shirley Gray Vincent Kaeka, 80, recently of Hilo, Hawaii, and a longtime resident of Vineyard Haven, died on May 22, 2017, due to systemic illness, three days short of her 81st birthday. Shirley recently moved back to Martha’s Vineyard to spend her final days with her loving family and friends. Born in North Tisbury to Chester Gray Vincent and Hannah Ann Webb, she enjoyed the simple life of raising farm animals and dancing at the big barn at Seven Gates.
Curious to explore the world, Shirley joined the U.S. Navy in Boston on Oct. 25, 1955, as a seaman recruit, hoping to become a medic. Shortly after arriving at the medical training facility, she realized she had issues with open wounds, and transferred into the accounting department. At U.S. Naval Station, Long Beach, Calif., she met the love of her life, Daniel K. Kaeka III.
While stationed in California, Shirley gave birth to her son Daniel IV, the first of five children. She received an honorable discharge from the Navy, and with her husband relocated to Makaha, Hawaii, to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine. While there she gave birth to her daughter Hannah, but returned to Martha’s Vineyard to help care for her ailing mother and her growing family. Over the next 38 years, she held many titles, as home healthcare worker, housewife, and caregiver to so many children, not all her own.
Shirley had a green thumb and a passion to grow things, as well as a love of working the land. On her piece of land in West Tisbury, she would raise animals from goats and pigs to chickens and ducks, and grew a wonderful garden filled with an assortment of vegetables. At her home in Vineyard Haven, she would grow amazing sunflowers and various dahlias and other flowers, which she would sell along the roadside on Franklin Street. Shirley also enjoyed sewing in various styles, and loved the challenge of converting old clothes into something useful. She loved to make patchwork rolled oblong rugs, which she gave away to her children and friends.
After her husband’s retirement from the Steamship Authority, the couple made plans to retire back in Hawaii, the land of white sandy beaches and rainbows. They were able to live their dream for 13 years before her husband died in October 2015.
Shirley is survived by her two sisters, Lucia Small of Hyannis and Barbara Maciel of West Tisbury; by her children, Daniel Kapioanuenue Kaeka IV and his wife Susan, daughter Hannah Kaloke Scott and husband Jonathan Scott, son Daryl Kalani Kaeka Sr., Dennis Kealoha Kaeka, and Dwight Kimo Kaeka and wife Elizabeth, who all reside in West Tisbury.
Shirley is also survived by her grandchildren; Daniel “Fin” Kaeka V, Ali and Jordan Peterson, Leolani Rose Kaeka, Noelani Scott Chase, Ilikea Scott Fuentes, Maili Scott, Calvin Alika Kaeka, Daryl “DK” Kaeka Jr., Marissa Kaeka Lopenzo and Dwight “DJ” Kaeka and her hanai son Nathan “Nate” Thayer. She also leaves four great-grandchildren, Aidan Chase, Makaela Chase, Riley Kaeka, and Penelope Fuentes.
In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard in Shirley’s name. A private memorial service will be held at a future date.
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Julia K. Rosenwald of Philadelphia and Chilmark died peacefully in the Philadelphia family home in which she had lived for the past 70 years. She was 101 years old.
Extremely involved in the community, she served on many civic boards, and she was particularly proud of her work with the Federation of Jewish Agencies, the Child Study Center of Philadelphia, and the Child Welfare League of America, based in New York City. She volunteered at the Conwell School in Kensington, helping students who had difficulty learning to read, and later taught English as a second language at the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia. She stayed in touch with many of her students well into their adult lives.
Judy, as she was known, was born in Philadelphia on Jan. 9, 1916, to William Greenewald and Sara Lieberman Greenewald. She attended Cheltenham High School and Sarah Lawrence College. She had an enormous and beautifully curated collection of friends of every age and from every area of her life, and she remained close to a great many of them until her death.
Judy and her late husband, Julius “Dooley” Rosenwald II, discovered Martha’s Vineyard in the late 1930s when they were newly married. They introduced their children to the Island in the early 1950s, renting houses many summers until they built their “summer shack,” as they called it, in 1963. Thanks to Judy and Dooley, there are now four generations of Rosenwalds who love the Vineyard. Judy continued to visit the Island almost to the end of her long life.
She is survived by her three children, Karen Gundersheimer and her husband, Werner; Linda Levy and her husband, Paul; and Julius Rosenwald III and his wife, Margo Cardner. She leaves five grandchildren, Jeffrey Levy and his wife, Elizabeth; Deborah Jordan-Levy and her partner, Jayne; Timothy Levy and his wife, Catherine; Joshua Gundersheimer and his wife, Eileen; and Benjamin Gundersheimer and his wife, Katherine Jamieson. She leaves 11 great-grandchildren: Charles Levy, Elias Levy, Catherine Levy, Sarah Levy, Henry Jordan-Levy, Emma Gundersheimer, Alison Levy, Oscar Jordan-Levy, Molly and Matthew Gundersheimer, and Emily Levy. Her half-brother, Bart Cahan, and his three children also survive her, as do many grand- and great-grandnieces and -nephews. In addition, she leaves Darlene Paige, her devoted friend and caregiver, who captained a team of caregivers that was unparalleled.
A memorial service will be held at a later date. Contributions to the charity of your choice would be most welcome.
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A memorial service for Mary Ives Greely will be held on Saturday, June 24, at 11 am at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown. There will be a reception following the service, in the parish hall at St. Andrew’s. All are welcome.
Mrs. Greely died on Feb. 5, 2017. She was 88. Donations in her memory may be made to the Island Food Pantry, P.O. Box 1874, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.
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A memorial service for Richard J. Andrade Jr. will be held on Saturday, June 17, at 11 am, at Oak Grove Cemetery, Vineyard Haven.
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After a courageous battle with cancer, Brian Patrick Byrne died and set sail toward his final destination on the evening of June 2, at his home in Boston with close friends and family at his side.
Devoted brother, uncle, and friend, Brian created deep bonds with so many he encountered through life. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Brian attended Bishop Ludden High School and St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y., after which he moved to Boston. After working in restaurants, Brian’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to build his own companies. He first specialized in recruitment and placement in the hospitality industry. He then went on to selling real estate, eventually founding Byrne International Realty on Martha’s Vineyard.
Brian charted his own course, and enjoyed the finer things in life. He liked nothing better than spending time with friends and being on the water, either on a friend’s boat or sailing Vineyard Sound on his own boat, Chautauqua. He was an amazing friend to many, lived life to the fullest, traveled the world, and saw and did more than most.
Brian was predeceased by his parents Ann and John (Jack) Byrne, brothers John, George, and Kevin. He is survived by three brothers, Noel (Collette) of Phoenix, Ariz., Philip (Kathy) of Skaneateles, N.Y., Luke of Daytona Beach, Fla.; four sisters, Marianne (Larry) Flynn of Oneida, N.Y., Christine deFoster of Jensen Beach, Fla., Gretchen (Dean) Burns, and Martha (Andrew) Dollekamp, both of Syracuse, N.Y.; as well as a large extended family and a host of loyal friends.
Brian’s family wanted to thank and acknowledge the caring doctors and nurses at Beth Israel Medical Center, Boston, as well as his devoted friends, who cared for him as he navigated his final days.
Please join the Byrne family in celebrating Brian’s life on Thursday, June 8. Friends may call from 9:30 am to 10:30 am, with a Mass of celebration to follow at 10:30 at Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave., Syracuse, N.Y. 13207. Burial will immediately follow the service at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Dewitt, N.Y.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Brian’s memory to be made to Most Holy Rosary Church, 111 Roberts Ave., Syracuse, NY 13207, mhrsyracuse.org/donations, or a charity of your choice.
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Thomas Kevin Huddleston, 65, died peacefully on June 1, 2017, at the Androscoggin Hospice House in Auburn, Maine. Tom was born on April 3, 1952, in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Tom attended school in San Jose, Calif., then joined the U.S. Army in 1970, where he served his country until 1973, receiving an honorable discharge. Tom and his wife Debbie met on a blind date, and were happily married for 30 years. Tom was a devoted father to his daughters, Justina and Jillian. He dressed up for tea parties, taught master classes in catching fly balls, and showed them that a sense of humor can get you through almost anything.
Tom worked as a driver for R.M. Packer Co. on Martha’s Vineyard, where he made a whole island of friends. He was notorious for putting a smile on the faces of coworkers and clients alike. He was a devoted NASCAR fan. If you knew Tom, you loved him.
In 2000, the family moved to Farmington, Maine. He worked for Hammond Lumber for 15 years, until retiring early due to health complications. He was truly a unique person, a committed husband, a wonderful and caring father, a silly and loving grandfather, and a good-humored and loyal friend.
Tom is survived by his wife, Debbie, of Farmington, Maine; his daughters, Justina of Van Nuys, Calif., and Jillian of Farmington, Maine; his adored granddaughter, Isabella of Farmington, Maine; and his sister, Kelly Dee of Hamilton, Canada. He was predeceased by his mother, Helen Groux.
In his honor, the family asks that the next time someone asks you how you are, answer with “On top of the world!” Tom would like that. Donations in Tom’s memory may be made to the Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice, 15 Strawberry Ave., Lewiston, Maine 04240. Hospice care kept Tom comfortable and treated him with dignity.
Ever a humble man, Tom did not want a funeral. He will be laid to rest in the Tisbury Cemetery on Martha’s Vineyard, where his heart always remained.
Arrangements are under the care and direction of Dan and Scott’s Cremation and Funeral Service, 488 Farmington Falls Road, Farmington, Maine 04938.
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Judith Anne Clough (née Salomon) of Vineyard Haven died at the age of 82 on May 16, 2017, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
Her husband of 58 years, Bradford Potter Clough, was by her side, following on his many years of loving caregiving. In addition to Bradford, she is survived by their children, Lauretta, Benjamin, and Wendell and his wife Deb, and two grandchildren, Llewellyn and Rhiannon Smith. In addition, she leaves her sister Denise Sherman and husband Stuart, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews
An artist, gardener, nurse, children’s librarian, and choir member, Jude spent a lifetime bringing love, laughter, and beauty to her family and communities. And hugs on Main Street..
In lieu of a service, Bradford invites all those who knew Jude to plant a flower, bake some cookies to share, hug a friend, smile at a stranger, hum a song, or allow someone to do something nice for you.
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Charles W. Bradley Jr. died on Wednesday morning, June 7, 2017, at his home in Oak Bluffs. He was the husband of Mary Ann (Roberts) Bradley.
His funeral Mass will be held in St. Patrick’s Church, 511 Main St., Falmouth, on Monday, June 12, at 11 am. A visitation period will be held in Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, 475 Main St., Falmouth, beginning at 9 am for family and friends. Donations may be made in his memory to Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, P.O. Box 1747, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557. Visit ccgfuneralhome.com for online guestbook and information. A complete obituary will appear in another edition of this paper.
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Charles W. Bradley Jr. (Brad) died on Wednesday morning, June 7, 2017, at his home in Oak Bluffs. He is survived by the love of his life and, as he still called her, his bride, Mary Ann (Roberts) Bradley, and their children, Lynda Bradley-Guerra of Ellicott City, Md.; Charles W. Bradley III and his wife Tolu, of Milton; Susan Ifill and her wife Lynell James of West Orange, N.J., and John W.R. Bradley of Roxbury.
Brad was born in Lynn on March 6, 1933, the son of Charles W. Bradley Sr. and Florence M. (Fowler) Bradley. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean conflict, and was stationed in Germany. After his discharge, Charles re-enlisted with the Air Force for another four years, as an MP stationed in the Azores, Andrews Air Force Base, Westover Air Force Base, and Camp McCoy.
When he returned, he attended Northeastern University, graduating in 1979. He worked as a superintendent of the U.S. Postal Service for 24 years; he also worked as a salesman for Paine Furniture, and as the mailroom supervisor for American Student Assistance. Brad loved his family dearly, adored his girlfriend, as he addressed his wife of more than 60 years, and enjoyed deep-sea fishing. He was a member and past president of the Sea and Surf Anglers’ Club in Boston, and its sister club, Blue Water Anglers in Bermuda.
In retirement, Brad continued to give of himself as an eucharistic minister, and volunteered for Meals on Wheels, the Oak Bluffs Senior Center, Birthright, and anytime someone needed a helping hand. He had an outsize sense of humor, and was extremely witty; no one was spared, and he was dear to all, whether you met him for the first time, or he knew you a lifetime.
In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his sisters Carole Smith, Deanna (Dee Dee) Davis, and Deborah Potter and her husband Timothy; his seven grandchildren; Sean, Jason, Christopher, Nicole, Monique, Joshua, and Julia; and his three great-grandchildren, Michael, Eva, and James. He was predeceased by his siblings Michael Bradley, Ellen Bradley, and Edward Bradley.
His funeral Mass will be held in St. Patrick’s Church, 511 Main St., Falmouth, on Monday, June 12 at 11 am. A eulogy reading will begin at 10:45 am.
A visitation period will be held in Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, 475 Main St., Falmouth, beginning at 9 am for family and friends.
Donations may be made in his memory to Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, P.O. Box 1747, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557. Visit ccgfuneralhome.com for online guestbook and information.
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Joan Sheila Greene-Kramer-Hopkins died on June 1, 2017, in Falmouth.
Joan was born in New York on April 15, 1932. Her mother, Betty Rubini, was a professional cellist; her father, Emanuel Greene, was a glazier. She attended Pace University in New York City, and studied for a career as a pianist.
She met her husband-to-be on Jones Beach, Long Island, during an incident of a purloined beach ball ransomed for her telephone number.
Irv, the beach ball thief, a native of Atlantic City, was a lifelong plastics man, and a fan of Chinese food and food (in that order).
With some help from Irv, Joan gave birth in year-and-a-half intervals to Beth, residing on Martha’s Vineyard; Scott, residing in Los Angeles; Pam, of Providence, R.I.; and car nut William, residing in Maynard.
The family of six moved from New York to a “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies” house in West Orange, N.J., where they lived happily for many years.
When Irv died in December 1991, Joan moved to Martha’s Vineyard for five years, working at the Captain Flanders House as Polly Hill’s personal assistant, and with Donny Mills at Hillside Farms.
Visiting sister Sylvia in Florida, she met the dashing Jack Hopkins, a retired Kentucky lineman, fan of food, NASCAR, and country-western two-stepping. They married, and Joan moved to Orlando, spending her time with Jack traveling the country the RV way. After Jack’s death, Joan moved to Falmouth to be closer to family.
She leaves behind the aforementioned four children, six grandchildren, and a stepson, Michael. Joan also leaves behind friends from everywhere she lived. She will be missed so.
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Dr. Robert Spencer Lees died on Monday, June 5, 2017, at the age of 82, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. A resident of Brookline, he was also a part-time resident of Chilmark for 40 years.
Dr. Lees had a long and distinguished career in academic medicine. He was a cardiologist on the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) for 50 years, as well as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Harvard-MIT joint program in health sciences and technology (HST). His devotion to his patients, and his remarkable skill at keeping them alive and happy for many years, were widely admired and appreciated. He made several valuable clinical and research discoveries, and was an advisor to students at MIT and HST.
Dr. Lees was born on July 16, 1934, in the Bronx, N.Y. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1955, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; he graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1959. He began his medical career as an intern in surgery at MGH. In July 1960, he married Ann Mirabile Lees, a 1961 graduate of Harvard Medical School, his wife of 56 years, and a longtime research colleague. At the same time, he began a year as a clinical and research fellow in medicine in the newly opened Arteriosclerosis Unit at MGH. There he developed a practical method for improving the diagnosis of patients with high blood lipids, the first research achievement in his long career focusing on the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of arteriosclerosis.
In the following two years, he was an assistant resident in medicine at MGH, and then a fellow at the National Heart Hospital in London.
From 1963 to 1966, he served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service at the National Heart Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. There he demonstrated the widespread value of the diagnostic tool he had developed at the MGH Arteriosclerosis Unit.
From 1966 to 1968 he was an assistant professor at Rockefeller University in New York City. While there, he treated two young women who each had a double dose of bad genes for high blood cholesterol. Such patients are unable to respond to any standard treatments, and they ordinarily die from coronary artery disease in their teens or early 20s. Dr. Lees developed a novel treatment to remove the lethal cholesterol from the patients’ plasma. After six months of the treatment, a form of plasmapheresis, there was marked improvement in both patients. The experiment led to a machine that is still in use to extend productive lives for patients with dangerously high cholesterol who do not respond to drugs.
When Dr. Lees became director of the MIT Clinical Research Center in 1969, he began treating two other patients who had a double dose of high blood-cholesterol genes. Treatment for one of them started when she was 16. She lived to her early 50s. The other patient, whom Dr. Lees first met when she was 3 years old, is still happily alive at the age of 51.
Also at MIT, Dr. Lees collaborated with an MIT professor of mechanical engineering to develop a machine that analyzed the sound waves made by blocked carotid arteries, which are located in the neck and deliver blood to the brain. The noninvasive technique used a microphone placed on the neck, which sent the sound of blood flow in a blocked artery to a computer that determined how narrow the artery had become. The technique was called phonoangiography. It can measure carotid arterial narrowing to within 1 millimeter.
From 1973 to 1982, Dr. Lees was the first director of the Noninvasive Diagnostic Lab at MGH, where ultrasound was used to locate atherosclerotic plaques.
Another longstanding project was to find a way to locate atherosclerotic lesions by using compounds with a short-lived radioactive label attached. A promising element of this work was the discovery of a previously unknown protein in the artery wall. The protein, christened atherin, binds low-density lipoproteins, the carriers of blood cholesterol, so tightly in the artery wall that the binding is believed to lead to atherosclerotic plaques.
From 1982 to 1991, Dr. Lees undertook clinical and research work at New England Deaconess Hospital, where he was director of medical research; after that, the work continued at the nonprofit Boston Heart Foundation in Kendall Square, in Cambridge, an organization that Dr. Lees founded and directed from 1991 until his retirement in December 2004.
Dr. Lees was a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Council on Arteriosclerosis of the American Heart Association. He was also a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation; a member of the Metabolism Study Section of the National Institutes of Health, which he chaired from 1978 to 1980; the MIT Premedical Advisory Committee; and several other committees at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He co-founded two companies, Diatide, and Atherex. He had many scientific publications and patents.
In addition to his wife Ann, Dr. Lees leaves his son David, daughter-in-law Pamela LePage, and their son Garrett, of Palo Alto, Calif.; his daughter Sarah Lees of Tulsa, Okla.; his daughter Martha Lees, her husband Paul Sonn, and their children Rebecca and Noah, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and his son Steven, daughter-in-law Carolyn Akinbami, and their children Peter and Benjamin, of Seattle, Wash., as well as a brother, Richard, of Washington, D.C., two nieces, two nephews, and two great-nephews.
A graveside service at Abel’s Hill Cemetery in Chilmark was led by Rabbi Caryn Broitman.
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Dorothy Elizabeth Newton of Oak Bluffs and Port St. Lucie, Fla., died Jan. 17, 2017. She was born in the Hebrides of Scotland, and raised by her mother, Lily Jessop Wilson, and her grandfather, Henry J. Wilson, in Merseyside, England.
Dorothy’s grandfather was a contractor, and also owed a large hardware store. Dorothy would tell stories that as a young girl, she would help out in the store and would go out to sell soap house to house, and collect rents.
Her grandfather, whom she loved very much, had a property on a river in Chester. As a young girl, Dorothy would ride her bicycle to Chester — 40 miles, she used to say — with her little schipperke in a knapsack!
She was proud to have belonged to the Girl Guides (the U.K. equivalent of our Girl Scouts). She recounted stories of being strafed during WWII, and as a young woman, held a civilian support position at an RAF air base. Shortly after the war, she moved to the States.
Dorothy first met her husband, Tom Newton, in New York State in 1966 through a mutual friend. He had an AKC German shepherd bitch that he wanted to breed, and Dorothy was a breeder, trainer, and judge who had a kennel with imported bloodlines from Germany.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Through Tom moved back to Massachusetts in 1968, Dorothy and he stayed in touch, and three years later, they were married. Through the years, Dorothy worked as a librarian in three Massachusetts prisons, starting with the women’s prison in Framingham, and was later “recruited” to organize the general and law libraries at MCI Concord, and recruited once again to literally build, that is, acquire all furnishings, books, etc., for the new library at the medium-security prison at MCI Shirley. Her inmate clerks, mostly lifers, politely named her “Maggie,” after Margaret Thatcher, who was also known as the “Iron Lady.” Dorothy served the commonwealth of Massachusetts in this role for 22 years, during which time she attained her master’s of library science, which enabled her to better apply for federal grant money for her libraries.
Dorothy was also a licensed real estate broker in Massachusetts, and along with the couple’s full-time jobs, they worked many years together for a family trust, marketing properties on Martha’s Vineyard, Las Cruces, N.M., and St. Croix, USVI. They were a great team, and their efforts allowed them to bring our dream of a home on the Vineyard and a home in Florida to fruition in December 1995.
It was the spring of 1996 when we found a small ad for ballroom dancing at St. Andrew’s, placed by our dear friend, the Rev. Jack Burton. That dance seed has flourished into a wonderful group of dancers now known as Ballroom Dance MV. Dorothy so loved this Island and the wonderful friends they came to know here. Whenever the couple were asked how long they had been dancing, Tom would always reply that Dorothy was born dancing!
One of the greatest blessings of the Newtons’ life has been the wonderful friends they made through church, Masonic/Shriner connections, and especially through dancing. Everyone loved Dorothy, and she would always grace them with her beautiful smile, a smile we will never forget!
Dorothy leaves behind her husband, Tom, married for 46 years this year; her beautiful daughter, Christine, and her husband, Scott; three loving granddaughters, Wendy, Robin, and Jennifer; and a handsome great-grandson, Brady.
She is sorely missed, and will always be loved. We know she is starting a new life and dancing with our Lord. God bless you, my Dorothy Elizabeth, I love you.
There will be a service at St. Andrew’s Church at 11 am on Saturday, June 17.
See “Obituaries” at martin-funeral.com.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Shriners Hospitals for Children, 51 Blossom St., Boston, MA 02114, or St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 51 Winter St., Edgartown, MA 02539.
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June Adams Hutchinson, 85, resident of Vineyard Haven and beloved wife of the late Richard A. Hutchinson, died peacefully at her home on Martha’s Vineyard with her daughters Diane and Alex and her caregiver Bobbi Banks by her side.
June was born in 1932 in Brussels, Belgium, and spent her early years in Brussels, Paris, Palm Beach, and New York. June was married to Dick Hutchinson in Paris in 1957. She lived in Caracas, Venezuela, where she was on the board of the Caracas Circulating Library and the Campo Alegre School, where she also taught Spanish and French as a substitute teacher.
She lived in Wilton, Conn., where she served on the board of Save the Children.
June spent several years at the Landings in Savannah, Ga., where she was an avid and enthusiastic golfer. On Martha’s Vineyard she was a member of the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club and Farm Neck Club, where she often played golf, winning member-member and member-guest tournaments.
June was known to all as a lovely, elegant, and gracious woman; she was an avid reader, enjoying discussions on local and international politics. She entertained often with ease and joy. She will be remembered around Martha’s Vineyard for her “famous” chocolate chip cookies and her kindness to all.
Junie, as she was known to her family, is survived by her daughters, Diane Hutchinson Reilly of Chicago and Darien, and Alexandra Hutchinson Kline of Darnestown, Md.; her sons-in-law Paul C. Reilly and Richard G. Kline Jr.; and grandchildren Paul, Nate, and Caroline Reilly and Ashton, Tori, and Drew Kline; and by her brother, Robert Hall Adams of Cary, N.C. She will be truly missed by her family and friends.
Memorial services will be held at St. Augustine Church in Vineyard Haven at 10 am on Saturday, August 5. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard,
P.O. Box 1748, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, or online at hospiceofmv.org.
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Robert Gray Potter Jr. died peacefully on Tuesday evening, June 13, 2017, at his home on Pimpneymouse Farm on Chappaquiddick. He was the husband of Edith (Welch) Potter.
A graveside service will be held at a later date at the Chappy Cemetery. A complete obituary will appear at that time. Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs. Visit ccgfuneralhome.com for online guestbook and information.
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Frank R. Jardin, 89, of Edgartown and North Fort Myers, Fla., died on Wednesday, June 14. A visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 21, from 11 am to noon in the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs.
A graveside service will follow at 12:30 pm in the New Westside Cemetery, Robinson Road, Edgartown, with the Rev. Michael Nagle officiating. Full military honors will also be offered by the veterans of Martha’s Vineyard. A gathering of family and friends will follow the service at the Portuguese-American Club Vineyard Avenue, Oak Bluffs. Please bring a dish to share. A complete obituary will follow in a later newspaper edition.
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Lawrence Herbert (“Huck”) Pease Jr. died after a short battle with cancer on June 2, 2017, at the age of 62.
Huck was born Dec. 13, 1954, in New Britain, Conn., to Lawrence H. Pease and Lucille Hanes. He attended school at Mooreland Hill School, Berkshire Academy, and the San Francisco Art Institute. Huck spent his summers on the Vineyard until he headed to San Francisco to follow his dreams. He was a member of the Local 510 Union, as well as being a longtime fixture at the Saloon in North Beach, where he worked as a bartender. He loved the art and music scene of his neighborhood, where he lived for more than 30 years.
He is survived by longtime companion Cynthia (“Crystal”) Chasteen; his mother, Lucille Hanes of Stuart, Fla.; siblings Belinda P. Burke of Oak Bluffs, Chandler C. Pease of Lyman, Maine, Barbara A. Pease of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., Margaret Pease of Kennebunk, Maine, Ronald J. Pease of Blackstone, and Todd M. Pease of Griswold, Conn.; two stepchildren, Jenifer Markulakis of Litchfield, Ill., and Matthew J. Pieper of Beaufort, S.C.; and many nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by Jane E. Murphy Pieper Pease of San Francisco, Calif., and his father, Lawrence H. Pease of West Tisbury and Port St. Lucie, Fla.
A celebration of life was held at the Saloon on June 6. Remembrance donations can be sent to EXIT Theater, San Francisco: theexit.org.
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Michael Burke Dunn died suddenly on June 13, 2017, at the age of 48 on Martha’s Vineyard.
Michael was predeceased by his father James T. Dunn, brothers Clark Dunn and Jed Dunn, and his mother Joan F. Guilmette. He is survived by his sister Katie Dunn Bleichman of Louisville, Colo., his brother Kevin P. Dunn of Arvada, Colo., stepfather Ed Guilmette of Pawleys Island, S.C., stepsister Renee Driscoll of South Kingstown, R.I., and loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Michael was a social guy who took time to stop and chat with anyone who crossed his path. He loved the ocean, and spent the better part of his life living in Martha’s Vineyard. He enjoyed boating and the coastal lifestyle. He’ll be missed, but we know he is at peace now, reunited with some of the people he held dear.
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A man whose heart thrummed to the quiver and beat of the sea, Nelson Crosby Smith of Edgartown died on April 5, 2017, having failed to recover from surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital a few days before. He was 92.
The firstborn of Stanley Marcus Smith and Marguerite Gertrude (Simpson) Smith, Capt. Smith first saw light on Jan. 22, 1925, in Westerly, R.I., where his father was stationed in the Coast Guard. Make no mistake, though: Mr. and Mrs. Smith were Islanders. The first Smiths came ashore in 1642, while family lore reckons the original Simpson patriarch to have been an impressed British sailor from the War of 1812 who jumped ship.
As the 1930s dawned, Stanley Smith left maritime service and become the police chief of Edgartown. A jack of many trades (in other words, an Islander), he also worked as a fish warden, a landscaper, and a painter. Marguerite taught school and later worked for the yacht club for 35 years. Stanley Smith died in 1962, and Mrs. Smith in 1998.
As do Vineyard families still, Stanley and Marguerite shuffled around with their burgeoning brood, spending winters mostly in Edgartown, for a while in the 1851 sea captain’s house that became the Point Way Inn. One place they lived during the summers was a family house near the Yacht Club tennis courts. It was a burgeoning brood, indeed, for Nelson was the eldest of a passel of rascals that grew to nine, with Mary (Larsen), Billy, Kay (Davoll), Carole (Larsen), Diane (Osbaldeston), Mark, George, and Mike to follow. Only Mike, the retired Edgartown cemetery department superintendent, survives.
In 1935 the Smiths settled in the long, white ark of a house on the corner of South Summer and High streets built by Nelson’s grandmother, Mary West Simpson, around the turn of the 20th century. (It remained in the Smith family until 2007, when the new owner replaced it.) With money tight, the Smiths rented out their home for the high season, shuttling the considerable crew to other lodgings.
Nelson attended the Edgartown School, which in those days served through Grade 12. Of course he worked; had to, with a family that size. For a good while, in high school, he milked cows on Edward T. Vincent’s farm, rising at four to get the job done before heading directly to school. Seems that one of Nelson’s teachers took offense that the boy smelled a bit like the barn and said something about it to him. Nelson punched him out and got himself kicked out of school. He somehow wended his way back into the good graces of the principal, and was allowed back in.
At 17, in Nov. 1942, Nelson enlisted in New Bedford, hoping to ship off with the Marines, but winding up in February 1943 with the Seabees (U.S. Naval Construction Battalions), and was discharged as a boson’s mate 3rd class in November 1945. Mostly stationed in the Aleutian Islands (mainly on Kodiak), Nelson delighted in unwinding the story of how he’d bagged a Kodiak bear, something, apparently, he was not supposed to be doing up there. In a photo of Nelson on leave in his enlisted dress blue (or “crackerjack”) and flat hat, he is the picture of Sailor Jack, all spit and polish, muscle and pride.
Returning to Edgartown after the war, Nelson worked as a commercial fisherman, swordfishing in the summer on Frank Jansen’s dragger R.B. Stinson and sea scalloping in the winter. And around this time he found a mate to walk the earth beside him, to offer him, and he to her, help and comfort in prosperity and adversity, a woman of stay and sense, as her forebears from the other shore might have put it. On March 17, 1951, he married Ann Louise Bernard, an Islander born in Oak Bluffs, who survives him.
Nelson and Ann started a family in Katama, in a little red farmhouse at the end of Meetinghouse Road. William Bernard Smith of East Falmouth arrived in 1952, Nelson West Smith of Edgartown in 1953, and Susan Ann Smith of Vineyard Haven in 1956. In the late 1950s the Smiths left Katama for Chase Road, settling in a house built by John Black; and on April 5, 1967, 50 years to the day before his death, Nelson and Ann purchased the bungalow on Curtis Lane that became their homestead, where Ann still lives.
By the late Forties, Nelson fished Georges Bank with the Larsens. (His sister Mary had married Louis Larsen.) Then he’d spend months away during winters as a yacht skipper in Florida. But the wind blew hard over the Katama plain, a desolate place in those days for Ann to be rearing little ones on her own, marooned as she was for want of a driver’s license (though she was able to manage the family heap if she had to). And so to Chase Road the Smith household went. And like his father before him, Nelson Smith worked at many things, for there was plenty of time to fill and mouths to feed.
He swordfished with Bob Morgan with rod and reel, and skippered the 35-foot motor yacht Sands of Times for for Bill Bradford of Middleboro. “The thing was, to move, to work,” said his son, Nelson W. He was hired by the town around the July Fourth holiday in the mid-’60s to ferry people to visit the World War II destroyer USS Steinecker and the submarine USS Cavalla, anchored off Edgartown Harbor for the occasion.
As a launchman for the yacht club, Capt. Smith introduced son Nelson at age 5 or 6 to Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy, instructing the boy to “remember this.” “And I remember because my father told me to remember,” Nelson West Smith recalled more than half a century later. Between times, Nelson Crosby Smith painted houses and delivered newspapers.
Summers from the late 1960s through 1981, he captained the Chappy Ferry, working two days on and on the third day taking people out, in the 1970s on his 35-foot Loyal, a Bruno Stillman balsa-cored fiberglass lobster boat from which he fished summers with Ed Prada, who had provided much of the gear. A hell of a boat for sloppy days, the Loyal had onboard lobster pots, swordfishing gear, the works. Winters there was scalloping.
Truth be told, there were in point of fact three or four Loyals, the first one bought after the war from Ed Case, Ralph’s uncle. The captain eventually sold the last Loyal to Ed Prada, who passed her on to his son Eddie, who sold her to Charlie Conroy, whose widow, Arlene, sold her to Steve Ewing, her caretaker for the time being.
And a word here about catboats. It was no secret that Capt. Smith was taken with the busy, beamy, slower-than-hell workboats. Yes, work, that was the point. He owned three of them from the mid-’40s to the mid-’50s.
Capt. Smith continued to skipper charters. Daughter Susan recollected how he took John Havlicek sportfishing for the Genesis Foundation tournaments in the 1980s. In his seventh decade, he began to captain for Katharine (Kay) Sutphin Ficks, owner of The General III, who’d summered at the Colonial Inn in the 1930s and later bought a house on Atwood Circle. Into her nineties Mrs. Ficks fished every fair day of the high season, until her flamingo-studded “Boca stick” could no longer support her. It was time for her and the captain to tie up.
Nelson Smith’s later years were hardly idle or solitary, for no account of his days would be complete without putting in a word about his capacity for friendship and his devotion to his fellow veterans. He was a past commander of VFW Post 9261 in Oak Bluffs, as well as an active member of American Legion Post 257 in Vineyard Haven, where in both organizations he was deeply involved in the scholarship funds, finances, and the bar committees.
And though to his credit, Capt. Smith was not a “fellow of infinite tongue,” he could on occasion ply scuttlebutt with the best of them, and stretch a fish story to the very brink of its remoter bounds. Yet his oft-plumbed memory ran deep, and when he tugged on that buoy rope that led down time’s eddy, he raised treasure.
Nelson Crosby Smith was a captain and fisherman, with gimlet eye, dry hand, stout heart, and salty nature. He was a husband and a father, a veteran and a friend. And aye, he was an Islander, and we’ll see no more of of his kind.
On April 15, 2017, Capt. Smith’s ashes were interred with full military honors at the New Westside Cemetery in Edgartown. Donations in the captain’s memory may be made to the VFW Post 9261 Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1437, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568. He’d have liked that.
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Conrad Anthony (“Gus”) Gaskin of Oak Bluffs and St. Croix, U.S.V.I., died on March 25, 2017.
The son of Lionel Charles Gaskin Sr. of Guyana and Lillian Wilkins Gaskin of New York, Gus was born in New York City on June 3, 1934. The family moved from Harlem to the Bronx, where Gus met the love of his life, Frances Christian Gaskin, while both attended the St. Augustine Roman Catholic Elementary School. He went on to Bishop du Bois High School, and upon graduation enlisted in the U.S. Air Force for four years. Twenty months were served in Anchorage, Alaska, at Elmendorf Air Force Base during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged on Sept. 11,1956.
Returning from the shores of the Pacific to the Atlantic, Gus and Fran married at St. Augustine’s on Sept. 14,1957, and were blessed with three healthy, beautiful children, the loves of their lives. He moved the family from the Bronx to Lindsay Park Housing in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where they resided for the next 25 years, overlooking the skyline of New York City and downtown Brooklyn. Gus found a spiritual home at Our Lady of Charity Roman Catholic Church, pastored by the Rev. James E. Goode.
Gus was not only a consummate mathematician but also an athlete. To support his family, Gus initially studied engineering at New York City Community College, The City University of New York (CCNY), but found few employment opportunities available to men of color. Under the G.l. Bill, he pursued the special baccalaureate program at Brooklyn College (CCNY) in liberal arts, and Antioch University for a master of arts degree in early childhood education. With these credentials, he was a computer programmer at Ticketron, and also accepted directorships at Quick Start Head Start, Shirley Chisholm, and Acquadilla day care centers, in tandem.
While at Lindsay Park, Gus organized the swimming pool and social committees; he coached the boys basketball teams at Most Holy Trinity Elementary School, and also assisted with the St. John’s Finmen, the boys and girls swimming teams, leading these latter two groups to victory at various meets. Because he treasured something in everyone and everyone meant something to him, Gus helped to shape school-age boys and girls into responsible men and women through sports and mentoring. Further, he was forever a loyal and faithful fan of the New York Giants and the New York Knicks. And oh! how he loved to tell a story.
Gus and family traveled to Martha’s Vineyard, the town of Oak Bluffs. There he found a Roman Catholic Church home at the Good Shepherd Parish of Martha’s Vineyard, pastored by the Rev.Michael R. Nagle. He enjoyed the congeniality and conviviality of extended family and friends, going to the beach, scintillating conversations in the “Circle,” a group of beach lovers who sat in a circle, running the Chilmark Road Races, swimming with the energetic MV Polar Bears at 7:30 every morning from Memorial Day to Labor Day, before and after these holidays, participating in fundraising activities with MV Cottagers, Inc., conversing at his Inkwell family bench, and feasting on Monday-morning breakfasts at Inkwell Beach. Though it all, Gus advised youth, listened to their dreams and aspirations regarding their future educational careers, and counseled adults about retirement planning.
Gus sought a career change, and he and Fran relocated to Albany, N.Y., where he accepted the position of information officer at the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System. Again, he found a church home at the Black Catholic Apostolate of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, pastored by the Rev. Kofi Ntisful-Amissah and exhilarated by the magnificent Hallelujah Choir. He was an active member of the Men’s Club, and contributed greatly to the Usher Board.
He traveled extensively throughout New York, providing information to educators relative to their benefits for 19 years before his own retirement. Still heard around the System when problems arise is, WWGD, or What Would Gus Do? Although Gus delighted working with adults, he did miss teaching the youngsters.
Although a diehard New Yorker, Albany presented Gus and Fran with novel and exciting challenges: forming new and lasting relationships, joining different clubs, being exposed to upstate activities, and learning other cultural norms. Although legally blind, Gus never lost his insightfulness. The Albany healthcare system via the V.A. and private medical practices were unparalleled. He could make two or three medical appointments in a morning.
Gus and Fran embarked on another watery journey, to the beaches of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the homeland of Fran’s late parents, Clement J. Christian and Therese Farrelly Christian. There, they would savor the warmth of family and friends during winter months for 18 years. He engaged in many activities, including finding the Catholic Church homes at Holy Cross and Saints Joachim and Ann at Barron Spot, shepherded by Bishop Herbert A. Bevard, swimming with the Lit’ Bay Posse at Little Bay and the pool, studying at the University of the Virgin Islands — steel pan, exercise classes, early childhood education courses, presenting medals and ribbons at the Special Olympics, attending meetings on cancer and the aging population, attending lectures and the theater, visiting schools to speak to students … and watching the sun shine its brilliance over the hills, spreading from east to west over the flowers and fauna.
Gus is survived by his wife of 59 years, Dr. Frances Christian Gaskin; their children Trace L. Gaskin of Virginia Beach, Va., and Troy A. Gaskin I (Angela McLeod); grandchildren Conrad III, Briana, Kayla, Troy II and Soleil; his siblings Ida “Mitzi” Gaskin-Cleare, Bernice “Honey” Gaskin-Shepard, Stewart Gaskin, and Oscar Gaskin; his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law Christine A. Christian Gilmore, Frederick Shepard, Barbara “Millie” Gaskin, Anna Reyes-Gaskin, Major and Eileen Christian Thomas, Jesse and Claire Christian Harris, Clement J. Christian and Marlienne Christian; as well as by a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, coworkers, and neighbors in New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, Albany, St. Croix, and beyond. He was predeceased by their son, Conrad A. Gaskin II, and brother, Lionel “Deets” Gaskin.
A military ceremony will be held on Monday, July 3, 2017, at 10 am at Inkwell Beach, opposite Waban Park, Oak Bluffs. All are invited to come and bring a covered dish to share. A Eucharistic Celebration will be held on July 2 at 4 pm at St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church in Vineyard Haven. In a private ceremony, the family will spread the cremains in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. In case of rain or inclement weather, proceedings will be held at the Good Shepherd Parish Center, 55 School St., opposite the Oak Bluffs library.
In memory of Gus, pray for one another, tell a story, and make someone laugh.
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